Nye Eventyr [New Fairy Tales]

Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel, 1845-1848. The Original Stories That Catapulted Andersen to Fame

ANDERSEN, Hans Christian. Nye Eventyr. Kjøbenhavn: C.A. Reitzel, 1845-1848.

First edition, complete, two volumes (collections) bound together, of Anderson's second series of fairy tales, the first issue of Collection Two, the second issue of Collection One.

Small octavo (6 1/4 x 4 in; 157 x 103 mm). Collection One: 47, [1, blank]; 68; 52 pp. Collection Two: 72; 60 pp. Two leaves, comprised of table of contents and dedication page to Collection Two, have been misbound out of sequence. Otherwise, complete with half titles for each volume, both shared title pages, both shared contents leaves, all dedication leaves, all half titles for each fairy tale, and all five regular title pages.

Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards. Marbled edges. Some light scattered foxing and toning, and an occasional inkspot. Otherwise a very nice copy. Housed in a quarter morocco clamshell case.

A work of extreme scarcity with OCLC/KVK recording only a handful of copies in libraries worldwide, and with possibly only one other example, the Klein copy (1980), coming to auction within the last thirty-three years of ABPC records (Sotheby Hodgson's catalogue note vague and incomplete).

These stories were originally issued in parts; very few have survived in that state. The publisher, Reitzel, collected the individual parts in their original printings, added tables of contents, and published them in anthologies as here.

The importance of these stories, here - staggeringly - in their first edition, cannot be underestimated. They have become deeply embedded in the Western world's cultural consciousness, as timeless as our memories of childhood. More to the point, however, is that, unlike Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, who were compilers and talented interpreters of traditional folk stories in their respective cultures, in this second series of Andersen tales, the stories are wholly original, the product of a brilliant imagination, featuring characters of great love and yearning who, misunderstood and misfits in a cruel world, have become transcendent heroes for humanity of all ages. The stories have become the cornerstones of Western children's literature, the characters eternal psychological archetypes.

"For his second collection, Nye Eventyr (New Fairy Tales), Andersen wrote some of his most important and famous stories. He moved away from traditional folk material towards creating tales that came from his imagination. The words ‘told for children' were omitted from the new title as Andersen sought to engage adults and children alike. He had found a genre in which he had a unique voice" (British Library Online Gallery).

The Stories:

Volume One
1. The Angel
2. The Nightingale
3. The Sweethearts
4. The Ugly Duckling
5. The Fir Tree
6. The Snow Queen
7. Night Ghosts
8. The Red Shoes
9. The Jumpers
10. Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep
11. Holger Danske

Volume Two
1. The Old Street Lamp
2. The Neighboring Family
3. The Darning Needle
4. Little Tuck
5. The Shadow
6. The Old House
7. The Drop of Water
8. The Little Match Girl
9. The Happy Family
10. The Story of a Mother
11. The Shirt Collar

Nielsen 467 & 529.