Dwarf Nose

Gr 3 Up—Hauff's long-ago, lengthy tale of enchantment is the story of a bewitched boy and a gluttonous duke. Jacob, a poor cobbler's "fine handsome son, well built and quite tall for his age, which was 12 years," becomes an ugly dwarf with a squat body and a very long nose after an unfortunate encounter with the wicked witch Herbwise. Forced to carry a bag of cabbages to the strange old woman's house, Jacob is presented with a bowl of delicious soup and clouds of incense, sending him into seven years of sleep in which he assumes the body of a squirrel. Dressed in human clothes and working among a crowd of similarly clad guinea pigs and squirrels, he works his way up through a series of menial tasks to become kitchen help and finally a very skilled cook. Eventually, Jacob awakens in his dwarf form, escapes the old woman's strange household, tries unsuccessfully to reunite with his still grieving parents, and makes his way into the kitchen of the greedy, temperamental duke. The longest stretch of the story features Jacob's—he's now called Dwarf Nose—years at work in the duke's kitchen. An encounter with an enchanted goose who is knowledgeable about rare herbs and the duke's gastronomical competition with a visiting prince eventually lead to Jacob's freedom from the curse. This original tale, told in many long pages of text and illustrated sparingly with Zwerger's deft watercolors—several full-page scenes and occasional small bits—are rich in detail, but the story's unfolding will seem wordy and slow to contemporary fairy-tale fans. Jacob, now a handsome grown man after his 10 or so years of enchantment, is generously rewarded upon returning the goose Mimi to her enchanter father, who breaks her spell. But there is no happily-ever-after ending.