Andersen. Biography

A brief biography of Andersen would be incomplete without a description of his early years. The boy was born on April 2 (April 15), 1805. He lived in a rather poor family. His father worked as a shoemaker, and his mother as a laundress.

Young Hans was a rather vulnerable child. In educational institutions of that time, physical punishment was often used, so the fear of studying did not leave Andersen. In this regard, his mother sent him to a charity school, where the teachers were more loyal. The head of this educational institution was Fedder Carstens.

Already in his teens, Hans moved to Copenhagen. The young man did not hide from his parents that he was going to the big city for fame. Some time later, he ended up at the Royal Theater. There he played supporting roles. Those around him, paying tribute to the guy’s zeal, allowed him to study at school for free. Subsequently, Andersen recalled this time as one of the most terrible in his biography. The reason for this was the strict rector of the school. Hans completed his studies only in 1827.

The beginning of a literary journey

Hans Christian Andersen's biography was greatly influenced by his work. His first work was published in 1829. This is an incredible story called “A Walking Journey from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern End of Amager.” This story was a success and brought Hans considerable popularity.

Until the mid-1830s, Andersen practically did not write. It was during these years that he received an allowance that allowed him to travel for the first time. At this time, the writer seemed to have a second wind. In 1835, “Fairy Tales” appeared, which brought the author’s fame to a new level. Subsequently, it was works for children that became Andersen’s calling card.

Creativity flourishes

In the 1840s, Hans Christian was completely absorbed in writing The Picture Book Without Pictures. This work only confirms the writer's talent. At the same time, “Fairy Tales” are also gaining more and more popularity. He returns to them more than once. He began working on the second volume in 1838. He began the third in 1845. During this period of his life, Andersen had already become a popular author.

Towards the end of the 1840s and beyond, he sought self-development and tried himself as a novelist. A summary of his works arouses curiosity among readers. However, for the general public, Hans Christian Andersen will forever remain a storyteller. To this day, his works inspire a considerable number of people. And individual works are studied in 5th grade. Nowadays, one cannot fail to note the accessibility of Andersen’s works. Now his works can be simply downloaded.

Last years

In 1871, the writer attended the premiere of a ballet based on his works. Despite the failure, Andersen helped ensure that his friend, choreographer Augustin Bournonville, was awarded the prize. He wrote his last story on Christmas Day 1872.

That same year, the writer fell out of bed at night and was injured. This injury became decisive in his fate. Hans held out for another 3 years, but was never able to recover from this incident. August 4 (August 17), 1875, became the last day of the life of the famous storyteller. Andersen was buried in Copenhagen.

Other biography options

• The writer did not like being classified as a children's author. He assured that his stories were dedicated to both young and adult readers. Hans Christian even abandoned the original layout of his monument, where children were present.
• Even in his later years the author made many spelling mistakes.
• The writer had a personal autograph

There are few people in the world who are not familiar with the name of the great writer Hans Christian Andersen. More than one generation has grown up with the works of this master of the pen, whose works have been translated into 150 languages ​​of the world. In almost every home, parents read fairy tales to their children before bed about the Princess and the Pea, the Spruce Tree and little Thumbelina, whom the field mouse tried to marry off to the greedy mole neighbor. Or children watch films and cartoons about the Little Mermaid or about the girl Gerda, who dreamed of rescuing Kai from the cold hands of the callous Snow Queen.

The world described by Andersen is amazing and beautiful. But along with magic and flights of fancy, there is a philosophical thought in his fairy tales, because the writer dedicated his creativity to both children and adults. Many critics agree that under the shell of Andersen’s naivety and simple narrative style lies a deep meaning, the task of which is to give the reader the necessary food for thought.

Childhood and youth

Hans Christian Andersen (common Russian spelling, Hans Christian would be more correct) was born on April 2, 1805 in the third largest city in Denmark - Odense. Some biographers claimed that Andersen was the illegitimate son of the Danish king Christian VIII, but in fact the future writer grew up and was brought up in a poor family. His father, also named Hans, worked as a shoemaker and barely made ends meet, and his mother Anna Marie Andersdatter worked as a laundress and was an illiterate woman.

