The Little Mermaid: The original tale as told by Hans Christian Andersen | With a collection of original vintage illustrations

The Little Mermaid: The original tale as told by Hans Christian Andersen | With a collection of original vintage illustrations

This original version of the Little Mermaid tale does not feature the red-locked Ariel and her witty sidekicks. Nor there is a true-love's-kiss salvation for the heroine. Conceived by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, this is a dark but beautiful tale of longing, life-altering choices, unrequited love, suffering, and ultimate sacrifice. Numerous later editions left out the last part of the original ending, but here we provide the full original version as it was intended by the author, and initially published. The English text in this publication is taken directly from mid-19th century "The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen", translated by Mary Howitt. We decided not to take liberties changing it - with the exception of a very few small edits, such as correcting "live", an obvious typo in the original text, to "five". Select vintage illustrations of various female and male artists from the 19th and early 20th century depict how our view of the Little Mermaid and her story evolved throughout the years.