THE UGLY DUCK AND OTHER TALES

London: Grant and Griffith, 1847. Good plus.. Early English edition of these classic fairy tales, including "The Ugly Duck[ling]," "The Princess and the Peas," and "The Little Mermaid." About a decade after Andersen's first children's stories in Danish, the English-speaking world was finally introduced to them in 1846. The translator of this volume, Charles Boner, was responsible for three of the first five English collections of Andersen's works in that year: THE DANISH STORY BOOK and THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER STORIES, both published by Joseph Cundall; and THE SHOES OF FORTUNE, published by Chapman and Hall. This Griffith edition is a reissue of the 1846 Cundall DANISH STORY BOOK, with twelve stories. The Griffith edition was offered singly, "uniform in size and price" with the Griffith reissue of THE NIGHTINGALE; or together, "the whole bound in One Volume" under the title TALES FROM DENMARK (1847). This version appears as scarce as its predecessors. 6.5'' x 4.5''. Original blue cloth stamped in blind, lettered in gilt. Illustrated with 2 fine lithographed plates by Count Pocci and many beautiful engravings by E. Dalziel. Unpaginated, approx. 150 pages. Contemporary ink gift inscription to front fly leaf. Binding recased, with endpapers renewed. Text rather soiled at margins, with light toning; one leaf with corner chip (no loss of text), closed tear repaired on rear fly leaf.