During Flannery O’Connor’s childhood, the future author had a creative way of weeding out any unsatisfactory playmates who had been chosen by her mother as respectable society. O’Connor would read Grimms’ Fairy Tales aloud to her guests. Some were too frightened by the stories to ever return to the O’Connor house in Savannah (which suited their hostess just fine). Any girl who loved the fairy tales passed young O’Connor’s test. A kindred spirit had been found.

Classic fairy tales aren’t for the faint of heart.
    -The Case for Not Sanitizing Fairy Tales: Fairy tales are the best way for children to learn that the world contains evil, violence, and danger. (Haley Stewart, June 17, 2024, Plough)

Sweet honey in the rock! That one's a gut punch.

They always tell you the original fairy tales are more brutal than you can imagine and got cleaned up for modern consumption, but nothing prepares you for the end of this one.

A young girl is out in the city at night in a snowstorm trying to sell matchsticks, as demanded by her uncaring father. Having been unsuccessful all day, but fearing going home, she starts striking the matches for their warmth and here's how we conclude [SPOILER]:

She struck another match against the wall. It burned brightly, and when the light fell upon the wall it became transparent like a thin veil, and she could see through it into a room. On the table a snow-white cloth was spread, and on it stood a shining dinner service. The roast goose steamed gloriously, stuffed with apples and prunes. And what was still better, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled along the floor with a knife and fork in its breast, right over to the little girl. Then the match went out, and she could see only the thick, cold wall. She lighted another match. Then she was sitting under the most beautiful Christmas tree. It was much larger and much more beautiful than the one she had seen last Christmas through the glass door at the rich merchant's home. Thousands of candles burned on the green branches, and colored pictures like those in the printshops looked down at her. The little girl reached both her hands toward them. Then the match went out. But the Christmas lights mounted higher. She saw them now as bright stars in the sky. One of them fell down, forming a long line of fire.

"Now someone is dying," thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star fell down a soul went up to God.

She rubbed another match against the wall. It became bright again, and in the glow the old grandmother stood clear and shining, kind and lovely.

"Grandmother!" cried the child. "Oh, take me with you! I know you will disappear when the match is burned out. You will vanish like the warm stove, the wonderful roast goose and the beautiful big Christmas tree!"

And she quickly struck the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother with her. And the matches burned with such a glow that it became brighter than daylight. Grandmother had never been so grand and beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and both of them flew in brightness and joy above the earth, very, very high, and up there was neither cold, nor hunger, nor fear-they were with God.

But in the corner, leaning against the wall, sat the little girl with red cheeks and smiling mouth, frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. The New Year's sun rose upon a little pathetic figure. The child sat there, stiff and cold, holding the matches, of which one bundle was almost burned.

"She wanted to warm herself," the people said. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, and how happily she had gone with her old grandmother into the bright New Year.

It is not unusual to hear folks say it's their favorite Christmas story, and I get it, but c'mon. How about some Jean Shepherd instead.

(Reviewed:09-Dec-24)

Grade: (B) Orrin C. Judd

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Hans Andersen Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Hans Christian Andersen)
    -HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN MUSEUM
    -The Hans Christian Andersen Center
    -WIKIPEDIA: The Little Match Girl
    -WIKI: The Little Match Girl (The Literature Wiki)
    -ENTRY: Hans Christian Andersen: Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author best known for writing children's stories including 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Ugly Duckling.' (Biography, Nov 09, 2021)
    -Visit Andersen
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Hans Christian Andersen
    -CHORAL WORK: The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang (The Norwegian Soloists' Choir (Det Norske Solistkor) and conductor Yuval Weinberg)[video]
    -CHORAL WORK: David Lang - Little Match Girl Passion | Acht Brücken | Nicolas Fink | WDR Radio Choir: David Lang's "The Little Match Girl Passion"" based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, performed as part of the "Acht Brücken" festival by the WDR Rundfunkchor under the baton of its chief conductor Nicolas Fink. Recorded live on May 1st 2021 at the WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz. [Video]
    -ENTRY: Hans Christian Andersen Danish author (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
    -AUDIO ARCHIVES: Hans Christian Andersen (LibriVox)
    -INDEX: Hans Christian Andersen (The Guardian)
    -INDEX: Hans Christian Andersen (NY Times)
    -INDEX: Hans Christian Andersen (LitHub)
    -INDEX: Hans Christian Andersen (Internet Archive)


