Contes d'Andersen

First edition, containing 23 tales by Andersen translated by David Soldi, together with a biographical essay by Xavier Marmier.

Illustrated with 40 vignettes by Bertall, engraved by Jacques G. J. Midderich and Alphonse Minne.

Full blue cloth binding, flat spine, gilt-stamped title, faint rubbing to the joints, light scattered marks to the boards, contemporary binding.

A very rare copy of this collection of Andersen’s tales, “the first translation of Andersen’s tales into French directly from the Danish, which long remained the finest [...]. This translation achieved wide circulation and continues to be published to this day” (Poul Høybye, H. C. Andersen og Frankrig).

Germany was the first to publish Andersen: the earliest collections of his tales to appear in France and England were in fact translated from German editions rather than directly from the Danish (Contes pour les enfants, trans. Caralp (François Garay), Belin-Leprieur & Morizot, 1848; Contes choisis d’Andersen, August v. Schröter, 1848; Contes danois, Mame, 1853). It was only with this edition that the first true French translation of these iconic works appeared, which moreover includes four tales never previously published in French: Le Briquet (The Tinderbox), La Grosse Aiguille (The Darning-Needle) and L’Ombre (The Shadow).

The translator David Soldi (Soldin), a native of Copenhagen, spent most of his life in Paris and notably translated Musset’s Confessions d’un enfant du siècle into Danish (1841). His encounters with Andersen would come much later, during the writer’s visits to Paris in 1867-68: “Soldin made a speech to me: ‘The greatest poet in Denmark!’” Andersen wrote in his diary. [...] After that, their paths most likely never crossed again. Andersen was probably unaware that Soldi’s translation was in reality the finest of those published during his own lifetime”. (Poul Høybye). This translation also influenced the Portuguese and Spanish editions of the tales, and was even used as a French language learning tool (!): “Even at school, we read Soldi’s translation of ‘Lille Claus og Store Claus’ in Jung’s introductory textbook. And in Leipzig, in 1900, there appeared Contes d’Andersen, traduits par Soldi, für den Schulgebrauch ausgewahlt [selected for school use]” (Poul Høybye)

The biographical notice at the beginning of the volume is from an article by Andersen’s friend Xavier Marmier, who published in October 1837 in the Revue de Paris a lengthy study of the Danish writer which contributed greatly to Andersen’s renown in France.

The collection contains the following tales in French: The Steadfast Tin Soldier; The Emperor's New Clothes; The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep; The Tinderbox; The Angel; Little Claus and Big Claus; The Princess and the Pea; The Garden of Paradise; The Darning Needle; Little Ida's Flowers; The Travelling Companion; The Little Match Girl; The Old House; The Shadow; The Flying Trunk; The Daisy; Ole Shut-Eyes; Thumbelina; The Little Mermaid; The Ugly Duckling; The Wild Swans; The Nightingale; The Flax.

Gumuchian, 6052.