The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen | 1837 | HarperCollins | Ebook $ 21.99

After saving a prince from drowning, a mermaid princess embraces a life of extreme self-sacrifice to win his love and gain an immortal soul.

Generations of readers have been enchanted by the whimsical fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. His fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West’s collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but present lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well.

The Disney animated version of this story was one of my absolute favorite things as a child; for several years, I was a being OBSESSED. Somehow, though, I never quite got around to reading the original version — so, of course it had to go on my list for Classics Club. When the movie remake came out last year, it seemed to me like the perfect time to pick up this book!

Surprising no one, the original story is quite different both in plot and tone than the version from Disney. Hans Christian Andersen’s story is less about a whirlwind teenage romance and more about the titular mermaid’s hopeless pursuit of unrequited love, and the really rather brutal consequences thereof.

It’s beautifully written, though. I particularly enjoyed the lovely descriptions of the royal mermaids’ underwater castle and gardens.

I think this will appeal mainly to people who are interested in classic fairy tales; it’s quite different from most contemporary children’s fiction and the moral of the story seems ambiguous at best, though it isn’t quite as bloodthirsty as some selections from the Brothers Grimm. My guess is that perhaps approaching it from an older child’s or adult’s perspective is more appropriate.

Links:

• The Hans Christian Andersen Centre
• Hans Christian Andersen Digital Collections from Museum Odense
• Biography of the author from the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center

Publication information: Andersen, Hans Christian. The little mermaid and other fairy tales. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2018. EPUB.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
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