Beschreibung
Sophie und andere Katastrophen
Tragicomic Stories for Bright Children and Their Parents
by Sophie de Ségur
with 52 illustrations by Horace Castelli, translated from the French and freely adapted by Ulrich Taschow
212 pages, 52 illustrations, paperback, published: 2013, series: avox fantasia, ISBN: 978-3-936979-13-8, >>> Sample pages
Target groups
Children aged 4 and up, young readers, young adults, classic all-age literature, lovers of refined artistic illustration, lovers of tragicomic literature, and lovers of historical children's books
Once there was a little girl named Sophie who lived with her parents in a beautiful old castle surrounded by a great park full of mysteriously whispering trees and bright flower meadows.
Like a small friendly island in the middle of a wide sea of fragrant fields and dark forests, this wonderful estate appeared to every visitor; even from far away one could recognize it by its battlements rising boldly into the blue sky like lighthouses.
This year too, Paul spent the summer holidays with his cousin Sophie at the castle. In those happy three months, time seemed to stand still in that special place, for there was nothing but beautiful nature and the colorful games with which Sophie and Paul amused themselves day after day.
Yet, as if this small world could not remain forever sealed off from harsh reality, its cheerful mood was now and then interrupted by the most absurd mishaps, which all too often turned into real catastrophes. And the reason for them was Sophie:
For Sophie was curious and indifferent, gentle and impatient, inventive and naive, brave and shy, loving and angry, diligent and lazy, modest and greedy, honest and untruthful, happy and despairing. And as if this mixture were not explosive enough, Sophie also had the wildest ideas, ideas that almost drove her mother mad while forcing Paul to prove the highest forms of friendship.
But is not the wind sometimes gentle and sometimes stormy, the sky at one moment radiant blue and soon afterward full of dark clouds? Why, then, should we human beings not also carry such opposites within us?
So do not worry, dear children, if you discover similar traits in yourselves. Simply have a little patience with yourselves and remember that only by being lazy can you know what it means to be diligent. And only if, like me, you have at times been deeply unhappy do you know how wonderful happiness can feel ...
Yours, Sophie de Ségur
With her tragicomic stories about the oddly unruly Sophie, the French writer Sophie de Ségur created a highly original and sensitive child figure whose extraordinary charm has lost none of its power to this day. Comparable to the legendary Pippi Longstocking, Sophie belongs to world literature: a bestseller filmed many times, translated into many languages, and now available in German. After many transformations and independent retellings of the material, this German edition deliberately returns the book to its French original.
Contents
Illustrations 9
Prologue 13
The Little Island 15
1. Tea 16
2. The Wolves 28
3. The Wax Doll 36
4. The Burial 46
5. The Lime Pit 49
6. The Little Fish 55
7. The Black Chick 64
8. The Bee 71
9. The Wet Hair 79
10. The Cut-Off Eyebrows 85
11. The Horse's Bread 91
12. Fresh Bread and Cream 98
13. The Squirrel 104
14. The Scratched Cheek 115
15. Preserved Fruit 125
16. The Cat and the Bullfinch 140
17. The Sewing Box 151
18. The Donkey 161
19. The Little Cart 181
20. The Turtle 192
21. Departure for America 202
Epilogue 210
