Customer Reviews

The Little Mermaid

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I got this book I was turning twelve My sister got it for me and I thought "no big deal" but I opened this book and cried over the first page. It is very beutiful. Sarah Knapp age :13 (well, this Sept, 29th)

When I was younger, about seven or eight, my mom got me this book, and i fell in love with it. The illustrations in it are beautiful! I would stay up at night just looking at the pictures. when i lost the book, i was going crazy trying to find it. But when i saw that amazon.com had it, i ordered a new one.

I got this book years ago and fell in love with the story all over again. the illustrations are beautiful! I lost the book and was so happy to find it here at Amazon after haunting bookstores for years. I couldn't tell by a list of title which one was mine! I recognized the picture Amazon had immediately. This book would be for the older child or an adult. I got a copy for my daughter anyway so she can grow into it.

My grandfather used to tell me the story of the little mermaid when I was a child. It was the rather unadorned version, lacking the peaches-and-cream ending concocted by well meaning Disney producers. It was the original story, Anderson's story. My grandmother bought me this book when I was 11. Santore's beautiful illustrations were true to the tale and did due justice to a childhood classic. I highly recommend this to fans of the classic story, or if you would like to experience it for the first time there is no better way. I'm now 20 and I find myself, every now and then, curling up in bed with this book and reading myself a betime story.

I read the story when I was 9, it was for school and I hated it. I always thought it is a girly book. Now I read it again with the fantastic illustration of Charles Santore, I know why Disney adopt it into a movie.
If you are looking for beautiful modern children illustration works, this is the book you have to get. Charles Santore brings out the mysterious mood of ocean merfolk, which is something missing from any other little mermaid illustrations I've encountered.
The book is a bit pricy but it is worth every penny. It is a classical novel with the quality of classic art.

The illustrations in this book are fantastic. The translation purports to be Mary Howitt's, with "only the smallest adjustments...in concession to contemporary pace and attitude." I find it more romantic, however, to fly through the aether and risk being crushed to pieces rather than the more scientific "sailing through the atmosphere" and being crushed to "atoms." The editor also decided to omit the term "slaves"; apparently she'd prefer to hide from human history instead of facing it. Still, an edited Howitt is significantly better than the insipid prose issued by Disney.

I bought two of these books for two nieces. The story by Hans Christian Andersen is inspiring and beautiful. The imagery in this book is really memorable. The books are real treasures. This is not Disney, it's so much better. I am grateful to have gotten the books.

I can't say enough about Santore's illustrations; the best ones are exquisite, the less-than-best ones detailed and very lovely to look at. The text remains largely unchanged, though Andersen purists will never be satisfied. The story itself, like all good fairy tales, is complicated and open to many different interpretations. Perhaps you are of the feminist stance that views this tale, and all others of its ilk, with horror because of the pain and disfigurement the protagonist must endure to become 'acceptable' to her love interest, or maybe you are the more old-fashioned, evangelical sort who sees the little mermaid's quest for a soul as noble, self-sacrificing, and the definition of true, selfless love. Or maybe, like me, you're somewhere in between. ( ;

Whatever your views on this classic tale, it's still a cracking good story, one that has appealed to the 'old souls' in children everywhere for years, and it's only made more beautiful and poignant by Charles Santore's wonderful illustrations. (Not to mention the fact that it is an 'old school' fairy tale, which means no candy-coated, neatly wrapped up Disney-fied ending. Expecting everyone to live 'happily ever after' is probably not sending our kids the best message!) If you are an Andersen fan -- or just a lover of fairy tales -- buy it. I have yet to find a better version.

this was the first little mermaid story i was aware of. i'm not really a fan of disney because they alter the stories, among other things, and so in retrospect i thank my mother for getting me this book when i was young. The story is beautiful and the pictures are as beautiful as the story. This is my standard for the little mermaid story and to date all other renditions i've read have been sub-par in comparison.

The illustrations are very pretty in this book, The story was also great and good for any mermaid fans! Specifically The Little Mermaid!