Dato: 28. februar 1848
Fra: Mary Russell Mitford   Til: Charles Boner

Feb. 28th, 1848.

I hope, dearst friend, that you have before now got at long letter which I wrote and kept in the house ...

You live among children abroad - write a journal ... of the sayings and doings of children abroad, putting as little or as much of story as you like. You will see that this will have much that is new and piquant, will admit of almost any poem or tale that you may wish to introduce, whether of your own or of Andersen's avoiding any collision with other translators, and preserving a sort of oneness which books of detached pieces want. Think of this. I foresee the Andersen and Fairy Tale fashion will not last; none of these things away from general nature do. There is, after all, a sameness and a poverty in all that does not belong to our common kind which never really sustains itself. Two or three of Andersen's stories, such as "The ugly Duck" (in spite of its hideous title,) will last for ever, like Undine, but as a class they will soon go down, sooner in our country than anywhere else ...Descriptions for instance of an artist's studio at Munich, - the thousand things to which intelligent children would be taken in Germany, - would afford better material for a child's book than all the fairy tales that ever were devised. I had a talk over the matter with Mr. Griffith, wo agreed with me that Andersen would certainly not alast as a child's classic. He mixes a satire which is neither within their comprehension nor desirable if it were. ...

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