Fairy tales · Children
Andersen's Fairy Tales
The Snow Queen, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Match Girl and other timeless stories.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Stories he invented
Hans Christian Andersen, a poor shoemaker’s son from Odense, in Denmark, published his first small booklet of fairy tales in 1835. Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected traditional stories, Andersen invented most of his own, in a voice that is by turns funny, satirical and heartbreaking. This collection includes “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, about two swindlers and a suit invisible to anyone foolish or unfit for office; “The Snow Queen”, a long tale in seven parts about a girl who sets out to rescue her friend; “The Real Princess”, better known as “The Princess and the Pea”; “The Fir Tree”; “The Red Shoes”; and “The Little Match Girl”.
Why it works for learners
The tales are short and complete, with clear situations and endings you’ll remember. Andersen often tells them through objects and animals (a fir tree, a pair of shoes, a collar, a shadow), which keeps the vocabulary concrete: snow, ice, window, flower, shoes, mirror, candle, Christmas. His tone moves between comedy and sadness, and that range is good practice in reading feeling.
Learners of Danish have a special reason to start here. Andersen is the most famous writer in the language, and you can read him in Danish at your level, narrated.
Which level to start at
A2 works well for the short tales; B1 suits “The Snow Queen”, which is long and episodic. With B2 or more, Andersen’s irony comes through, especially in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The False Collar”.
Read next
- Grimms’ Fairy Tales, the tales the Grimms collected
- The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade’s stories within stories
- The Princess and the Goblin, a fairy tale at novel length