“The Real Princess,” also known as “The Princess and the Pea,” is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a prince seeking a true princess to marry. The prince travels the world, but cannot find a princess he feels is truly authentic. One stormy night, a bedraggled young woman claiming to be a real princess arrives at the castle gate. The Queen tests her claim by placing a single pea beneath twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds. The princess’ sensitivity, evident when she complains about a terrible night’s sleep due to feeling the pea through all the bedding, convinces the royal family she is a true princess, and the prince marries her.
GenreChildren's Literature, Fairy Tales and Folklore
Length3 mins
Narrated byBert Stauff
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 23, 2025
LanguageEnglish
About the author
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen’s fairy tales, consisting of one hundred and fifty-six stories across nine volumes, have been translated into more than one hundred and twenty-five languages. They have become embedded in Western collective consciousness, accessible to children as well as presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers. Andersen’s stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films.View all by Hans Christian Andersen
