Study notes: Andersen's Fairy Tales
Andersen wrote new fairy tales, he did not only collect old ones. An emperor is fooled by empty cloth. A toy soldier loves a dancer. A small fir tree wants to be somewhere else until it is too late. The endings are often gentle and sometimes honestly sad. This collection uses a public-domain English translation. The stories are short enough to read one at night, and strong enough that the sad ones should not be sprung on a child with no warning.
Themes
Vanity. Wanting a different life. Kindness to people who are easy to ignore.
People to follow
The emperor, the match girl, the tin soldier, and a lot of animals and household objects that talk.
Talk about
- Who is pretending in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and who finally speaks?
- Which story asks you to notice someone small?
- Is a sad ending a bad ending?
Public-domain text.