The head of the family believed that his ancestry began from a noble dynasty: the paternal grandmother told her grandson that their family belonged to a privileged social class, but these speculations were not confirmed and were disputed over time. There are many rumors about Andersen’s relatives, which to this day excite the minds of readers. For example, they say that the writer’s grandfather, a carver by profession, was considered crazy in the town because he made strange figures of people with wings that looked like angels out of wood.

Hans Sr. introduced the child to literature. He read “1001 Nights” to his son – traditional Arabic tales. Therefore, every evening little Hans plunged into the magical stories of Scheherazade. Father and son also loved to take walks in the park in Odense and even visited the theater, which made an indelible impression on the boy. In 1816, the writer's father died.

The real world was a harsh test for Hans, he grew up as an emotional, nervous and sensitive child. The local bully, who simply handed out blows, and the teachers are to blame for Andersen’s state of mind, because in those troubled times, punishment with canings was commonplace, so the future writer considered school an unbearable torture.

When Andersen flatly refused to attend classes, his parents sent the young man to a charity school for poor children. After receiving his primary education, Hans became an apprentice weaver, then retrained as a tailor, and later worked in a cigarette factory.

Relations with Andersen’s colleagues in the shop, to put it mildly, did not work out. He was constantly embarrassed by the vulgar anecdotes and narrow-minded jokes of the workers, and once, amid general laughter, Hans's pants were pulled down to make sure whether he was a boy or a girl. And all because as a child the writer had a thin voice and often sang during his shifts. This event forced the future writer to completely withdraw into himself. The young man's only friends were wooden dolls once made by his father.

When Hans was 14 years old, in search of a better life, he moved to Copenhagen, which at that time was considered the “Scandinavian Paris”. Anna Marie thought that Andersen would go to the capital of Denmark for a short time, so she let her beloved son go with a light heart. Hans left his father's house because he dreamed of becoming famous, wanted to learn the craft of acting and play on the theater stage in classical productions. It is worth saying that Hans was a lanky young man with a long nose and limbs, for which he received the offensive nicknames “stork” and “lamppost”.

Andersen was also teased as a child as a “play writer,” because in the boy’s house there was a toy theater with rag “actors.” An industrious young man with a funny appearance gave the impression of an ugly duckling who was accepted into the Royal Theater out of pity, and not because he had an excellent soprano voice. On the stage of the theater, Hans played minor roles. But soon his voice began to break, so his classmates, who considered Andersen primarily a poet, advised the young man to concentrate on literature.

Jonas Collin, a Danish statesman who was in charge of finances during the reign of Frederick VI, was very fond of the unlikeable young man and convinced the king to pay for the education of the young writer.

Andersen studied at the prestigious schools of Slagelse and Elsinore (where he sat at the same desk with students 6 years younger than himself) at the expense of the treasury, although he was not a zealous student: Hans never mastered literacy and made numerous spelling and punctuation errors all his life in a letter. Later, the storyteller recalled that he had nightmares about his student years, because the rector constantly criticized the young man to smithereens, and, as you know, Andersen did not like this.

Literature

During his lifetime, Hans Christian Andersen wrote poems, stories, novels and ballads. But for all readers, his name is primarily associated with fairy tales - the master of the pen has 156 works on his record. However, Hans did not like to be called a children's writer, and stated that he wrote for both boys and girls, as well as for adults. It got to the point that Andersen ordered that there should not be a single child on his monument, although initially the monument should have been surrounded by children.

Hans gained recognition and fame in 1829 when he published the adventure story “A Journey on Foot from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern End of Amager.” Since then, the young writer did not leave his pen and inkwell and wrote literary works one after another, including the fairy tales that made him famous, into which he introduced a system of high genres. True, novels, short stories and vaudevilles were difficult for the author - at the moments of writing, as if out of spite, he suffered a creative crisis.

