Synopsis and Comments on "Andersen's Masterpieces: The Girl Selling Matches/The Little Mermaid" - Andersen's fairy tales that you want to read because you are an adult!
In a previous article, you wrote about the connection between Mendelssohn, the great German composer, and Andersen, the Danish writer of fairy tales.The Secret Loves of Artists: Mendelssohn, Andersen and Their Times.introduced.
Speaking of Andersen's fairy tales, everyone has been familiar with them through picture books and cartoons when they were children. I am one of them. The fairy tale-like yet somehow sad stories leave an unforgettable impression once you read them.
In my previous article, I mentioned that Andersen and Mendelssohn were contemporaries. I myself thought that Andersen was a much older man, so I was surprised to learn that he was active in the middle of the 19th century, a relatively recent period. Balzac, Hugo, Dickens, and Dostoevsky were also contemporaries of Andersen's. The Brothers Grimm of the Grimm Fairy Tales were also contemporaries of Andersen. The Brothers Grimm of the Grimm Fairy Tales were also from this period.
And this time, I picked up this book to read such Andersen's fairy tales again now that I am an adult.
I read "Andersen's Masterpieces: The Match-Selling Girl/The Little Mermaid" translated by Haruki Amanuma, published by Shinchosha in 2015.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
On a snowy New Year's Eve night, a girl was so cold that she lit a match to warm herself. Then a strange sight appeared before her eyes. ......
What did the mermaid princess sacrifice when she fell in love with the human prince? Andersen's stories have been handed down from parent to child all over the world. From them, 15 stories with heroines such as "Thumbelina," "The Red Shoes," "A Mother's Tale," "The Wood Nymph's Doliard," and "The Toothless Aunt" have been carefully selected.
Shinchosha, Andersen, translated by Haruki Amanuma, Andersen's Masterpieces: The Girl Selling a Match / The Little Mermaid, back cover
Here is the table of contents, and the first thing we come face to face with in the book is "Thumbelina.
This work is also very famous, isn't it? I remember reading it too.
And when I finally read it, I was immediately surprised.
The language itself is easy to understand, and the story is a fairy tale in which toads, moles, and swallows speak to each other like humans. However, the story has an indescribable depth to it. If you think it is for children, you will be surprised. I have been reading a lot of books over the past few years, and I felt that this book is not at all inferior to those books, or rather, I felt that the depth of the story is felt more because it is told as a fairy tale.
The narration and the story are easy. However, the human heart as told through the thumbprint princess and the animals has an indescribable flavor. This is a must-read. There is a delicacy to the story that only adults can understand. The taste of Andersen's fairy tales comes to us only when we have grown up, experienced many things, and have various thoughts about life.
I would highly recommend this one. I started reading and was quickly drawn in and didn't stop there. I also appreciate that each piece is short and can be read at a quick pace.
And just one more piece of artwork. The Little Mermaid.
This is the work on which Disney's "The Little Mermaid" was based. It was very interesting to read the book and feel the difference between Disney and Andersen's original story. The Andersen fairy tale is still called Andersen, and the ending is quite sad.
There is probably no writer more skillful than this Andersen in depicting indescribable sadness. The significance of reading this as a child may be immeasurable. Reading them again as an adult, I realized that they are all filled with a truly delicate sensitivity.
Andersen himself was not a very handsome man, but rather a big, rugged man.
Moreover, his intense love for Swedish diva Jenny Lind was also discussed in the previous article "The Secret Love of Artists - Mendelssohn, Andersen and Their Times". He was a boorish and quite intense emotional person. Andersen himself said that his love was ultimately fruitless, and he was in agony over the pain of not being rewarded for such earnest and ardent love. It is said that such feelings are reflected in his fairy tales.
It is true that the swallow in "Thumbelina" falls in love with the beautiful Thumbelina and takes care of her devotedly, but in the end, she marries the beautiful prince in no time at all. (Although he had not yet met Jenny Lind at that time, we can see that he already had such a character.)
It was a surprise to me that Andersen, a big man who was a boorish and impassioned man, wrote such a sensitive story, but I also wondered if his sensitive mind, which reacts delicately to everything, was the reason he had to become an impassioned man.
I really want to share Andersen's fairy tales with my children.
At the same time, it is a wonderful experience for the adults who read to them.
Andersen's fairy tales were far more profound than I had imagined. This is also an exquisite experience that can only be enjoyed by adults. Each story is compact and easy to read. You can easily read them even during a short travel time.
I would highly, highly recommend this! Why not pick it up? I am sure it will be an amazing experience. Please enjoy this sadness and delicate sensitivity. It is really interesting.
The above is "Andersen's Masterpieces: The Little Matchmaker / The Little Mermaid" - Andersen's Fairy Tales for Adults Only! The above is "Andersen's Masterpieces: The Girl Who Sold Matches and The Little Mermaid.
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