Girls Classic Fiction

On New Year’s Eve, a small, poor girl walks in the darkness and cold trying to sell her matches. Hungry and frozen, she curls up in a nook and lights her matches in search for warmth. Looking into the glow of the matches, she is transported far, far away from the hunger and the cold.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

A princess' maid turns on her mistress while traveling and forces her to switch roles with her. The false princess then kills the princess' horse to keep it from talking and forces the real princess to herd geese with the boy, Conrad. Conrad begins to notice strange things about the new goose-girl and informs the king. Will the false princess be discovered?

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.

"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.