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The Snow Queen and Other Winter Tales

Hans Christian Andersen,

Jacob Grimm,

Wilhelm Grimm,

Charles Dickens,

Louisa May Alcott,

Oscar Wilde,

Andrew Lang,

Alexandre Dumas

4.12 · Rating details · 321 ratings · 23 reviews

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" has delighted readers for more than a century and inspired numerous adaptations. This anthology gathers 100 tales that share the winter theme of Andersen's classic. In addition to stories by Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, it includes works by Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Wilde, selections from Andrew Lang's fairy books, and Alexa ...more

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Hardcover, Leather Bound, 724 pages

Published August 31st 2015 by Barnes & Noble (first published 1911)

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Average rating 4.12 ·

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· 321 ratings · 23 reviews

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Jan 12, 2016 Camilla rated it liked it

Shelves: winter-reads, classics, short-story-collections, own-and-read, 2016, want-to-re-read, my-book-collection

3.5 stars!

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Jan 05, 2021 Mikaela Garcia rated it it was amazing

I Like that it has Scandinavian fairytales. And the last one was "The Nutcracker" by E.T.A Hoffman. Perfect for reading during winter break. ...more

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Jan 21, 2019 Abigail rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Hans Christian Andersen Fans / Dulac Lovers

Shelves: childrens-translations, danish-children, fairy-tales, folklore-danish, folklore-mythology, hans-christian-andersen, winter-wonders

In 1911, the British publisher Hodder & Stoughton published an edition of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy-tales, accompanied by twenty-eight gorgeous full-color illustrations by Edmund Dulac, a "Golden-Age" illustrator whose work has been compared to such artists as Arthur Rackham. This collection, published in 1976 by Doubleday, contains five of the original seven tales - The Garden of Paradise and The Real Princess (AKA The Princess and the Pea) have been omitted - and fifteen of the original ...more

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Oct 13, 2017 P.S. Winn rated it really liked it

This book will keep you busy with so many tales written by a variety of authors who fall into the classic author realm. Pick this one up in hardback it is a keeper.

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Feb 08, 2016 Kaitlin Marie-Brown Salter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned-books

Beautiful collection! Perfect for a long cold winter- 5 stars

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Sep 20, 2017 ʙᴇʟᴀ.: ☾**:.☆*.:｡. rated it it was amazing

This is the prettiest cover I've ever touched. I bought it and its so, so pretty. The stories are amazing and you can feel the Winter in your bones! AMAZING edition.However...I think theses fairytales are more meant for adults than children...:D ...more

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Mar 08, 2020 SwedishGeekGirl rated it it was amazing

Perfect stories for the cold Winter months. I was suprised that there was a couple Swedish tales in this one.
The snow Queen and other Winter tales get a 8.4/10 stars.

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Dec 16, 2020 EuroHackie rated it really liked it

Shelves: category-classics, fairy-tales, i-own-this

An incredibly beautiful volume of winter tales, bookended by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and Alexandre Dumas's "The History of a Nutcracker."

The book itself is beautiful - bonded leather in ice blue with silvery gilt pages ♥ The tales are a mix of fairy tales and winter stories by the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Dickens. The fairy tales are derived from Andrew Lang's twelve color-coded volumes of fairy tales and traditional tales from around the world.

A pe ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Christabelle Garcia rated it it was amazing

The book contained multiple tales and tales that you can share with other people and share around the campfire. Some of the stories were about horror and some of them were emotional on how christmas was for different characters, and should receive 5 out of 5 stars. My three main reasons for this rating is because it was about fantasy,emotional, and some were about the origins of christmas, nutcracker, the snow queen and other tales.
If I were to rate just the first ⅓ of the book, I would give tha The book contained multiple tales and tales that you can share with other people and share around the campfire. Some of the stories were about horror and some of them were emotional on how christmas was for different characters, and should receive 5 out of 5 stars. My three main reasons for this rating is because it was about fantasy,emotional, and some were about the origins of christmas, nutcracker, the snow queen and other tales.
If I were to rate just the first ⅓ of the book, I would give that part 5 out of 5 stars mostly because it had a variety of tales and some characters interconnect with other tales. The characters are very descriptive and gave background stories of each character. The way the authors tells the story is having different themes and having different styles of the stories. The readers are effectively introduced to different cultural tales and themes of each story. And my favorite story of this section was the snow queen because I love how the characters are expressed in this novel and the little sister Gerda saved her big brother kay from the evil snow queen.
For the second ⅓ of the book, I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars mostly because The story of the Fir-Tree was frightening and funny because the story talks about a pine tree that is taken into a house that the children and family decorates for christmas . The tree is then taken into the village and then chopped up and placed in a fireplace where he is burning up alive. I noticed that the author uses very descriptive language to describe the tree’s life and when it is dying in the fireplace. He uses words like POP-POP to describe the scene and how for each shot of the popping sound he signed and wished to stayed back in the forest where is was cold and when he was young. This story was very interesting because it brought a lot of imagery and a dark story of trees during christmas.
Finally, in the last ⅓ of the book, I would give it a 5 out of 5 stars because is was a beautiful story. The story is called Jack Frost (traditional Russian Tale) and was actually similar to the cinderella story. The story began with a young girl that grew up with a step mom and two sisters. The mother did not like Martha and everyday make her work harder then ever, she only cared about her two daughters, Pasha and Masha. One day the mother said that her daughters must get married and become rich , but not Martha. The daughters did not find any good man to marry, so the mother told her husband to leave martha in the woods and let her freeze to death. The husband did as he was told and told her to stay under the pine tree. She did as she was told and waited and soon was freezing to death, then Jack frost came and asked the maiden , “Are you warm Pretty Maiden? Are you warm?”. She replied by saying her was Burning because she was freezing and thought that she was getting warmed. Jack frost gave her his coat and she went back to being Rich with present. The mother had an idea and sent her other daughters to fo the same, but the two girls were rude when they meet Jack Frost and resulted in there punishment of Jack Frost touching them and they died. When the mother sent the father to fetch her daughters they were dead and the mother was blaming her husband but then thought of her actions. Martha was then Married and lived Happily Ever After. My favorite part of this ending was that the cruel people receive their punishment and the good receive a happy life .After reading this book, I have grown as a reader because now I know different stories that you can read during the winter and traditional stories. Every story in the book have different messages and some are very touchy and some just tell you the truth about our life and how sometimes good and evil are not the same, and everything comes with a price. In conclusion, I would recommend this book for my peers because some of the stories were meant for kids but are actually to brutal and some are beautiful, and it would be a good christmas and horror story and all the storie have different message that can help you in the real world. ...more

