HANS ANDERSEN: His Classic Fairy Tales

When Erik Haugaard's translations of all the Andersen tales appeared in 1974, reviewers praised the renderings and regretted that the presence of some specifically adult stories and the absence of illustrations--plus its sheer bulk--made the book unsuitable for children. Just the ticket, then, is this slim volume containing 18 of the most celebrated stories, each provided with a headpiece and an illustration (usually in color) by Michael Foreman. Humorous or scary or limpid, his pictures are strongly imagined--you'll remember his princess prostrate atop quilt after quilt after quilt (""Only a real princess could be so sensitive!"") or, equally, the bulky figure of his snowman bent longingly toward the stove (""All day long the snowman gazed through the window""). The style could best be called watercolor-eclectic--there are, not inappropriately, echoes of Kay Nielsen--but it does invite the reader in. And the vigorous translations do the rest.