Fairies for Adults
NTIL a recent English translation of his works appeared, it had been the complaint of the Danes that we knew Hans Andersen only through his fairy stories, thus doing an injustice to one whose honour extends beyond these in his own country. Whether Twelve by the Mail, a BBC masque broadcast over 3YA, and adapted by Francis Dillon from Andersen’s story, usually ranks as a fairy tale Ido not know. Certainly the reproof given to some of the Seasons by the coachman for the brevity of their skirts or wanton gaiety shows that the story is addressed to adults. As such it was a revelation. Nowhere, for example, was there a hint of the irritating Hans who made himself, his misfortunes and his sense of wonder the focus of the pilot. Skittish and brilliant in, dialogue and songs, the masque became the literary equivalent of Rubens’s Bacchanals or Diana’s Return from the Chase; a light but vigorous allegory of the springing appetites which move us when the seasons pipe their tunes: a fairy story for grown-ups in which the only misfortune for antipodeans is that the names of the seasons have to be changed.
Westcliff
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530424.2.21.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 719, 24 April 1953, Page 10
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198Fairies for Adults New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 719, 24 April 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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