Girls Classic Fiction

Glenn Hascell narrates this charming Hans Christian Andersen tale of a little girl forced to try to sell matches on the street by her father on Christmas Eve.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is generally considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. The Chorus Girl tells the tale of a mistress who is confronted unexpectedly by her lover's wife. In the meantime the cheating husband is hiding in the next room. The dialogue between the two women is classic of Chekhov's genius... he captures a person's entire character and soul within a few paragraphs and then catapults them into a crisis from which they emerge changed.

The tale follows a barefoot girl trying to sell matchsticks on a frigid New Year’s Eve. As the night grows colder, she lights the matches for warmth and has visions of her dead grandmother. Feel the cold seep into your bones as you hear this tale that has haunted listeners for over a century.

It is the last night of the year on a freezing night in London and the pitiful little match girl has not sold a single bundle of matches all day. But she can't go home without money so, what will she do? This sad tale by Andersen reaches into our very souls and hearts to evoke the deepest emotions in all of us. Her rescuer comes but the price is high. Very high.

Mary Shelley had an abiding interest in the mysterious and the supernatural. In this atmospheric tale, she describes the nocturnal wanderings of an enigmatic figure in the woods, and the expectations and conclusions those who have witnessed its activities.

One day when she was younger and better looking, and when her voice was stronger, Nikolay Petrovitch Kolpakov, her adorer, was sitting in the outer room in her summer villa. It was intolerably hot and stifling. Kolpakov, who had just dined and drunk a whole bottle of inferior port, felt ill humoured and out of sorts. Both were bored and waiting for the heat of the day to be over in order to go for a walk. Read in English, unabridged.

This is a story from the In the Ravine and Other Stories collection.

First published as Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne in 1845, The Little Match Girl is one of Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen’s most poignant fairy tales. On New Year’s Eve a poor young match seller, too scared to go home to her abusive father, lights her remaining matches in order to stave off the cold. This collection also includes The Fir Tree and Little Ida’s Flowers.

Two little girls from different houses happened to meet in a lane between two homesteads, where the dirty water, after running through the farmyards, had formed a large puddle. One girl was very small, the other a little bigger. Their mothers had dressed them both in new frocks. The little one wore a blue frock, the other a yellow print, and both had red kerchiefs on their heads. They had just come from church when they met, and first they showed each other their finery, and then they began to play....

Few winter stories are more affecting than Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Written in 1848, and strictly speaking a New Year's Eve story, it showed so clearly then, as it does now, that the Christmas holidays do not represent fireside, food, and presents for all. This story never fails to move, yet it somehow avoids serious sentimentality.

Lytt til Hans Christian Andersens fortryllende eventyr om Den Lille Piken Med Svovelstikkene i denne stemningsfylte lydboken med musikk og lyd, lest inn på norsk av Edith Lauglo Endsjø. En fattig liten pike forsøker å selge svovelstikker til folk i den bitende kulden på nyttårsaften, hvor de fleste holder fest inne i varmen og spiser god mat. Hun skal tjene penger til sin sultende familie, men ingen kjøper noe fra henne. Svovelstikkene gir henne noen andre store opplevelser på årets siste kveld.

Hören Sie Hans Christian Andersen's bezauberndes Weihnachtsmärchen Das kleine Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern in diesem spannenden Hörbuch begleitet von schöner Musik und Klangeffekten. Auf Deutsch gelesen von Samy Andersen. Ein armes kleines Mädchen versucht am bitterkalten Neujahrsabend, wo die meisten Menschen zu Hause sind und in der warmen Stube feiern und essen, Schwefelhölzer zu verkaufen. Sie muss Geld für ihre hungernde Familie verdienen.

Two delightful, fanciful, and heartwarming stories. "The Velveteen Rabbit" tells the tale of a stuffed rabbit that longs to become real, while "The Girl Who Owned a Bear" tells of a little girl who receives a magical book filled with the most unpredictable of magic.

"The Little Match Girl" is a short story by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published in 1845. We use the public domain English text from A Christmas Greeting: A Series of Stories by H. C. Andersen in Project Gutenberg.