Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life
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Hans Christian Andersen was a storyteller for children of all ages. He gave us the now standard versions of many traditional folk tales as well as original stories that have enchanted generations of readers. "The Little Match Girl," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Ugly Duckling," are just a few of his beloved titles. Andersen was also much more than a writer of children's tales. He was a critical journalist with great enthusiasm for science, an existential thinker, an observant travel-book writer, a passionate novelist, a deft paper cut-out artist, a neurotic hypochondriac, and a man with intense but frustrated sexual desires. He was a man with demons, dreams, yearnings, and visions-a man of flesh and blood. This startling, immensely readable, and definitive new biography by Danish author Jens Andersen (no relation to Hans Christian Andersen) is essential to a full understanding of the man whose writing has influenced the lives of readers young and old for centuries. Delving deeply into archives and correspondence, Jens Andersen sheds brilliant new light on Hans Christian Andersen's writings-the 156 published fairy tales, as well as the novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and non-fiction-and on the writer whose own life had many aspects of the fairy tale. As did some of the memorable characters he created, Andersen grew up in miserable and impoverished circumstances, and as an adult he took steps to keep what he called his "common" background well hidden, propagating myths about his life and family, partially to create a romantic distance from his true background. In this new biography, translated by the PEN translation award-winning Tiina Nunnally, Jens Andersen uncovers much about this man that has never been revealed before. Library Journal Hans Christian Andersen is best known for writing fairytales for children, but he was also a prolific writer of plays, travel books, poems, and novels. He also had a great interest in science and philosophy, although Siren Kierkegaard found his fairy tales too na ve and sentimental. Andersen worked hard to cover up his early life of hardship and poverty, always trying to project a certain image of himself to the public. In fact, he was a hypochondriac with intense but frustrated sexual desires. Striving to provide a balanced yet critical look at the man, his life, and his work, Andersen, a Danish literary critic and the author of several biographies of Danish writers, sheds new light on the storyteller's work by delving into his correspondence and papers. She also tackles the issue of his sexuality and his romances with Riborg Voight and singer Jenny Lind. Readers both familiar and unfamiliar with Andersen should find this fascinating biography a gold mine of information and insight into his genius. Recommended for all literary collections. [The book is being published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Andersen's birth.-Ed.]-Ron Ratliff, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Translator's Note11Foreword131Arrival (1819-1822)17A Son of Nature22The Courage to Have Talent28Dance Pupil35Entering the Golden Age43Hans Christian Andersen's Debut51A Heathen Sense of Nature56The Gentle Power of Love612In the House of Education (1822-1827)64The Art of Instilling an Education70From Heaven to Hell and Helsingor76A Potpourri of Poetry82Religious and Poetic Maturation88The Dying Child96Liberation1003Wild Like a Poet (1827-1832)105Father Collin111The Hebraic Muller116Romantic Walking Tour to Amager120Playwright and Academic127The Shadow Picture, Riborg Voigt135Andersen's Order of Nuns140Dear Froken Louise!1434Your Only Fault Was Love (1832-1836)148The Men of Romanticism153Brothers in Joy and Pain158Twin Souls161Say "Du" to Me163Edvard Collin's Book About Andersen169Nameless Love176I Want to Be Kissed Too181Our Child Agnete188The Androgynous One195The Improvisatore201Wedding in the Collin Family2075In Fairy Land (1835-1840)213The First Fairy Tales223The Cult of Childhood231The Manifesto of the Fantastic237Where Did the Fairy Tale Come From?240Kierkegaard and Andersen248Eternal Rivals2556Distant Shores (1840-1846)263Critical Headwinds268Dining with the Form Cutters Guild272Success at the Royal Theater276Fru Heiberg281"The Show-Off"285By Railroad Through Europe289Lovers' Go-Between296The Hereditary Grand Duke Carl Alexander301Falling in Love with Jenny Lind308Reunion with Weimar315He Is Not a She3197The Water of Life (1846-1850)325The German Autobiography331His Childhood Home336The Swamp in Only a Fiddler342Immoral Fyn349Was He the Son of a King?354Free Shoemaker and Free Thinker360The Odd Father and Son365God or Napoleon369Anne Marie Andersdatter374A Woman with Second Sight from Fyn379His Mother's Imploring Letters and Her Death386Sister Karen390Swinging London 1847395Distant Political Clouds4058The Path from Nature to God (1850-1860)411The Modern Breakthrough During the Golden Age416Lovely Dresden420Wagner and Liszt427Kaulbach and King Max434Rebelling Against Orsted438Falling-Out with Charles Dickens4439Among Brothers (1860-1870)451Traveling as a Means of Rejuvenation457With Jonas Collin in Spain, 1862-1863462Two Strange Birds469The Swarm of Confidants473The Trembling Eyeglasses of the Traveling Life479A Visit to Portugal, 1866484At a Brothel in Paris48610The Man in the Moon (1870-1875)495Collages of Words and Pictures500Many Picture Books505Writing with Scissors510Bella Italia516Eroticism in Naples520Innocence as Religion525Childhood Faith530A God Dwells Within Us533The Author and Death537Morphine541The Last Journey548Notes555Bibliography591Index601Illustration Credits623
