Matchless Page 2

  INSTEAD, he said to his sisters, “Eat up your marzipan. I have a surprise upstairs to show you.”

  THEN HE CARRIED both girls up the ladder, to share with them his secret town, whose population had enjoyed a marked increase over the past year. His sisters clapped their hands…

  —OH, how his sisters clapped their hands!—

  …UNAWARE THAT high above them, even in the daylight, exists a population of stars.

  The end

  A NOTE ON MATCHLESS

  and Its Inspiration,

  “The Little Match Girl,” by Hans Christian Andersen

  Already a success in 1843, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen wrote “The Little Match Girl” (“Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne”) at the invitation of an editor who supplied a selection of illustrations for inspiration. One of the pictures showed a child on the street selling matches—sulfur sticks, svovlstikkerne.

  Part 2 of Matchless follows Andersen’s telling almost precisely, although in the interest of drama I have moved the story from New Year’s Eve to Christmas Eve. Also, I have allowed the match girl to envision being reunited with her dead mother rather than, as in Andersen, her beloved grandmother.

  Unlike the rest of Andersen’s most popular tales, “The Little Match Girl” relies on neither magical creatures nor anthropomorphism to work its spell. True, the sacred magic of God’s mercy to the poor and dying may obtain in the story’s final scene, though readers might as easily interpret the little girl’s visions as the delusions of a child freezing to death.

  Andersen included the story in his second collection of fairy tales. While “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” retain their power to charm, the little match girl’s plight has come to seem too bleak for modern audiences. In selecting this tale for revisiting—reillumination, perhaps—I hope to honor the original by finding a way to return to the story a sense of the transcendent apprehended by many nineteenth-century readers, children and adults alike.

  Matchless was originally written to be heard. It premiered on Christmas Day, 2008, on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, in a performance by the author.

  Acknowledgments are paid to Cassie Jones, Andy Newman, Jeremy Nussbaum, William Reiss, a nonpareil team of brilliants if ever there was one; to Susan Valdina and Ashley Bryan, who supplied some fishing net for me to draw; and to Ellen Silva of National Public Radio, who extended me an invitation to create a new story for the holidays.

  —GREGORY MAGUIRE

  April 2009

  About the Author

  GREGORY MAGUIRE is the bestselling author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and the Wicked Years, a series that includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. Wicked, now a beloved classic, is the basis for the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical of the same name. Maguire has lectured on art, literature, and culture both at home and abroad. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

  www.gregorymaguire.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Also by Gregory Maguire

  FICTION

  BOOKS IN THE WICKED YEARS

  Wicked

  Son of a Witch

  A Lion Among Men

  Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

  Lost

  Mirror Mirror

  NONFICTION

  Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation

  Credits

  Jacket design by Mary Schuck

  Jacket illustrations by Gregory Maguire

  Copyright

  MATCHLESS. Copyright © 2009 by Gregory Maguire. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Adobe Digital Edition October 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196597-5

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