A very nice selection of Anderson’s fairytales, translated very well into English that is easy to read aloud. The colored illustrations are beautiful but I wish there were more of them in this edition. ( )

Judging from the modern-day way of portraying fairy tales in movies and book retellings, I had assumed they were nearly always dark and full of violence if they were original. Though I also knew that Anderson’s tales have inspired many a classic Disney film (more on that in a minute). But Hans Anderson’s tales actually are not, of course, very dark at all, with almost no violence. True, some do not end happily, even some we think we know pretty well - e.g. the Little Mermaid does not in fact get her prince, but he marries someone else and the little mermaid dies. Some are highly moral while others are completely amoral, like Big Klaus and Little Klaus, where the most successful liar gets all the riches while the equally greedy but more gullible man dies. Most of the stories made lovely bedtime reading for me, it’s been my nightstand book for a few weeks. The stories stray so utterly into the realm of fancy that they are as unpredictable as a dream. Anything can happen, and does. I liked that, especially just before sleep.

I think modern-day Disney needs to do some neoclassical stories and go back to Anderson again. Why, for example, have they not done a story on The Snow Queen? Okay, I just googled it and see that Hallmark, of all things, have done one. But it has all the Disney elements - boy and girl BFFs, an evil spell, the capture of the boy by the Snow Queen (shades of Narnia) - then an epic journey through strange and dangerous lands undertaken by the girl to find him (#Feminism!) resulting in the final showdown in the Snow Queen’s castle… and then they are back home again, all grown up and soon to be married. I mean, what is Disney thinking? It’s ready-made!

All in all, these were fun. I’m ready for the less sunny ones now, and the Brothers Grimm are waiting for me.