Andersen drew inspiration from everyday life. In his opinion, everything in this world is beautiful: a flower petal, a small bug, and a spool of thread. Indeed, if you remember the works of the creator, then even every galosh or pea from a pod has an amazing biography. Hans was based both on his own imagination and on the motifs of the folk epic, thanks to which he wrote “Flint”, “Wild Swans”, “The Swineherd” and other stories published in the collection “Fairy Tales Told to Children” (1837).

Andersen loved to make protagonists characters who are looking for a place in society. This includes Thumbelina, the Little Mermaid, and the Ugly Duckling. Such heroes evoke the author's sympathy. All Andersen's stories are imbued with philosophical meaning from cover to cover. It is worth remembering the fairy tale “The King’s New Clothes,” where the emperor asks two rogues to sew him an expensive robe. However, the outfit turned out to be complex and consisted entirely of “invisible threads.” The scammers assured the customer that only fools would not see the extremely thin fabric. Thus, the king parades around the palace in an indecent appearance.

He and his courtiers do not notice the intricate dress, but are afraid to make themselves look like fools if they admit that the ruler walks around in what his mother gave birth to. This tale began to be interpreted as a parable, and the phrase “And the king is naked!” included in the list of popular expressions. It is noteworthy that not all Andersen’s fairy tales are imbued with luck; not all of the writer’s manuscripts contain the “deusexmachina” technique, when a random coincidence of circumstances that saves the main character (for example, the prince kisses the poisoned Snow White), as if by God’s will, appears out of nowhere.

Hans is loved by adult readers because he does not paint a utopian world where everyone lives happily ever after, but, for example, without a twinge of conscience he sends a steadfast tin soldier into a burning fireplace, dooming a lonely man to death. In 1840, the master of the pen tried his hand at the genre of miniature novellas and published the collection “Picture Book without Pictures,” and in 1849 he wrote the novel “Two Baronesses.” Four years later, the book “To Be or Not to Be” was published, but all of Andersen’s attempts to establish himself as a novelist were in vain.

Personal life

The personal life of the failed actor, but eminent writer Andersen is a mystery shrouded in darkness. They say that throughout his existence, the great writer remained in the dark about intimacy with women or men. There is an assumption that the great storyteller was a latent homosexual (as evidenced by the epistolary legacy); he had close friendly relations with his friends Edward Collin, the hereditary Duke of Weimar, and with the dancer Harald Schraff. Although there were three women in Hans's life, things did not go beyond fleeting sympathy, not to mention marriage.

Andersen's first chosen one was the sister of his schoolmate Riborg Voigt. But the indecisive young man never dared to talk to the object of his desire. Louise Collin, the writer's next potential bride, suppressed any attempts at courtship and ignored the fiery stream of love letters. The 18-year-old girl chose a wealthy lawyer over Andersen.

In 1846, Hans fell in love with the opera singer Jenny Lind, who was nicknamed the “Swedish nightingale” because of her sonorous soprano. Andersen watched over Jenny behind the scenes and presented the beauty with poems and generous gifts. But the charming girl was in no hurry to reciprocate the storyteller’s sympathy, but treated him like a brother. When Andersen learned that the singer had married the British composer Otto Goldschmidt, Hans became depressed. Cold-hearted Jenny Lind became the prototype of the Snow Queen from the writer's fairy tale of the same name.

Andersen was unlucky in love. Therefore, it is not surprising that the storyteller visited the red light districts upon his arrival in Paris. True, instead of debauching the night away with frivolous young ladies, Hans talked with them, sharing the details of his unhappy life. When one of Andersen’s acquaintances hinted to him that he was visiting brothels for other purposes, the writer was surprised and looked at his interlocutor with obvious disgust.

It is also known that Andersen was a devoted fan; the talented writers met at a literary meeting hosted by Countess Blessington in her salon. After this meeting, Hans wrote in his diary:

“We went out onto the veranda, I was happy to talk with the living writer of England, whom I love best.”

