30 pages • 1 hour read
The Emperor's New Clothes
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Summary: “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is one of his most widely-read and anthologized fairy tales. The story deals with authority, conformity, deception, and the corrupting nature of power. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” was first published in 1837 in Andersen’s Fairy Tales Told For Children. This collection features several of the most celebrated stories in the fairy tale genre, including “The Little Mermaid” and “The Princess and the Pea.” This collection, along with others, helped to establish Andersen as one of the most acclaimed and prolific fairy tale authors in history.
This guide refers to Jean Hersholt’s English translation from the Canterbury Classics 2014 edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales.
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is set in a mythic ancient past in an unspecified fictional kingdom. The characters are one-dimensional and archetypical, as is common in fairy tales. The setting is likewise nondescript. The story uses an omniscient third-person narration, which is crucial in framing the dishonest actions of the weavers and the folly of the emperor.
The story opens with an introduction of its central character, the emperor, who presides over the unnamed kingdom.
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