H c andersen biography

Although Anderson received a scholarship to study and sponsorship by King Frederick VI, he experienced many difficulties as a student. He lived at the headmaster's home at Slagelse where he was unhappy and purportedly treated badly in order to "build character. His difficulties in writing, however, were also what would ultimately enable him to write in an accessible language rather than in the more stilted prose of the Victorian era.

His genius as a storyteller would be reflected in his use of colloquialisms and chatty, humorous asides. His "author's voice" was unique in that his tales could be appreciated by children while at the same time, their hidden social satire could be enjoyed by adults. In the book, the protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat.

He followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower and a short volume of poems. One of his most loved poems was dedicated to a fellow student's sister, Riborg Voigt, with whom he was in love. Purportedly a note to her was found in a locket around Andersen's neck at the time of his death. It reflects his travels to Germany, where he was influenced by German literature, such as the folk tales of the Grimm Brothers.

He then received a small grant from the King, and made the first of his long European journeys. In Octoberhe arrived in Italy, and inspired by the landscapes and local customs, Andersen would write his "breakthrough" book, an autobiographical work of fiction. Often Andersen would install himself as the main character in his stories, drawing on hardships and themes from his youth intermixed with his travel experiences.

The Improvisatore, set in Italy, was published inand established Andersen as an international author. Although not a children's book, it is a "coming of age" story, or bildungsroman.

H c andersen biography

His initial attempts at writing fairy tales were rewrites of stories that he heard as a child. Andersen brought this genre to a new level by writing a vast number of fairy tales that were both bold and original. Initially they were not met with recognition, due partly to the difficulty in translating them and capturing his genius for humor and dark pathos.

The year heralded a breakthrough for Andersen with four different translations of his fairy tales finding recognition. The first, The Little Mermaid, a coming of age story rich in symbolism, appeared in the popular periodical Bentley's Miscellany. Andersen's fairy tales, consisting of stories across nine volumes, [ 1 ] have been translated into more than languages.

Andersen was born in OdenseDenmark, on 2 April He had a half sister named Karen. Andersen, en sand myte [a true myth]. Andersen's father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced his son to literature, reading him Arabian Nights. Following her husband's death inshe remarried in At 14, Andersen moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor.

Having a good soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatrebut his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told Andersen that he considered Andersen a poet, and taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing. Though not a stellar pupil, Andersen also attended school at Elsinore until Andersen later said that his years at this school were the darkest and most bitter years of his life.

At one school, Andersen lived at his schoolmaster's home. There, Andersen was abused and was told that it was done in order "to improve his character. The story, written in the s, is about a candle that does not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to one of his benefactors. The story remained in that family's possession until it was found among other family papers in a local archive.

Andersen followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Towerand a short volume of poems. He made little progress in writing and publishing immediately following these poems, but did receive a small travel grant from the king in This enabled Andersen to set out on the first of many journeys throughout Europe. His travels in Italy were reflected in his first novel, a fictionalized autobiography titled The Improvisatore Improvisatorenpublished in to instant acclaim.

Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tales were published in a series of three installments by C. Reitzel in Copenhagen between May and April They were Andersen's first venture into the fairy tale genre. The first three tales were based on folktales Andersen had heard in his childhood. Reitzel paid Andersen thirty rigsdalers for the manuscript, and the booklet was priced at 24 shillings.

This tale established Andersen's international reputation. On the eve of the third installment's publication, Andersen revised the conclusion in which the Emperor simply walks in procession to its now-famous finale of a child calling out, "The Emperor is not wearing any clothes! Danish reviews of the first two booklets first appeared in and were not enthusiastic.

The critics disliked the chatty, informal style and apparent immorality, since children's literature was meant to educate rather than to amuse. The critics discouraged Andersen from pursuing this type of style. Andersen believed that he was working against the critics' preconceived notions about fairy tales, and he temporarily returned to novel-writing, waiting a full year before publishing his third installment.