Ten years later, the storyteller returned to England and came as an uninvited guest to Dickens's house, to the detriment of his family. Over time, Charles stopped corresponding with Andersen, and the Dane sincerely did not understand why all his letters remained unanswered.

Death

In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed, hitting the floor hard, as a result of which he received multiple injuries from which he never recovered.

Later, the writer was diagnosed with liver cancer. On August 4, 1875, Hans died. The great writer is buried in Assistance Cemetery in Copenhagen.

Bibliography

• 1829 – “Journey on foot from the Holmen canal to the eastern cape of the island of Amager”
• 1829 – “Love on the Nicholas Tower”
• 1834 – “Agnetha and Vodyanoy”
• 1835 – “Improviser” (Russian translation – in 1844)
• 1837 – “Only the violinist”
• 1835–1837 – “Fairy Tales Told for Children”
• 1838 – “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”
• 1840 – “Picture Book Without Pictures”
• 1843 – “The Nightingale”
• 1843 – “The Ugly Duckling”
• 1844 – “The Snow Queen”
• 1845 – “The Little Match Girl”
• 1847 – “Shadow”
• 1849 – “Two Baronesses”
• 1857 – “To be or not to be”

Christmas card with G.-H. Andersen. Illustrator Klaus Becker - Olsen

The biography of Hans Christian Andersen is the story of a boy from a poor family who, thanks to his talent, became famous throughout the world, was friends with princesses and kings, but remained lonely, scared and touchy all his life.

One of humanity's greatest storytellers was offended even by being called a “children's writer.” He argued that his works were addressed to everyone and considered himself a respectable, “adult” writer and playwright.

On April 2, 1805, the only son, Hans Christian Andersen, was born into the family of shoemaker Hans Andersen and washerwoman Anna Marie Andersdatter in the city of Odense, located on one of the Danish islands of Funen.

Andersen's grandfather, Anders Hansen, a woodcarver, was considered crazy in the city. He carved strange figures of half-humans, half-animals with wings.

Andersen Sr.’s grandmother told him about their ancestors’ belonging to “high society.” Researchers have not found evidence of this story in the storyteller's genealogy.

Perhaps Hans Christian fell in love with fairy tales thanks to his father. Unlike his wife, he knew how to read and write, and read various magical stories aloud to his son, including “A Thousand and One Nights.”

There is also a legend about the royal origin of Hans Christian Andersen. He was allegedly the illegitimate son of King Christian VIII.

In his early autobiography, the storyteller himself wrote about how, as a child, he played with Prince Frits, the future King Frederick VII, the son of Christian VIII. Hans Christian, according to his version, had no friends among the street boys - only the prince.

Andersen's friendship with Frits, the storyteller claimed, continued into adulthood, until the king's death. The writer said that he was the only person, with the exception of relatives, who was allowed to visit the coffin of the deceased.

Hans Christian's father died when he was 11 years old. The boy was sent to study at a school for poor children, which he attended from time to time. He worked as an apprentice for a weaver, then for a tailor.

Since childhood, Andersen was in love with the theater and often performed puppet shows at home.

Twisted in his own fairy-tale worlds, he grew up as a sensitive, vulnerable boy, his studies were difficult for him, and his less spectacular appearance left almost no chance for theatrical success.

At the age of 14, Andersen went to Copenhagen to become famous, and over time he succeeded!

However, success was preceded by years of failure and even greater poverty than the one in which he lived in Odense.

Young Hans Christian had a wonderful soprano voice. Thanks to him, he was accepted into the boys' choir. Soon his voice began to change and he was fired.

He tried to become a ballet dancer, but also did not succeed. Lanky, awkward and poorly coordinated, Hans Christian turned out to be a useless dancer.

He tried manual labor - again without much success.

In 1822, seventeen-year-old Andersen finally got lucky: he met Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Danish Theater (De Kongelige Teater). Hans Christian at that time had already tried his hand at writing; he wrote, however, mostly poetry.

Jonas Collin was familiar with Andersen's work. In his opinion, the young man had the makings of a great writer. He was able to convince King Frederick VI of this. He agreed to partially pay for Hans Christian's education.

