Undine: The 1811 Fairy Tale Classic (Annotated)

Unique Elements
Author Biography
About Undine
“Toward evening Undine was hanging upon the knight’s arm with lowly tenderness, while she drew him gently out before the door, where the setting sun shone richly over the fresh grass, and upon the high, slender boles of the trees.” Undine is a novella by German author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, first published in 1811. This edition features the 1867 English translation by Fanny Elizabeth Bunnett. Described by Scottish author and poet George MacDonald as “the most beautiful” of all fairy stories, it was adapted into an opera by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816.
A classic fairy tale, it tells the story of Undine, a water spirit living in the forest with a poor fisherman, who marries a knight named Huldbrand in order to gain an immortal soul, but whose supernatural powers and origins cause her husband misgivings. An atmospheric fantasy classic, which influenced Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and an unmissable read.