Whether you're a fan of Hans Christian Andersen, or whether you find his tales moralistic and depressing, it's hard to deny the impact he's had on modern culture and fantasy. This is a beautifully designed volume; the annotations are marginal, so there's no flipping back and forth, and they provide a lot of insight into the background of the stories. The volume is gorgeously illustrated with reproductions of the illustrations that originally accompanied the various stories. There's also biographical information about Andersen, as well as short biographical sketches of the artists who most famously illustrated his works. ( )

This is my 5th Norton Annotated book and I really had high expectations. Sadly the magic of Andersen got lost somewhere. Maybe it's the annotations which decode and de-construct Andersen, ironically the very thing he warned about it in "The Snow Queen". Perhaps it was the random pile of images with no consistent view, often showing the same scene from multiple artists with radically different perspectives, diluting the minds eye. Perhaps it was the new translation that has lost some of its 19th century feel. Perhaps it is Tatar's own admission that she was never that fond of Andersen. Perhaps it is my own realization as an adult re-reading these tales for the first time since childhood that they are not as good as I remember. Perhaps it was learning about Andersen who seems a bit weak. With all that said, this is a wonderfully produced book as are all the Norton series I would not hesitate to buy another, it is very generous in what is provided, I don't think anything else like it exists for Andersen. The determined reader will learn a lot about what the stories mean and find new perspectives and appreciations for these classic stories. ( )

This edition features not just new translations of the stories included, but full annotations by Tatar, a noted expert in the field of fairy tales and folklore, and illustrations from a wide variety of artists such as Kay Nielsen, Arthur Rackham and Honor C. Appleton. Further the stories are divided between those intended for children and those intended for adults.
http://individualtake.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-husband-gave-me-annotated-hans.htm... ( )