For the next five years, the young man studied at schools in Slagelse and Helsingør. Both are located near Copenhagen. Helsingør Castle is world famous as a place

Hans Christian Andersen was not an outstanding student. In addition, he was older than his classmates, they teased him, and the teachers laughed at the son of an illiterate washerwoman from Odense, who was going to become a writer.

In addition, modern researchers suggest that Hans Christian most likely had dyslexia. It was probably because of her that he studied poorly and wrote Danish with errors for the rest of his life.

Andersen called his years of study the most bitter time of his life. What it was like for him is perfectly described in the fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling.”

In 1827, due to constant bullying, Jonas Collin removed Hans Christian from school in Helsingør and transferred him to home schooling in Copenhagen.

In 1828, Andersen passed an exam indicating his completion of secondary education and allowing him to continue his studies at the University of Copenhagen.

A year later, the young writer received his first success after publishing a story, a comedy and several poems.

In 1833, Hans Christian Andersen received a royal grant that allowed him to travel. He spent the next 16 months traveling through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France.

The Danish writer especially loved Italy. The first journey was followed by others. In total, throughout his life he went on long trips abroad about 30 times.

In total, he spent about 15 years traveling.

Many have heard the phrase “to travel is to live.” Not everyone knows that this is a quote from Andersen.

In 1835, Andersen's first novel, The Improviser, was published, which became popular immediately after publication. In the same year, a collection of fairy tales was published, which also earned praise from the reading public.

The four fairy tales included in the book were written for a little girl named Ide Thiele, the daughter of the secretary of the Academy of Arts. In total, Hans Christian Andersen published about 160 fairy tales - despite the fact that he himself was not married, did not have, and did not particularly like children.

In the early 1840s, the writer began to gain fame outside Denmark. When he came to Germany in 1846, and the following year to England, he was received there as a foreign celebrity.

In Great Britain, the son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman was invited to high society receptions. At one of them he met Charles Dickens.

Shortly before Hans Christian Andersen's death, he was recognized in England as the greatest living writer.

Meanwhile, in the Victorian era, his works were published in Great Britain not in translations, but in “retellings”. The Danish writer's original tales contain a lot of sadness, violence, cruelty and even death.

They did not correspond to the British ideas about children's literature in the second half of the 19th century. Therefore, before publication in English, the most “unchildish” fragments were removed from the works of Hans Christian Andersen.

To this day, in the UK, the Danish writer’s books are published in two very different versions - in classic “retellings” of the Victorian era and in more modern translations that correspond to the source texts.

Andersen was tall, thin and stooped. He loved to visit and never refused a treat (perhaps this was due to his hungry childhood).

However, he himself was generous, treated friends and acquaintances, came to their rescue and tried not to refuse help even to strangers.

The storyteller’s character was very bad and alarming: he was afraid of robberies, dogs, losing his passport; I was afraid of dying in a fire, so I always carried a rope with me so that during a fire I could get out through the window.

Hans Christian Andersen suffered from toothache all his life, and seriously believed that his fertility as an author depended on the number of teeth in his mouth.

The storyteller was afraid of poisoning - when Scandinavian children chipped in for a gift for their favorite writer and sent him the world's largest box of chocolates, he refused the gift in horror and sent it to his nieces (we have already mentioned that he did not particularly like children).

In the mid-1860s, Hans Christian Andersen became the owner of the autograph of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Traveling around Switzerland, in August 1862 he met the daughters of the Russian general Karl Manderstern. In his diary, he described frequent meetings with young women, during which they talked a lot about literature and art.

In a letter dated August 28, 1868, Andersen wrote: “I am glad to know that my works are read in the great, mighty Russia, whose flourishing literature I partially know, from Karamzin to Pushkin and right up to modern times.”

The eldest of the Manderstern sisters, Elizaveta Karlovna, promised the Danish writer to get Pushkin’s autograph for his collection of manuscripts.