The nine tales from the three booklets were published in one volume and sold for seventy-two h c andersen biographies. A title page, a table of contents, and a preface by Andersen were published in this volume. Sixteen of Andersen's stories were published in the magazine, and 10 of them appeared there before they were printed in Denmark. InAndersen published In Swedena volume of travel sketches.

The publication received wide acclaim. A keen traveler, he published several other long travelogues : Shadow Pictures of a Journey to the Harz, Swiss Saxony, etc. In his travelogues, Andersen used contemporary conventions related to travel writing but developed the style to make it his own. Each of Andersen's travelogues combines documentary and descriptive accounts of his experiences, adding additional philosophical passages on topics such as authorship, immortality, and fiction in literary travel reports.

Some of the travelogues, such as In Swedencontain fairy tales. In the s, Andersen's attention returned to the theatre stage, but with little success. He had better luck with the publication of the Picture-Book without Pictures Andersen started a second series of fairy tales in and a third series in At this point, he was celebrated throughout Europe, although Andersen's native Denmark still showed some resistance to his pretensions.

Between andAndersen lived at Nyhavn 67Copenhagen, where a memorial plaque is now placed. In JuneAndersen visited England for the first time, enjoying triumphant social success. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where many intellectuals would meet, and at one such party he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda, which Andersen noted in his diary: "We were on the veranda, and I was so happy to see and speak to England's now-living h c andersen biography whom I do love the most.

The two authors respected each other's work and each other as writers, and had in common their depictions of the underclasswho often led difficult lives affected both by the Industrial Revolution and by abject poverty. InAndersen visited England again, primarily to meet Dickens. Andersen extended the planned brief visit to Dickens' home at Gads Hill Place into a five-week stay, much to the distress of Dickens' family.

After Andersen was told to leave, Dickens gradually stopped all correspondence between them, to Andersen's great disappointment and confusion; he had enjoyed the visit and never understood why his letters went unanswered. It is suspected that Dickens modelled the physical appearance and mannerisms of Uriah Heep from David Copperfield after Andersen.

In Andersen's early life, his private journal records his refusal to have sexual relations. Andersen experienced homosexual attraction ; [ 30 ] he wrote to Edvard Collin: [ 31 ] "I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery. The Hereditary Grand Duke walked arm in arm with me across the courtyard of the castle to my room, kissed me lovingly, asked me always to love him though he was just an ordinary person, asked me to stay with him this winter Fell asleep with the melancholy, happy feeling that I was the guest of this strange prince at his castle and loved by him His next novels, O.

Over the following decades, he continued to write for both children and adults, penning several autobiographies, travel narratives and poetry extolling the virtues of the Scandinavian people. Meanwhile, critics and consumers overlooked volumes including the now-classic stories The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes. InEnglish translations of Andersen's folktales and stories began to gain the attention of foreign audiences.

Andersen forged a friendship with acclaimed British novelist Charles Dickenswhom he visited in England in and again a decade later. His stories became English-language classics and had a strong influence on subsequent British children's authors, including A. Milne and Beatrix Potter. Over time, Scandinavian audiences discovered Andersen's stories, as did audiences in the United States, Asia and across the globe.

Inan amusement park based on his work opened in Shanghai. His stories have been adapted for stage and screen, including a popular animated version of The Little Mermaid. Andersen sustained a serious injury in after falling from bed in his Copenhagen home. The fairy tales he wrote are like no others written before or since. When he was 11 years old, his father died He went to school only at intervals and spent most of his time imagining stories rather than reading lessons.

He could memorize very easily and learned some of his lessons by listening to a neighbourhood boy who was in the habit of studying aloud. He memorized and recited plays to anyone who would listen and imitated ballet dancersacrobats or pantomists. To put an end on this, his mother apprenticed him first to a weaverthen to a tobacconist and finally to a tailor.

Hans Christian knew these occupations were not for him. The only things that held his interest were the theaterbooks and stories. When he was 14, he decided to go to Copenhagen.