Hans Christian Andersen was a master of other literary forms besides the fairy story
- in particular, the novella for an adult readership. The Ice Virgin (1862) is the most ambitious & searching of all his narratives. Its subject is Switzerl&, which Andersen saw as a paradigm of the human condition. The relationship between a gifted young climber-hunter from the remote Bernese Oberland & a prosperous miller`s daughter from a comfortable French-speaking canton plays out themes such as instinct versus reason, daring versus security, the role of early experience in shaping identity. In the terrifying Ice Virgin & her eerie minions, with their implacable hatred of humankind, we have a glimpse of the fairy tale Andersen. But this is a thoroughly absorbing story of the real world. In his Afterword Paul Binding situates The Ice Virgin in its author`s life & work & explains why he places this novella in the first rank of world literature.