She was able to fulfill her promise three years later.

Thanks to her, the Danish writer became the owner of a page from a notebook, into which in 1825, while preparing his first collection of poems for publication, Alexander Pushkin rewrote several works he had selected.

Pushkin's autograph, now in the collection of Andersen's manuscripts in the Copenhagen Royal Library, is all that has survived from the 1825 notebook.

Among Hans Christian Andersen's friends were royalty. It is known for sure that he was patronized by the Danish princess Dagmar, the future Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

The princess was very kind to the elderly writer. They talked for a long time while walking along the embankment.

Hans Christian Andersen was among those Danes who accompanied her to Russia. After parting with the young princess, he wrote in his diary: “Poor child! Almighty, be merciful and merciful to her. Her fate is terrible."

The storyteller's prediction came true. Maria Feodorovna was destined to outlive her husband, children and grandchildren who died a terrible death.

In 1919, she managed to leave Russia, which was engulfed in civil war. She died in Denmark in 1928.

Researchers in the biography of Hans Christian Andersen do not have a clear answer to the question of his sexual orientation. He undoubtedly wanted to please women. However, it is known that he fell in love with girls with whom he could not have a relationship.

In addition, he was very shy and awkward, especially in the presence of women. The writer knew about this, which only increased his awkwardness when communicating with the opposite sex.

In 1840, in Copenhagen, he met a girl named Jenny Lind. On September 20, 1843, he wrote in his diary “I love!” He dedicated poems to her and wrote fairy tales for her. She addressed him exclusively as “brother” or “child,” although he was nearly 40 and she was only 26 years old. In 1852 Jenny Lind married the young pianist Otto Goldschmidt.

In 2014, Denmark announced that previously unknown letters from Hans Christian Andersen had been found.

In them, the writer confessed to his longtime friend Christian Voight that several poems he wrote after Riborg’s marriage were inspired by his feelings for the girl whom he called the love of his life.

Judging by the fact that he carried a letter from Riborg in a pouch around his neck until his death, Andersen really loved the girl throughout his life.

Other famous personal letters from the storyteller suggest that he may have had an affair with the Danish ballet dancer Harald Scharff. There are also known comments from contemporaries about their alleged relationship.

However, there is no evidence that Hans Christian Andersen was bisexual - and it is unlikely that there will ever be any.

The writer to this day remains a mystery, a unique personality, whose thoughts and feelings were and remain shrouded in mystery.

Andersen did not want to have his own home, he was especially afraid of furniture, and of furniture, most of all, beds. The writer feared that the bed would become the place of his death. His fears were partly justified. At the age of 67, he fell out of bed and received severe injuries, which he treated for another three years, until his death.

It is believed that in old age Andersen became even more extravagant: spending a lot of time in brothels, he did not touch the girls who worked there, but simply talked to them.

Although almost a century and a half has passed since the death of the storyteller, previously unknown documents telling about his life, letters from Hans Christian Andersen are still found from time to time in his homeland

In 2012, a previously unknown fairy tale called “The Tallow Candle” was discovered in Denmark.

“This is a sensational discovery. On the one hand, because this is most likely Andersen’s very first fairy tale, on the other hand, it shows that he was interested in fairy tales at a young age, before he became a writer,” Einar, a specialist in Andersen’s work, said about the find Stig Askgaard from the Odense City Museum.

He also suggested that the discovered manuscript “Tallow Candle” was created by the storyteller while still at school - around 1822.

The project for the first monument to Hans Christian Andersen began to be discussed during his lifetime.

In December 1874, in connection with the approaching seventieth birthday of the storyteller, plans were announced to install a sculptural image of him in the Royal Garden of Rosenborg Castle, where he loved to walk.

A commission was assembled and a competition of projects was announced. 10 participants proposed a total of 16 works.

The winner was the project by August Sobue. The sculptor depicted the storyteller sitting in a chair surrounded by children. The project outraged Hans Christian.

“I couldn’t say a word in such an atmosphere,” said writer Augusto Sobue. The sculptor removed the children, and Hans Christian was left alone - with only one book in his hands.

