Books
fromThe New Yorker
4 days agoKate DiCamillo on the Solace of Fairy Tales
Fairy tales blend terror and comfort, teaching bravery and revealing enduring human truths while shaping sensibility from childhood into later life.
In the mirror I'm wearing enormous golden pantaloons, but only I can see them. Children sit in a rock pool playing mermaids, and in the next room there's a talking pea in a display case, beside a towering stack of mattresses. It's the world of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), one of the 19th century's most beloved writers. I'm in Odense, on the island of Fyn (sometimes anglicised to Funen) in the south of Denmark,