"The Nürnberg Stove" as an Artistic Fairy Tale

Abstract

"The Nürnberg Stove" as an Artistic Fairy Tale Chang Charity (bio) In the 1920s, almost every school child in America knew the story of the Nürnberg stove—mainly because it was one of the Little Blue Books series widely distributed at a nickel apiece. It is an artistic fairy tale, or fantasy, in which Ouida, one of the most prolific and controversial writers of the nineteenth century, intermingles personal elements with those of universal meaning. This appealing tale, rich in motif and meaning, first appeared in 1882 in Bimbi, the best-known and perhaps the most successful of Ouida's three collections for children.1 Described by its author as "the best children's book since Alice in Wonderland,"2Bimbiis a collection of nine stories, each provocative enough for a separate study. The present essay takes up "The Nürnberg Stove," which is, in some respects at least, the most fascinating and complex of the nine. An artistic fairy tale is the conscious creation of a conscious creator. It is a fantasy with fairy-tale elements. In her creation of "The Nürnberg Stove," Ouida has used the familiar motives of a dangerous journey and the achievement of a near-impossible goal to convey her own personal vision of the relationships of people to themselves and to each other. The stove itself is simply a stage prop, a main ornament if you will, around which Ouida invents detail about a very sensitive young boy and his response to the problems and pressures of life. Little August's fantasy world during his maturation is not radically unlike that of children in any era, or even of adults, for that matter, so if Ouida has done her work well she will bring her protagonist after his long imaginary journey back to the real world and to himself. We shall see. Let us for a moment consider Bimbi,the collection of stories containing "The Nürnberg Stove." Why did Ouida write and publish the stories in Bimbi? The answer is twofold. First of all, although she did not normally like children, Ouida made an exception in the case of Bertie Danyell, whose artist mother had done a rather flattering portrait of her. The bond between Bertie and Ouida was undoubtedly genuine, since it was for Bertie that she first invented the charming tales later published in Bimbi. Secondly, Ouida, who until her death was possessed of a streak of vanity, was determined to dedicate the published work to a child—no less than the little Italian [End Page 148] crown prince who later was to become ex-King Victor Emmanuel III. The copy of Bimbiwhich the little prince received was bound in white vellum and bore a copy of his monogram. But to return to "The Nürnberg Stove"—why did Ouida write this unusual tale? The answer no doubt lies in the story itself. What then are its themes and what are its meanings? To find answers to these questions one must consider both the story and, to a certain extent, the childhood and personality of its author. Louise de La Ramée (1839-1908), by preference called Ouida, was herself a fanciful child who continued to live, even in adult life, more "in her fancies than in anything around her" (Bigland, p. 25). She possessed an intense feeling for natural beauty, for landscapes, for all things that exist out of doors, for wind, for sun and rain. Only a deeply introspective child would, as she sometimes had been known to do, have brought home from a country walk a stone picked up off the road, saying that it was a poor neglected and unloved thing. And this she would treat as though it were alive, talking to it, endowing it with feelings and treating it as though it had an individuality. (Ffrench, p. 11) And so it is with little August, the protagonist of "The Nürnberg Stove." He, too, is a fanciful child and, like Ouida, introspective—always "thinking, thinking, thinking" (Bimbi, p. 20). Surely he treats the Nürnberg stove as if it has feelings (Bimbi, p. 16) : Oh, dear Hirschvogel! you are almost...