Following the extraordinary success of his newly illustrated edition of The Wind in the Willows, artist Michael Hague now offers an equally stunning array of full-colour paintings to infuse new life into his favourite Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.
Hans Christian Andersen was one of the great storytellers of all time. His charming, poignant, magical fairy tales have delighted young and old, not only in his native Denmark but throughout the world, for over a century. "For me," notes Michael Hague, "the name Hans Christian Andersen and the term fairy tale are synonymous. He probably seems to children, as he seems to me, a wizard-man with a magical name, and if he did not write every fairy tale in the world, then he surely must have inspired them all."
There is something fairy tale-like about Hans Christian Andersen's native Denmark, with, as Rumer Godden has remarked, "its myriad scattered islands and narrow belts of blue and silver sea, its meadows and wild marsh and heathlands, its castles and its cobbled streets and the old huddled houses that are still found in every town."
Hans Christian Andersen's life has, in fact, a fairy-tale quality to it. His father, who was a poor shoemaker, died when he was eleven, and Hans had to drop out of school and go to work at an age when most children had not yet finished the lower school. Later, when his talents became evi dent, and his lack of education prevented his realizing them, the King of Denmark provided him with money to finish his education, and later gave him a further sum to travel abroad and see the world.
In this new edition we offer nine of Hans Christian Andersen's most delightful and beautiful fairy tales: "The Snow Queen," "The Wild Swans," "Thumbelina," "The Elfin Hill." "Little Ida's Flowers," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Match Girl," "The Ugly Duckling." and "The Little Mermaid." Some are happy; some are tinged with sadness and difficult moments and situations; others, such as "The Little Match Girl," are poignant to the edge of tears. But Hans Christian Andersen knew, and was aware that children knew, that life is not a straight line of happiness. Even though happiness may be at the end of the road, the way there in Andersen's tales is often strewn with rocks and thorns.
Michael Hague chose these nine tales for their quality as stories. "I did not choose these tales for their visual images, as might be expected of an illustrator," he said. "Rather, I have selected each one because it means something special to me. They are my old friends. Paintings rolled off my drawing board in an effortless fashion. It was as if I had been preparing them since childhood. It is my hope that these paintings are worthy of the stories themselves, and that they will entice children and grown-ups to read them. If they do, I believe they will find, as I have, that imagining and believing are the only forms of magic left in the world."
Jacket illustration by Michael Hague Jacket design by Marc Cheshire
—from the dust jacket
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