A review by vaticerratic
The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen

4.0

According to Andersen's biographer Signe Toksvig, these stories (violent, sometimes misogynist) were criticized in the 19c because they offered no moral lessons. But partially because of their amorality, Toksvig also classes Andersen as a proto-surrealist.

I last read Andersen in college, specifically the Little Mermaid. At the time, I don't think I had appreciated the imagination necessary to invent fairy tales from whole cloth. Been worth revisiting