The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen: New translation by Diana Corne Frank & Jeffrey Frank

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Secondhand Hardcover in Very Good Condition. Seems unread

Selected and translated by Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank “The Franks’ edition finally sets the stories straight, and a valuable opening essay clarifies the tale most often told wrong—Andersen’s own life story.”—Elise Soukup, Newsweek “The translation of Andersen’s tales by Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank is cause for real celebration among those who include the fairy tales in courses on children’s literature. This edition is far superior to other collections.”—Maria Tatar, author of Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood “A beautiful new translation of The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen. Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank have included the originals’ delicate illustrations; their introduction fleshes out the elusive character of the Danish literary genius.”—Vogue “Andersen is almost never thought of as a literary artist, like his contemporaries Dickens, Dostoyevsky, and Flaubert. . . . But a new edition of Andersen’s most famous tales, translated by Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank, means to change all that. The Franks . . . treat Andersen as he is treated in his native Denmark: as a sophisticated modern writer, to be read and studied as seriously as his fellow Copenhagener, and one-time reviewer, Søren Kierkegaard. They translate Andersen’s Danish into idiomatic contemporary English, capturing his deliberate colloquialism. More strikingly, they provide each of the 22 stories with footnotes, demonstrating their roots in Andersen’s own life.” —Adam Kirsch, Slate

“[These translations] have all the perkiness and button-holing ­quality of the original . . . . a splendid tribute to Andersen’s genius.” —Paul Binding, The Independent (London)

“The new translation by Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank is certainly our best English version yet. It is distinctly less Germanic and more Scandinavian than its predecessors, lighter, more buoyant, conveying the energy and freshness of this most peculiar author. . . . The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen gives us Andersen pure and clear.”—Liz Rosenberg, The Boston Globe “Andersen was . . . the originator of a long and rich tradition of the literary fairy tale, which would be taken up in later years by Poe in his ghost stories, Kafka in his parables, Oscar Wilde in his fables, García Márquez in his magic realist tales, and Angela Carter in her mytho-erotic marvels. If modern readers cannot see these achievements in Andersen, perhaps it is because he has been buried beneath the dusty grammar and syntax of his English-language translators, and the radical originality of his style has remained hidden from view. This may change . . . . Danish linguist Diana Crone Frank and New Yorker editor Jeffrey Frank have stripped away the florid Victorianisms of the previous translations.”—Heather Caldwell, bookforum “Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank restore the vitality of Andersen’s original language. What they reveal in their fidelity to Andersen is the harshness, even cruelty, of his vision.”—Sarah Crompton, The Daily Telegraph “An exhilarating new translation of [Andersen’s] best loved ­stories.”—Daily Mail “[Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank] illuminate all aspects of the tales, with 260 references, and never a dull word.” —Jane Doonan, The Times Educational Supplement