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Feb 23, 2016 Betty Strohecker rated it really liked it

Shelves: fairytale-fantasy-legend

This is a delightful book of fairy tales and folk tales from traditional authors (Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm Brothers) and a variety of cultures. An added pleasure was the inclusion of short selections from such well known authors as Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Louisa May Alcott, and Alexandre Dumas. I particularly enjoyed the last selection, Dumas' History of a Nutcracker. ...more

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Sep 22, 2019 Sarah rated it it was amazing

When I got this book i half expected to be butchered in some way shape or form but it was put together well in its entirety when I was reading it it made me extremely calm and centered and the full tale of the ice queen was very intriguing. I would highly recommend this to anyone who needs a chill back kind of book.

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Mar 21, 2020 Kiri rated it really liked it

A wonderful collection! Some stories were a little dull, but some were absolute favorites so I think it evens out. I highly recommend Heart of Ice from the Green Fairy Book.

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Dec 18, 2020 Paulina rated it it was ok

Shelves: scribd

Hmmm 🤔 I can see how this story inspired so many others, but I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed this original version.

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Sep 11, 2019 Christina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: illustrator-favorites, fairy-and-folk-tales, classic, juvenile, 19th-century, own

Picked this up at an antiquarian book fair. Edmund Dulac’s (1805-1875) illustrations are gorgeous, and reproduced well in this volume. His style reminds a little of Arthur Rakham, though not as grotesque. The book contains five tales selected from a 1911 collection of Hans Christian Andersen tales. Of course, the main reason to read this edition is the illustrations, which are rich and detailed, I'll include a favorite illustration from each tale below.

“The Snow Queen” was long, making up almost ...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Shannon rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014, fantasy, fiction

These stories were not what I anticipated. The Snow Queen was charming in some ways, perhaps because love triumphs over lies and evil. The translation doesn't make you feel as if you really are in the story, but as though you're hearing a distant, simplified version (being unable to read the original, I couldn't compare.) The creativity reminds me of some of my favorite George MacDonald stories, but the story is so much shorter that you don't get to know the characters or enter into vividly desc ...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Meagan T rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: folklore

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 22, 2015 Cherrie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I liked this edition a lot, from the printing to the illustrations. I love Hans Andersen's language too (assuming the translator had followed the original scripts honestly), but the stories themselves, not so much. To be honest, reading Hans Andersen's tales depressed me, especially the Little Mermaid. I actually hated that one. Perhaps Hans Andersen's tales aren't really for me. ...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Jeana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Snow Queen and Little Mermaid in its original form are some of my favorite fairytales. The Emperor's Clothes and the Nightingale were good. But I didn't much care for The Wind's Tale. I never seemed to get into it. ...more

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Apr 14, 2018 Dez rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-5-star

I loved the stories inside of the book. I was able to imagine everything I read. Honestly when I'm able to imagine all of those stories I get excited, because there aren't many stories that allow me to 100% do that. ...more

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Nov 26, 2017 Erin H rated it it was amazing

Shelves: anthologies

Great collection of stories!!

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Apr 07, 2015 Julie Henigan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of several translations of this masterpeice I like--and definitely with my favorite illustrations by the great Edward Dulac.

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Dec 28, 2015 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens-literature, adult, christmas, 2016-read-books, classics, young-adult, fantasy, fairy-tales, adventure, fiction

These tales are wonderful. Love the Snow Queen. It's become one of my favorites, easily in the top 5 fairy tales. ...more

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Aug 31, 2019 LunaLord rated it really liked it

Very good book. I loved reading the old traditional stories. I was a bit put off but some of the phrasing particularly old style race wording.

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Cortney Valyan rated it really liked it
Jul 25, 2018

Marti Jacques rated it it was ok
Jul 24, 2019

Kendyl rated it liked it
Dec 12, 2019

Zorymar rated it it was amazing
Mar 31, 2018

Pam Robinson rated it it was amazing
Jan 16, 2019

Veronika Krátká rated it it was amazing
Nov 17, 2015

U Chatterjee rated it really liked it
Oct 05, 2018

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About Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

2,743 followers

Hans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, wh ...more