Fouqué, Friedrich de la Motte: Undine. 01 Jan 2008

[BenG]

Undine is a novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué concerning Undine, a water spirit who marries a Knight named Huldebrand in order to gain a soul. It is an early German romance, which has been translated into English and other languages. The novel served as inspiration for two operas in the romantic style by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and Albert Lortzing, respectively, and the ballet Ondine.

The story, which has resemblences to The Little Mermaid by Andersen, is descended from Melusine, the French folk-tale of a water-sprite who who marries a knight on condition that he shall never see her on Saturdays, when she resumes her mermaid shape. Undine has been made ito a ballet and an opera. George Macdonald thought Undine 'the most beautiful' of all fairy stories, and the references to it in such works as Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and Louisa Alcott's Little Women show that it was one of the best loved of all books for many 19th-century children.

[Laurel]

Re: Undine

Thank you, Ben! I have been looking for this book, having run into references of it in operas and other reading.

Laurel