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Andersen is probably best known today for “The Little Mermaid,�� usually in the sense that children who have seen the Disney film often hear, from their friends, something to the effect of, “Did you know that she actually dies in the end.�� Andersen stories, more than any other traditional fairy tales, are filled with pathos and sadness, and end badly for their protagonists.

But to dismiss Andersen’s tales as “dark�� fairy tales or, as seems to often be the case, a way to totally scar children forever, is truly to miss out on an incredible imaginary world, one so rich in meaning and elegantly constructed in lyrical language, and to which we mostly owe the aesthetic sensibilities we associate with fairy tales today. When you imagine a fairy tale, you don’t just see the beautiful princess and handsome suitor of the Grimms or Perrault, but the untainted, exquisite nature of Andersen, the warmth of a hearth, the sparkling of snow, the detail. No fairy tale writer before Andersen had been so literary.

Nunnally’s translation is faithful not only to the original language, but the poetic spirit of the original text. Yes, Andersen’s stories are brutal, but they are also gentle; merciless, but also sympathetic and tender. The ending of “The Little Mermaid�� so often quoted is actually an invitation to children to be good. Like clapping your hands to bring a fairy back to life in Peter Pan, a good child helps shorten the mermaid’s sentence in purgatory and send her to heaven; it’s very beautiful, and if you bypass Andersen’s tales under the idea that they’re screwed up, as I almost did, you are missing out on one of the greatest children’s classics ever written.