Status
Available
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Collection
Publication
Bantam (1994), Paperback, 160 pages
Description
Fiction. Literary Anthologies. HTML:The candid, poignant, unforgettable writing of the young girl whose own life story has become an everlasting source of courage and inspiration. Hiding from the Nazis in the �Secret Annex� of an old office building in Amsterdam, a thirteen-year-old girl named Anne Frank became a writer. The now famous diary of her private life and thoughts reveals only part of Anne�s story, however. This book rounds out the portrait of this remarkable and talented young author. Newly translated, complete, and restored to the original order in which Anne herself wrote them in her notebook, Tales from the Secret Annex is a collection of Anne Frank�s lesser-known writings: short stories, fables, personal reminiscences, and an unfinished novel, Cady�s Life.… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member john257hopper
A collection of made up stories and reminiscences (and some that are a mixture of both). These show (assuming the faithfulness of the translation) that Anne had a great writing talent for one so young, and writing moreover under such conditions of almost unbearable stress and tension, cooped up
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with family and others, surrounded by a world persecuting her and her kind for their very existence. A moving collection. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecrow
On August 7th 1943, Anne Frank recorded in her diary that she was writing "a story, something made up from beginning to end" and that "the products of my pen are piling up." This volume contains what she must have been referring to, and possibly all of the fiction she wrote afterwards up to the
I find it strange that there's no introduction to this 150 page volume, to offer the story behind the stories. The only meta information is on the back cover. I'm imagining these materials having been found mixed on the floor among the diary's loose pages and saved by Miep Gies. No analysis is made of what talent they represented that might have come to fruition had she lived, nothing about her influences. Maybe a future edition can supply these.
The first ninety pages are fiction pieces, where Anne's spirit shines through as clearly as in her diary. I can't imagine anyone reading for the sake of the fiction in itself; Anne guessed that "it'll wind up in the wastepaper basket or the stove." It's the lost potential that lends them their bittersweet quality, which requires having read her diary. My favourite entry is "The Wise Old Dwarf" where, rather than Dora showing up Peldron according to the way these morality stories often go, Dora fares no better and both must learn the same lesson. This speaks to the struggle Anne experienced when her optimism clashed with the pessimism of her fellow annex occupants, and what conclusion she drew.
The last sixty pages are an eclectic mix of other materials, where the lack of any introduction framework is even more sorely apparent. A couple of pieces, bafflingly, are clearly fiction and ought to have been placed in the first half of the volume. Several other pieces read like diary entries that didn't make the cut, comprising reminiscences of her school days that perhaps her diary's editors thought would interrupt the diary's narrative flow. I especially liked "The Geometry Lesson", which revisits the hilarious essays she had to write in class for chatting too much and includes an excerpt of 'Quack, Quack said Mrs. Quakenbush'; clearly it was a fond memory for her. Others are diary entries focused on battling a flea outbreak in the annex, peeling potatoes, etc. One entry I recognized as having been restored to the Definitive Edition (Sunday Feb 20th 1944), but done by a different translator.
This is a worthwhile companion volume if you've recently read the diary (or are doing so), affording a glimpse at the other side of Anne's young writing talent and another perspective on what might have been. It only requires a bit of patience for interpreting what's being presented.
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time of her capture. The largest piece is the twenty pages of "Cady's Life," presented here as an 'unfinished novel' (its intended denouement is described by Anne in her diary entry of May 11th 1944.)I find it strange that there's no introduction to this 150 page volume, to offer the story behind the stories. The only meta information is on the back cover. I'm imagining these materials having been found mixed on the floor among the diary's loose pages and saved by Miep Gies. No analysis is made of what talent they represented that might have come to fruition had she lived, nothing about her influences. Maybe a future edition can supply these.
The first ninety pages are fiction pieces, where Anne's spirit shines through as clearly as in her diary. I can't imagine anyone reading for the sake of the fiction in itself; Anne guessed that "it'll wind up in the wastepaper basket or the stove." It's the lost potential that lends them their bittersweet quality, which requires having read her diary. My favourite entry is "The Wise Old Dwarf" where, rather than Dora showing up Peldron according to the way these morality stories often go, Dora fares no better and both must learn the same lesson. This speaks to the struggle Anne experienced when her optimism clashed with the pessimism of her fellow annex occupants, and what conclusion she drew.
The last sixty pages are an eclectic mix of other materials, where the lack of any introduction framework is even more sorely apparent. A couple of pieces, bafflingly, are clearly fiction and ought to have been placed in the first half of the volume. Several other pieces read like diary entries that didn't make the cut, comprising reminiscences of her school days that perhaps her diary's editors thought would interrupt the diary's narrative flow. I especially liked "The Geometry Lesson", which revisits the hilarious essays she had to write in class for chatting too much and includes an excerpt of 'Quack, Quack said Mrs. Quakenbush'; clearly it was a fond memory for her. Others are diary entries focused on battling a flea outbreak in the annex, peeling potatoes, etc. One entry I recognized as having been restored to the Definitive Edition (Sunday Feb 20th 1944), but done by a different translator.
This is a worthwhile companion volume if you've recently read the diary (or are doing so), affording a glimpse at the other side of Anne's young writing talent and another perspective on what might have been. It only requires a bit of patience for interpreting what's being presented.
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LibraryThing member hrissliss
It was enjoyable. I'm not going to pretend that Anne Frank was a miraculous girl wonder - the writing is about what you'd expect from a fairly intelligent 13 yr old. Nothing too terribly deep. What I found amazing was that, despite what was going on around her, the stories show this stubborn
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idealism. The fact that she managed to hang onto that is the most impressive thing here. That's my two cents, at least. She's also mature enough to realize that not everything ends happily, and there are a few stories which reflect this. Not sure how to rate it though. Taken in context, pretty high. Taken for plain old writing value...not as much so. Show Less
LibraryThing member wearylibrarian
This book has a few entries from Anne's diaries but, for the most part, it contains stories made-up stories writte by Anne Frank while in hiding. As a young girl, Anne is wise beyond her years, as shown in these stories. The moral of each story is poignent. It is plain to see she would have grown
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into a conscientious adult and a great writer. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stockel
Anne Frank is a book about Jews in hiding during WWII, use this with children who are studying things that happen in history with children who were afraid and trying to hid from German soldiers who would send them to camps or kill them on sight.
LibraryThing member TerriS
Very good! I'm glad I read it along with "The Diary," since there are several reference in "The Diary" to the stories in this book.
LibraryThing member Micareads
Anne Frank has been my hero since I first read her book in the 5th grade...this book only helps me further my love of her. Anne would have been an exceptional writer and I found great joy in her varied writings. Some of the writings within the book are from her diary but others are from Anne's
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vivid imagination. Her fables are pure joy and explain her love of nature and positive thinking. The world would have been a very different place if Anne Frank had lived and followed through on her path as a writer. Show Less
ISBN
055356983X / 9780553569834
Other editions
Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex by Anne Frank (Paperback)