Blue bandReady now · Open and print today

The Goblin and the Huckster

A fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish writer whose fairy tales are read worldwide. This tale, first published in the mid-nineteenth century, reflects Andersen's era in its setting and social structure: a shopkeeper owns a building, a student rents a garret, a servant lives in the household. The goblin, a figure from Scandinavian folklore, serves as a mirror for human nature. This story is worth reading because it asks a question that remains urgent: when beauty and comfort pull us in opposite directions, which do we choose — and at what cost? This text reflects its era.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 979 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, H. C. Andersen

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (0 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader