The Little Match Girl

“It was the last evening of the year, and the cold was terrible.”

From Andersen's Fairy Tales, by H. C. Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Match Girl' was first published in 1845 and remains one of his most searing works—a story that places suffering and transcendence side by side with unflinching honesty. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Andersen wrote in a Denmark where child poverty was visible on every street corner, and where the industrial age had not yet brought systematic relief. The story asks a question that philosophy and theology have grappled with for centuries: how do we reconcile beauty, hope and the promise of redemption with the reality of unmerited suffering? It is worth a reader's time because it refuses the comfortable answer, and because its compassion is inseparable from its refusal to look away.

Band

Silver · First-year university levelTypical starting range: adult

Length

long · about 1335 words in 3 sections · 1 picture

Source

Andersen's Fairy Tales, 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)

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