The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Lucie Arnoux and Misha Hoekstra (translator)
| The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Lucie Arnoux and Misha Hoekstra (translator) | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: It only took me a hundred and seventy years to read this story, but I'm sure it'll stay with me. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 128 | Date: October 2015 |
| Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 9781782691037 | |
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Listen closely! We're about to begin. Once upon a time, the devil created a hellish mirror, which only showed evil, ill intent and ugliness, and which was en route to Heaven to cast a new light on it when it shattered. One of the people affected by the numerous shards was Kai, who abandoned his childhood friend Gerda, and went off with the Snow Queen. Gerda was forlorn and fearing for his life, but soon found her way to start a miraculous journey to find the truth behind his disappearance and behaviour…
If ever anyone points out to you that life should be more like a fairy-tale, here is one more instance of the evidence that they're quite loopy. A boy affected by sin and practically kidnapped and brainwashed; a girl who goes looking for him and ends up in a world where she is encouraged to forget all that has gone before – and even the person doing that in order to keep her must forsake a part of their pleasures to do so. No, nothing here is fully pretty, or enjoyable, or secure. The only thing that is fantastical enough for us to aspire to it here is that a young lad sees an intelligent face as beautiful, and that both the children are proud of Kai's abilities to do mental arithmetic. If only brain power was as fondly thought of among some more youth of today than it is…
This work of Hans Christian Andersen's is 170 years young now, and with the impetus of a certain cartoon film, probably just as popular as ever, if not more. So why hadn't I read it? To be truthful, I can't remember reading any one book-length fairy-tale when young, and this work is more novel than short story – certainly, while it must have been anthologised no end of times, it's an hour of reading and is nowhere near as brief as some works of its genre. What makes it a novel is another reason why some people may find it off-putting – it's a little helter-skelter, with very different episodes to Gerda's quest, and even some story-within-story beats that you can take or leave. This brings to mind Lewis Carroll, and how not all of his works are designed to make the most perfect sense all the time.
But what does make a great deal of sense – intelligent, common sense – is to choose this edition of it. Even with my declared ignorance of the story, I can state with authority that a great, brilliant clarity and artistic style has been given us by the translator – the original couldn't have been a dog's dinner to have lived so long, but this shines off the page as crystal as the titular character. Things really do get as vivid as said cartoon film. And even while the work spins off into a fantasia of different sub-ideas, and mentions of the girl's red shoes bring to mind a completely different story all together, you're wholly in this world alongside Gerda. Yes, the crow couple, the feral bandit girl and other characters all make the adult frown, and yes the ending is far too abrupt – what exactly happens to a certain someone?... – but the work is rich, enjoyable and classic fairy-tale in that it evokes a particular ethos and moral in amongst its strangeness.
The work here is shared between the translator and Lucie Arnoux, who as before with this publisher provides just one image per chapter, and rather gives away the ending as a result, but whose great characterisation and dynamic cross-hatching feel wholly in keeping with the mood of the piece. It's a book that doesn't have to do too much to show the merits of the story, but does anyway, and in providing for a large print, open feel to the page makes this cold little novel one in a warmly welcomed edition.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Naomi Lewis and Christian Birmingham is a very different-looking edition, but no way inferior.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Lucie Arnoux and Misha Hoekstra (translator) at Amazon.com.
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