sisted of illusions generated by his memories of a
previous incarnation, although the true status of
the villagers is never explicitly explained.
A comparison with the work of H. P. LOVE-
CRAFTis inevitable. Lovecraft also wrote of iso-
lated communities whose populations were united
in some unholy practice and whose physical na-
tures had been altered accordingly. Lovecraft’s im-
agery involves reptilians and fish, where as
Blackwood used cats. Both authors hint at greater
horrors, Satan or alien gods, but both wisely leave
them off stage. Blackwood’s story might strike
modern readers as mild, but the subtle implications
are built so carefully and effectively that they gen-
erate a mood that is not easily shaken off.
Andersen, Hans Christian (1805–1875)
Along with the Brothers GRIMM, the Danish writer
Hans Christian Andersen is probably the best-
known writer of fairy tales who ever lived. He
began writing these fanciful tales in 1826, primarily
for adult readers and publishing them in small
batches. When they were translated into English,
they were invariably targeted toward children, who
sometimes missed the point of the allegories.
Many of Andersen’s fairy tales have become so
widely known that it has become unnecessary to
actually read them in order to know the stories,
and many have also provided the inspiration for
live and animated films. Among his best known
tales are “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Ugly
Duckling,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Snow
Queen,” and “The Ice Maiden.” Despite the cava-
lier treatment of his work in England and America,
the powerful images and simple but effective plots
remained in the memories of their readers, and
echoes of these stories can be found in a variety of
forms in every genre. A few, such as “The Em-
peror’s New Clothes” and “The Ugly Duckling,”
have become the common vernacular for familiar
situations. The tone of the stories varies from
lightly humorous to dark and sometimes frighten-
ing, and many of his characters meet terrible fates.
Andersen’s fairy tales have been assembled
into scores of different collections and editions
since they first appeared. Although a few were
drawn from earlier folk tales, most were original
with him, and, although he is rarely acknowledged
formally as a fantasy writer, he originated many
themes and devices that have become so common-
place now that their origin is no longer obvious.Animal FarmGeorge Orwell(1946)
Fairy tales have always made extensive use of talk-
ing animals as characters, sometimes to appeal to
younger audiences, sometimes to mask the fact
that they were written as satires of real persons and
events. The form is largely confined to very young
readers in today’s market, although the Redwall se-
ries by Brian JACQUESis a very notable exception.
George Orwell, the author of the dystopian classic
Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949), had previously writ-
ten this slim novel, which uses animal characters
as transparent stand-ins for human beings. The
novel satirizes the workings of political collectivism
in a very unusual and effective fashion. Orwell was
himself a socialist, but he viewed developments
within the Soviet Union as a corruption of other-
wise noble ideals.
The setting is a small farm where the animals
have revolted and expelled their human owners in
order to establish their own state. The phrase “all
animals are created equal” is quickly amended to
acknowledge that some animals “are more equal
than others,” thereby justifying privileges to those
few who gather power to themselves. The pigs be-
come the ruling class, led by Napoleon, who is al-
most certainly meant to be Stalin, and they
inexorably tighten their grip, diverting more of the
farm’s resources to their own comfort while the
majority of animals, the masses, experience incon-
veniences and eventually hardships even worse
than those they endured when humans were in
charge.
Orwell also implied that the Stalinists had sold
out their ideals in another fashion, by consorting
with members of the class they supposedly worked
to eliminate. Similarly, Orwell’s pigs begin to
mimic human activity, even going so far as to walk
on their hind legs and adopt other human affecta-
tions. The ultimate betrayal comes when the pigs
begin to socialize with the human owners of nearby
farms. Many of Orwell’s fellow socialists bridled
when the book appeared, but his distrust of theAnimal Farm 7