The Red Shoes
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In The Red Shoes, a peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady and grows up vain and spoiled. She is so enamored of a new pair of red shoes that she wears them to church in spite of a warning to only wear black shoes there. She soon learns that ignoring that warning was a bad idea: a mysterious old soldier at the church charms the red shoes with a tap of his hand. This cautionary tale has been adapted for various media including film.
Hans Christian Andersen
Born in Odense, the son of a shoe-maker and a washerwoman, he had a talent for poetry, and at 14 went to Copenhagen to seek a job in the theatre. In 1835 he began publishing the tiny pamphlets of fairy tales which are his greatest work and there are more than 150 of them, including The Tin Soldiers, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling. He is considered to be one of the world's greatest storytellers.
More by Hans Christian Andersen
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