Showing results by author "Hans-Christian Andersen" in Literature & Fiction

Mystery. Adventure. Horror. Romance. You can get a healthy mix of it all in The Classic Tales Podcast, Season Five. An anthology of all of the stories released through the podcast during 2011. Over 36 hours total! Optimized for mobile listening, this is one binge-worthy collection!

Everyone loves a bedtime story. And here are eight of the best from BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, each with a Christmas theme, written by an array of literature's best-known names. They include Laurie Lee, Charles Dickens, and Hans Christian Andersen - just some of the storytellers included in this collection.

This collection of bedtime stories for children includes the following stories: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, Jabberwocky, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Ugly Duckling, and The Little Mermaid. 

This Children’s Short Story Collection contains many short stories great for kids of all ages.

Like everyone else in the kingdom, two clever swindlers understand the emperor's passion for new clothes. Claiming to be the creators of the richest and most beautiful cloth in the world, they cleverly announce that the magical garments they are weaving for the emperor are invisible to anyone lacking intelligence. Who will have the courage to speak the truth?

In this fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a young mermaid saves the life of a prince. She falls in love with him and undergoes many trials. Finally, she achieves salvation as she was prepared to give up her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul. 

This classic tale is a fantastical fable of two dear friends - one of whom goes astray and is literally lost to the north woods, while the other undertakes an epic journey to rescue him. This charming, strange, and wonderful story is a timeless allegory about growing up and the challenges of staying true to one's self, and it served as the wintry inspiration for the blockbuster hit Frozen.

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales have become so much a part of the Western culture that they are often assumed to be a part of folklore and not credited to the strange and gangling Dane who wrote them. Several years before the fairy tales came out, the Brothers Grimm had published their tales taken from the folklore of European stories, but Andersen was to change the understanding of what a tale can achieve.

Inside this classic kids collection, you’ll find a mixture of some of the most famous folklore and fairy tales ever written. From short stories by Aesop and Hans Christian Andersen to folklore from The Brothers Grimm, these timeless masterpieces have endured centuries to resonate deep in the hearts of adults and children alike.

Uniting universal themes with a wonderfully personal vision of the world, Hans Christian Andersen found magic in the landscape of childhood. His talking animals and living toys shine a sparkling light on the strange wisdom of innocence and the deceptive nature of adulthood. These stories have now been adapted into countless classic films (including The Little Mermaid, The Red Shoes, and Frozen - which was based on “The Snow Queen”) and have become part of our everyday speech, such as when we talk about “ugly ducklings” and “the emperor’s new clothes.”

In The Princess and the Pea, a prince who wants to marry a princess finds it difficult to ascertain whether a princess is authentically noble. On a stormy night, a bedraggled young woman claiming to be a princess seeks shelter in the prince's castle. The Prince’s mother tests the girl’s claim by placing three peas underneath the 20 mattresses laid out for her. A humorous tale about the absurdities of the noble.

The Snow Queen is one of Andersen's most affecting stories. Little Kay is enticed away from his home by the Snow Queen who traps him in her palace in the cold far north. His loyal friend Gerda goes on a long and dangerous journey, overcoming many obstacles to rescue him. With this classic children's story are other entertaining and moving tales from the imagination of Hans Christian - the story of a cunning frog, an old house and a snowman who is unaware of the effects of the coming spring.

This is a story from the Thumbelina and Other Fairy Tales collection.

Jump into the magical land of fairy tale royalty! Princesses have been featured in great stories for hundreds of years, and have inspired films, Broadway shows, and even theme park attractions. Classic Princess Fairy Tales features some of these tales, including Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and more!

In "The Emperor's New Clothes", two weavers tell the emperor that they can make him a new suit of clothes that is invisible to people who are unfit for their positions or who are stupid or incompetent. Con men, the two weavers actually outfit the emperor in nothing, but will anyone be willing to tell the emperor that he is naked? As an idiom, the story's title refers to things that are accepted as common knowledge in spite of being obviously untrue.

Perhaps no Christmas novel is more beloved than Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and no holiday poem more well-known than Clement Clarke Moore’s “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”. Together, these classic literary masterpieces warm our hearts and remind us of the joy and love to be discovered anew each Christmas morning. A Classic Christmas features both of these traditional works, as well as other vintage poems and stories that celebrate the timeless truths of the holiday season. 

Hans Christian 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, a literary genre he so mastered that he himself has become as mythical as the tales he wrote. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyrs, or "fantastic tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Catch the holiday spirit with this magical collection of beloved Christmas tales. Christmas favorites from L.M. Montgomery, O. Henry, Willa Cather, Hans Christian Anderson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Bret Harte and Anthony Trollope are lovingly recorded and presented here in one enchanting volume.

This is the audio program to play at home over Christmas or during the car journey to see relatives. Dylan Thomas, "The Little Match Girl," and "The Nutcracker" are read by Jenny Agutter with accompanying Tchaikovsky's music - this is a must for Christmas. It contains new recordings as well as some of the finest tracks from the Naxos AudioBooks catalogue.

The tale follows a barefoot girl trying to sell matchsticks on a frigid New Year’s Eve. As the night grows colder, she lights the matches for warmth and has visions of her dead grandmother. Feel the cold seep into your bones as you hear this tale that has haunted listeners for over a century.