A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
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Life and Works: Hans Christian Andersen, (April 2, 1805–August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet most famous for the fairy tales he produced combining folk legends and his own imagination. Andersen's fairy tales were not meant merely for children but for adults as well. Andersen used frequently colloquial style that disguises the sophisticated moral teachings of his tales. He has also written plays, novels and travelogues. Hans Christian Andersen was born in the slums of Odense, Denmark. He was the son of a impoverished, sickly, twenty-two-year-old shoemaker and an alcoholic laundress, several years older than her husband. The entire family lived and slept in a single tiny room. Andersen's half-sister Karen Marie may have worked as a prostitute for a time; she contacted her famous brother only a few times before dying in 1846. Andersen's father apparently believed that he might be related to nobility and his paternal grandmother told him that the family had once been in a higher social class. However, investigation has provided proof that these stories to be unfounded. The family apparently did have some connections to Danish royalty, but these were work-related. Nevertheless, the theory that Andersen was the illegitimate son of royalty persists in Denmark. Andersen received little early education, and as a child he was highly emotional, suffering all kinds of fears and humiliations because of his tallness and effeminate interests. Andersen's hysterical attacks of cramps were falsely diagnosed as epileptic fits. Andersen displayed imagination even as a young boy, a trait fostered by the indulgence of his parents and by the superstition of his mother. He made himself a small toy-theatre and sat at home making clothes for his puppets, and reading all the plays that he could lay his hands upon; among them were those of Ludvig Holberg and William Shakespeare. Andersen, throughout his childhood, had a passionate love for literature. He was known to memorize entire plays by Shakespeare and to recite them using his wooden dolls as actors. In 1816 his father died and Andersen was forced to go to work. He was for a short time apprenticed to a weaver and tailor, and he also worked at a tobacco factory where his fellow workers humiliated him by betitbusng on whether he was in fact a girl, pulling down his trousers to check. At the age of 14 Andersen moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer, dancer or an actor - he had a pleasant soprano voice. The following three years were full of hardships although he found supporters who paved his way to the theatre. Andersen succeeded in becoming associated with the Royal Theater, but he had to leave it when his voice began to change. A colleague at the theatre had referred to him as a poet, and Andersen took this very seriously and began to focus on writing. In 1822 Jonas Collin, one of the directors of the Royal Theatre, gave Andersen a grant to enter the grammar school at Slagelse. Other pupils were much younger 11-year-olds, among whom the seventeen-year-old Andersen was definitely out of place. However, in 1828 gained admission to Copenhagen University, where he completed his education. In 1829, Andersen enjoyed a considerable success with a fantastic story entitled A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager, and during the same season, he published both a farce and a collection of poems. His first success happened at a time when his friends had ultimately given up hope for him, deciding that his early eccentricity and vivacity would never lead to anything good. In the same year the Royal Theatre produced Andersen's musical drama Love in St. Nicholas' Church Tower. In succeeding years he also wrote impressionistic prose arabesques, plays, and novels. Andersen traveled widely in Europe, and remained a passionate traveler all his life. In 1831 the first of his many travel sketches was published. During his journeys Andersen met among others Victor Hugo, Heinrich Heine, Balzac, Alexandre Dumas and Charles Dickens. Andersen's first novel, The Improvisatore, using Italy as the setitbusng, was published in the beginning of 1835, and became an instant success. The story was autobiographical and depicted a poor boy's integration into society, an Ugly Duckling theme of self-discovery to which Andersen returned in several of his works. His humble beginnings as a poet had finally come to an end. During the same year, Andersen published the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales (Danish: Eventyr). More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognised, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels: O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837). Andersen's fame rests on his Fairy Tales and Stories, written between 1835 and 1872. Tales, Told for Children, appeared in a small, cheap booklet in 1835. In this and following early collections, which were published in every Christmas, Andersen returned to the stories which he had heard as a child, but gradually he started to create his own tales. The third volume, published in 1837, contained 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. Among Andersen's other best known tales are 'Little Ugly Duckling,' 'The Tinderbox,' 'Little Claus and Big Claus,' 'Princess and the Pea,' 'The Snow Queen,' 'The Nightingale,' and 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier.' With these collections, inspired by the great tradition of the Arabian Nights on the other hand, and Household Tales, collected by the brothers Grimm, Andersen became known as the father of the modern fairytale. Moreover, Andersen's works were original. Only 12 of his 156 know fairy stories drew on folktales. In his fairy tale collections Andersen broke new ground in both style and content, and employed the idioms and constructions of spoken language in a way that was new in Danish writing. His identification with the unfortunate and outcast made his tales very compelling. In June 1847, he paid his first visit to England and enjoyed a triumphal social success. Charles Dickens invited him to stay at his place for a fortnight, but Andersen stayed for 6 weeks, not understanding Dickens' increasingly blatant hints that Anderson should leave. Andersen's last unfilled love was the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, whom he met first time in 1840. Jenny was the illegitimate daughter of a schoolmistress. According to her own words, she was at the age of nine "a small, ugly, broad-nosed, shy, gauche, altogether undergrown girl". At eighteen, she had made her breakthrough as a singer with her powerful soprano. 'The Ugly Duckling' become Jenny's favorite among Andersen's stories. However, 'Andersen's 'The Nightingale' is considered a tribute to Jenny, or "the Swedish Nightingale" as she was called. "Farewell," she wrote him in 1844, "God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jenny." Andersen never married. In 1851, he published to wide acclaim In Sweden, a volume of travel sketches. A keen traveller, Andersen published several other long travelogues: Shadow Pictures of a Journey to the Harz, Swiss Saxony, etc. etc. in the Summer of 1831 (1831), A Poet's Bazaar (1842), In Spain (1863), and A Visit to Portugal in 1866 (1868). Andersen wrote and rewrote his memoirs, The Fairy Tale of My Life, but the 1855 edition is generally considered the standard one. Andersen continued to publish many works, although still hoping to excel as both novelist and dramatist, but was unsuccessful in the attempt. He disdained the enchanting Fairy Tales, the composition of which had proved his unique genius. He did, however, continue to write them, and two more collections appeared in 1847 and 1848. After a long silence, Andersen published a new novel To Be Or Not to Be in 1857. He continued publishing his Fairy Tales in instalments, until 1872. He published his last stories at Christmas in this year. In the English-speaking world, the stories 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Emperor's New Clothes', and 'The Princess and the Pea' are cultural universals; everyone knows them, though few can name the author. They have become part of our common heritage, and, like the tales of Charles Perrault, are no longer distinguished from actual folk-tales such as those of the Brothers Grimm. Andersen himself was highly inspired by the Arabian Nights. In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed and severely hurt himself. He never quite recovered and died in his home in Rolighed on August 4, 1875. His body was interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen. At the time of his death, he was an internationally reknowned and treasured artist. |
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Some of his most famous fairy tales include:
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