Princess and the Pea (Favourite Tales) [Hardcover]

Hans Christian Andersen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1993 | Series: Favourite Tales

This is part of the "Favourite Tales" series which aims to bring alive classic fairy tales and folk stories from around the world. This book tells the story of the princess and the pea, originally by Hans Christian Andersen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Long before there were lie detectors, there was the great pea test: the real princess's genteel character is not numbed by 20 mattresses and 20 eiderdown quilts. She isn't lying when she says she felt "something so hard that I'm black and blue all over." The pea becomes a museum piece, and at the end of this story the princess happily marries her prince, and their offspring go picking in a pea patch. Tharlet's narrative scenes are portrayed from an almost aerial perspective. Readers look down at castles, their majestic interiors and the people that inhabit them from a vantage point that reveals the artist's acute awareness of size and dimension as language for humor. All royal folk look alike, with their stiff upper lips, twisted noses and looks of perpetual surprise. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3 This story of a princess chosen for her feelings rather than her beauty de serves retelling, and Bell's translation is smooth and fast-moving. All the charac ters in Tharlet's gentle gray and mauve pictures, even the ``old'' King and Queen, appear to be children in 18th-Century fan cy dress. Round-headed and with sharply- drawn cartoon faces, their short stature is exaggerated by the interesting, rafter-lev el perspective. The soft watercolors are particularly suitable for a story about re fined sensibility, as they create both the misty air and the comfortably elegant manor and furnishings of a small northern kingdom. Only the incongruity between the silly comic faces and the romantic set tings is disconcerting. Patricia Dooley, formerly at Drexel University, Philadel phia
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Ladybird Books Ltd. (April 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0721453880
• ISBN-13: 978-0721453880
• ASIN: 0721415504
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,619,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Classic, January 30, 2005

By 

D. Wetherhold "Weth" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Princess and the Pea (Favourite Tales) (Hardcover)

Despite the Politically Correct gone amuck reviews of some reviewers, This is a children's classic and our daughter loves the story. It is part of our bedtime storybook rotation.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Real Princess, November 29, 2001

By 

Terrie (Little Chute, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Princess and the Pea (Hardcover)

PLEASE NOTE! This review is for the version that is illustrated by Dorothee Duntze. Everyone knows this Hans Christian Andersen story about the bedraggled princess who shows up looking for shelter on a stormy night. She might be a good match for the prince who's been searching for a "real" princess so the queen mother runs a little test...the rest is the subject of fairy tales! This version is simply told and beautifully illustrated. The pictures, executed in soft pastel colors, have a quirky Art Deco feel to them that I thoroughly enjoyed. The gowns of all the ladies in the book are done in a collage style and are covered in intricate patterns and designs. Lovely...the real thing!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an amusing modern twist to an old tale!, November 8, 2001

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Princess and the Pea (Hardcover)

In the beautiful land of Upper-Crestalia King Adolph, Queen Frieda, & their dear son Prince Ralph live & the queen is quite content until her son one day bursts into her chamber & declares that he wishes to marry.

The queen does not like this idea at all so she hatches a plan to prevent her son marrying & she makes sure that the few princesses who do audition for Prince Ralph's wife all fail.

Mad with grief, Prince Ralph tears off in his expensive car down to Lower-Crestalia & when smoke starts billowing out of his hood, poor Ralph is stranded.

To his great surprise & relief, an auto-mechanic pulls up next to him & a dirty young woman in overalls carrying a tool box, jumps out. They get to talking, & the Prince is smitten! Her name is Opal, & she is the princess of Lower-Crestalia.

On the spot Prince Ralph proposes & when her prince charming confesses that his mother has idiotic tasks in store for her, Opal only becomes more determined.

Opal passes the tests with flying colors & that's when the queen insists there be a third test which is the one from which the title of this hilarious book is taken.

Will Princess Opal pass the final test? Will the queen's crafty plan succeed? Read this enchanting book & find out!