    -STORY: The Little Match Girl (The Hans Christian Andersen Center)[Jean Hersholt translation]
    -AUDIO: The Little Match Girl (&others) by Hans Christian Andersen (LibriVox)
    -VIDEO: The Little Match Girl (PBS: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir))
    -STORY: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen
    -ETEXT: THe Story of My Life by Hans Christian Andersen (Project Gutenberg)
    -EXCERPT: For the First Time On Its Own, Hans Christian Andersen’s Adult Novel: You Definitely Do Not Want to Mess with The Ice Virgin (Hans Christian Andersen, June 21, 2017, Lit Hub)


    -PODCAST: Ep 629 - The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen (Overdue, January 19, 2024)
    -PODCAST: Episode 27: Hans Christian Andersen: Author, lover of fairy tales, and one of the most debated men in history (Valorie Castellanos Clark, May 26, 2023, Unruly Figures)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (New Book Recommendations)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (TV Tropes)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (PLATO)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Study.com)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Trauma Warriors)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (CommonLit)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (litCharts)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (American Literature)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Course Hero)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Dr. Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature0
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (QuizGecko)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (BookRags)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (GradeSaver)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Esther Lombardi, January 31, 2019, thoughtCo)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (Quizlet)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (BookSummary)
    -STUDY GUIDE: The Little Match Girl (


