This is the first volume of the Brio edition of the complete Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. The full set comprises 156 beautifully illustrated stories, more than 1,700 pages in all. Most of the fairy tales already existed in the charming translation of Gustav Pallas from 1914–16, which we have sensitively adapted to contemporary Czech. The other fairy tales have been translated by Jan Rak and František Fröhlich. The illustrations are by two leading Slovak artists, Kamila Štanclová and Dušan Kállay. The graphic design is by the award-winning Clara Istlerová. The Brio edition of this complete collection (which was first published in Andersen’s lifetime) will please children and adults alike, and is a splendid souvenir of the Year of Hans Christian Andersen, 2005.

Among the 54 fairy tales (576 pages) in the second volume of Andersen’s fairy tales are the much-loved “The Little Match Girl,” “The Tinder-box,” “Auntie Toothache,” “The Garden of Paradise,” “Little Ida’s Flowers,” “The ABC Book,” and “‘The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town’.” Readers will surely enjoy discovering the other fairy tales and stories contained here, which are also full of beauty and imagination.

This is the third and last volume of The Complete Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, published by Brio to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of this great Danish writer. Included in this large volume are “The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Ice Maiden,” and 44 other fairy tales, which continue to enchant readers with the magic that made Andersen‘s tales beloved all over the world and will charm readers coming to these stories for the first time.