A new selection of 30 tales to mark the 200 year anniversary of Andersen's birth in 2005. Tiina Nunnally's sparkling translation captures the rawness and immediacy of Andersen's style, for the first time enabling English readers to be as startled and amazed as his original readers were, and revealing the unique inventiveness of Andersen's genius. At a time when children's stories were formal, moral and didactic, Hans Christian Andersen revolutionized the genre, giving an anarchic twist to traditional folklore and creating a huge number of utterly original stories that sprang directly from his imagination. From the exuberant early stories such as 'The Emperor's New Clothes', though poignant masterpieces such as 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Ugly Duckling', to the darker, more subversive later tales written for adults, the stories included here are endlessly experimental, both humorous and irreverent, sorrowful and strange. This book - beautifully illustrated with a selection of Andersen's amazing paper cut-outs - will bring these magical tales to life for readers of any age.

Hans Christian Andersen was the profoundly imaginative writer and storyteller who revolutionized literature for children. He gave us the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales-with an anarchic twist-but many of his most famous tales sprang directly from his imagination. The thirty stories here range from exuberant early works such as "The Tinderbox" and "The Emperor's New Clothes" through poignant masterpieces such as "The Little Mermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling," to more subversive later tales such as "The Ice maiden" and "The Wood Nymph."

Containing an enchanting mix of familiar favourites and hidden gems, the Penguin Classics edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales is translated by Tiina Nunnally and edited with an introduction by Jackie Wullschlager. The first writer to create timeless, universal fairy tales from his own imagination, Hans Christian Andersen conjured up a world of icy queens, match girls and tin soldiers, rewarded virtue and unfulfilled desire. Rich with popular tales such as 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and 'The Ugly Duckling', this revelatory new collection contains many later, darker and rarely collected stories, such as 'Auntie Toothache' and 'The Shadow', in which a man's shadow slyly takes over his life. This sparkling new translation captures the eccentric charm of Andersen's original, colloquial Danish style as never before. The introduction vividly describes his changing style and there are notes on every tale. 'Truly scrumptious, a proper treasury ... Read on with eyes as big as teacups' Guardian 'This translation gives me, for the first time, a real sense of the range and variety of Andersen's style' A.S. Byatt 'There have been some capable versions in English, but Tiina Nunnally's seems to me the best. Jackie Wullschlager's introduction will be of enormous value' Harold Bloom