Hans Andersen Forty-Two Stories by James, M.R - 1930

London: Faber, 1930 This is a wonderful book, arising from the opinion of M.R. James that the existing translations of Hans Christian Andersen's work were not very good. In fact, he suspected that those responsible for the translations to date (1930) were inadequately versed in English (and possibly in Danish is well, as he suspected that those appearing in English were from perhaps German translations of the original Danish). Further, these prior editions were issued while Andersen was still revising and making corrections, and were not taken from the definitive edition. He therefore set out to do justice to Andersen's work, which he very much admired. Add to this the services of Robin Jacques, one of the best illustrators of books that England had ever produced and have the whole thing published by Faber. You will note that the your edition has probably held up quite well, and this would be partially because of the thickness and quality of the paper and the cover that this esteemed publishing house is in the habit of using, and also because this is not just a children's book to be scribbled in. Upon publication, The New Statesman exclaimed, "The translation fashions them all anew . . . full of the true magical cadence yet with nothing too pretty, nothing too vague--that we get possibly for the first time, a glimpse of the originals as they really are." 346pp including translator/editor's preface. The copy under consideration is sound, with binding still square and solid. There is one small and neat listing of the previous owner's name on fep. A price tag from the University Bookstore still sits on the front cover demanding the Canadfian equivalent of 14 shillings. The right front lower corner corner has been creased and is turning up. There is light wear on the covers and moderate on the spine, so that the gold undercolour is beginning to show through the white, particularly along the edge of the spine, but the beautiful Jacquian border is still sharp and bright. Even as a paperback, this book has a good weight to it and will not ship cheaply.