    -ESSAY: Reflections after writing — Hans Christian Andersen European Witness (Paul Binding, Museum Odense)
    -ESSAY: The Lineage of Hans Christian Andersen (Senior Curator Ejnar Stig Askgaard, Odense City Museums)
    -ESSAY: Bedtime stories: Was Hans Christian Andersen really as pure - and boring - as biographers make out? Director Robert Lepage thought so, until he discovered the fairytale writer's diary entries, and his perverse side (Robert Lepage, 18 Jan 2006, The Guardian)
    -ESSAY: Hans Christian Andersen, Original Literary Softboi: Bookish Ambition! Awkward Gentleness! Goth Sexiness! He Had It All (Boze Herrington, August 21, 2019, LiHub)
    -ESSAY: Charles Dickens really, really hated his fanboy Hans Christian Andersen (Olivia Rutigliano, March 4, 2020, LitHub)
    -ESSAY: Hans Christian Anderson as Charles Dickens’ Houseguest (Michelle Dean, August 18, 2012, The Rumpus)
    -ESSAY: Hans Christian Andersen: The Eccentric Guest by Ann Philippas (Jaanuja Sriskantha, June 16, 2021, charles Dickens Museum)
    -ESSAY: Dear Internet: The Little Mermaid Also Happens to Be Queer Allegory: On the Origins of Hans Christian Andersen's Fable of Frustrated Affection (Gabrielle Bellot, July 12, 2019, LitHub)
    -ESSAY: 25 Legendary Literary Feuds, Ranked: Ding Ding Ding: Let the Fight Begin (Emily Temple, February 16, 2018, LitHub)
    -ESSAY: Part of Our World: On the Mermaids of Walt Disney, Hans Christian Andersen, and W.B. Yeats: Gabrielle Bellot: “The mermaid is the Other; she is also us.” (Gabrielle Bellot, May 31, 2023, LitHub)
    -ESSAY: A new Hans Christen Andersen museum takes architectural inspiration from one of his stories. (Emily Temple, March 9, 2021, LitHub)
    -ESSAY: Hans Christian Andersen and the Literary Fantastic (Jacob Bøggild, Professor at The Hans Christian Andersen Centre, the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark, Jun 30, 2021, imagining the Impossible)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Once Upon a Time (Joan Acocella, Jul. 15th, 2012, The New Yorker)
    -ESSAY: As Bad as It Gets (Elaine Blair, November 5, 2020, NY Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: The Little Match Girl and The Uncomfortable Truth. (Frans Astala, December 22, 2017, AISEC)
    -ESSAY: 'The Little Match Girl' Greve, Denmark: With a bundle of matches in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, this sculpture is a modern take on Hans Christian Andersen's poignant fairy tale. (Atlas Obscura)
    -ESSAY: Crying While Reading (Sadie Stein, February 6, 2013, The Paris Review)
    -ESSAY: The Little Match Girl Passion (Composer's Note, Bridge Voices)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: The Little Match Girl Lives to Tell the Tale: Two new middle grade novels insist Hans Christian Andersen got it all wrong. (Jennifer Howard, 11/10/23, NY Times Book Review)
    -POEM: The Little Match Girl (Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah William McGonagall)
    -ESSAY: The Lightness of the Sexual Being: A Short Reflection on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” (Seungyeon Lee, Societies 2018)
    -ESSAY: Hans Christian Andersen’s Revolution of Storytelling and the Best Illustrations from 150 Years of His Beloved Fairy Tales (Maria Popova, 11/18/13, The Marginalian)
    -ESSAY: Critical Reflections about Hans Christian Andersen, the Failed Revolutionary (Jack Zipes, 2006, Marvels & Tales)
    -ESSAY: A Liberating Imagination: Andersen in England (Julia Briggs, 2006, Marvels & Tales)
    -ESSAY: The Romantic Life of Hans Christian Andersen (Literary Traveler, June 1, 2002)
    -ESSAY: Thoughts (and Videos) of Hans Christian Andersen: The Journey of His Life (Betsy Bird, 5/19/20, School Library Journal)
    -ESSAY: How Hans Christian Andersen Turned His Heartbreak into One of the Most Beloved Fairy Tales of All Time (Maria Popova, 1/31/20, The Marginalian)
    -ESSAY: The Tragi-Comic and Glorious Fairy Tale of Hans Christian Andersen (Anita Mathias, Dreaming Beneath the Spires)
    -ESSAY: My Journey with Hans Christian Andersen (Christine Smith)
    -ESSAY: An Analysis of Short Story The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen in Semantics Perspective (Ni Wayan Swarniti, Pragmatica)
    -
    -
    -ESSAY: The Case for Not Sanitizing Fairy Tales: Fairy tales are the best way for children to learn that the world contains evil, violence, and danger. (Haley Stewart, June 17, 2024, Plough)
    -ESSAY: Fairy Tale Liberation (Alison Lurie, December 17, 1970, NY Review of Books)


    -REVIEW: of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of The Little Match Girl (Book Reviews to Ponder)
    -REVIEW: of The Little Match Girl (Slap Happy Larry)
    -REVIEW: of The Little Match Girl (Carol's Notebook)
    -REVIEW: of
    -REVIEW: of


    -REVIEW: of The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, by Hans Christian Andersen (Philo on Books)


    -REVIEW: of Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by Jackie Wullschlager (Alexandra Mullen, New Criterion)
    -REVIEW: of Hans Christian Andersen by Paul Binding (Suzi Feay, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of
    -REVIEW: of
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Hard Times: a review of The Diaries of Hans Christian Andersen selected and translated by Patricia L. Conroy and Sven H. Rossel & The Kiss of the Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen and Man's Redemption by Woman by Wolfgang Lederer (Janet Adam Smith, June 27, 1991, NY Review of Books)

FILM:

    -FILM: The Little Match Seller (1902) (BFI)
    -FILM REVIEW: Hans Christian Andersen (Bosley Crowther, Nov. 26, 1952, NY Times)

Book-related and General Links: