Red bandReady now · Open and print today

By the Almshouse Window

From Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, by Hans Christian Andersen

This story comes from Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, published in the mid-nineteenth century. Though Andersen is best known for tales like 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Ugly Duckling,' he also wrote stories like this one—quiet, unsettling glimpses of ordinary suffering. 'By the Almshouse Window' is not a fairy tale in the usual sense; it is a meditation on memory, aging and the invisible lives of the poor. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Andersen offers no resolution and no comfort, only the steady, unflinching gaze of a woman who has watched her own life become history. It is worth reading because it asks a reader to see what is easy to overlook: the inner life of someone the world has finished with.

Band: Red · Complex language and analysisTypical starting range: ages 15–17
Length: long · about 1093 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 (10 questions) with answer key
· Read-aloud script
· Teacher’s Edition (members)

Lesson at a glance

Reading: about 9 minutes at this band
Pause questions: 1
Words to Know: 12
Quick Check: 10 questions, with the answer key
Let’s Talk: 1 question for afterwards
Worksheet: questions, an activity and a drawing prompt

About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.

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

The same story