In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys a new translation of the classic fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and Rumpelstiltskin: these names are among those we meet during our earliest years, with the stories they summon never leaving […]
First published in 1819, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ is one of the most famous pieces of writing by Washington Irving, whose contribution to American literature was considerable. ‘Rip Van Winkle’ has become a byword for the idea of falling asleep and waking up to find the familiar world around us has […]
A commentary on Hans Christian Andersen’s famous story Published in 1836 in Danish, ‘Thumbelina’ or ‘Tommelise’ is one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most popular fairy stories. Before he became famous throughout Europe and went to stay (and outstay his welcome) at Dickens’s house, Andersen was busy writing some of the […]