The beloved author of Wicked reimagines Hans
Christian Andersen's classic story "The Little Match Girl"
for modern readers in this charming, beautifully illustrated
gift book Each year, National Public Radio asks a writer to compose a
story with a Christmas theme. In 2008, Gregory Maguire
offered a new twist on a classic tale, reinventing the Hans
Christian Andersen classic "The Little Match Girl."
When the story was first translated from Danish and
published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, the
match girl's dying visions of lights and a grandmother in
heaven were often interpreted as metaphors of religious
salvation. In Matchless, Maguire adds a different
dimension to the story, intertwining the match girl's tale
with that of a young boy, Frederik, whose own yearnings are
the catalyst for a better future for himself and his family.
Maguire uses his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen's
original intentions and to suggest transcendence, the
permanence of spirit, and the continuity that links the
living and the dead.
Our Past Week of Fresh Picks
|