Hans Christian Andersen died on August 4, 1875 from liver cancer. The day of Andersen's funeral was declared a day of mourning in Denmark.

Members of the royal family attended the farewell ceremony.

Located in the Assistance Cemetery in Copenhagen.

Biography

Childhood

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in Odense on the Danish island of Funen. Andersen's father, Hans Andersen (1782-1816), was a poor shoemaker, his mother Anna Marie Andersdatter (1775-1833), was a laundress from a poor family, she had to beg as a child, she was buried in a cemetery for the poor. In Denmark, there is a legend about Andersen's royal origin, since in an early biography Andersen wrote that as a child he played with Prince Frits, later King Frederick VII, and he had no friends among the street boys - only the prince. Andersen's friendship with Prince Frits, according to Andersen's fantasy, continued into adulthood, until the latter's death. After the death of Frits, with the exception of relatives, only Andersen was allowed to visit the coffin of the deceased. The reason for this fantasy was the boy’s father telling him that he was a relative of the king. Since childhood, the future writer showed a penchant for daydreaming and writing, and often staged impromptu home performances that caused laughter and ridicule from children. In the city, Andersen's father died, and the boy had to work for food. He was apprenticed first to a weaver, then to a tailor. Then Andersen worked at a cigarette factory. In his early childhood, Hans Christian was an introverted child with big blue eyes who sat in the corner and played his favorite game - puppet theater. He retained this only occupation in his youth.

Youth

At the age of 14, Andersen went to Copenhagen, his mother let him go because she hoped that he would stay there for a while and return. When she asked the reason why he was traveling, leaving her and home, young Andersen immediately replied: “To become famous!” He went with the goal of getting a job in the theater, citing his love for everything connected with it. He received the money from a letter of recommendation from the colonel, in whose family he staged his performances as a child. During his year in Copenhagen he tried to get into the theater. First, he came to the home of a famous singer and, bursting into tears with excitement, asked her to get him into the theater. She, just to get rid of the annoying strange lanky teenager, promised to arrange everything, but, of course, did not fulfill her promise. Much later, she will tell Andersen that she simply mistook him for a madman. Hans Christian was a lanky teenager with long and thin limbs, a neck and an equally long nose, he was the quintessential Ugly Duckling. But thanks to his pleasant voice and his requests, as well as out of pity, Hans Christian, despite his unspectacular appearance, was accepted into the Royal Theater, where he played minor roles. He was used less and less, and then age-related loss of voice began, and he was fired. Andersen, meanwhile, composed a play in 5 acts and wrote a letter to the king, convincing him to give money for its publication. This book also included poems. Hans Christian took care of the advertising and announced it in the newspaper. The book was printed, but no one bought it, it was used for wrapping. He did not lose hope and took his book to the theater so that a performance based on the play could be staged. He was refused with the wording “due to the author’s complete lack of experience.” But he was offered to study because of their kind attitude towards him, seeing his desire. People who sympathized with the poor and sensitive boy petitioned the King of Denmark, Frederick VI, who allowed him to study at a school in the town of Slagels, and then at another school in Elsinore at the expense of the treasury. This meant that I would no longer have to think about a piece of bread or how to live on. The students at school were 6 years younger than Andersen. He subsequently recalled his years at school as the darkest time of his life, due to the fact that he was subjected to severe criticism from the rector of the educational institution and was painfully worried about this until the end of his days - he saw the rector in nightmares. In 1827, Andersen completed his studies. Until the end of his life, he made many grammatical errors in writing - Andersen never mastered literacy.

Andersen did not fit the image of a storyteller surrounded by children, telling them his tales. His isolation and self-centeredness resulted in a dislike for children. When the famous sculptor wanted to depict the already famous storyteller surrounded by children, he became so angry that he kicked him out and said that he had no habit of talking with children. He died completely alone.

Creation

List of famous fairy tales

• Storks (Storkene, 1839)
• Angel (Engelen, 1843)
• Anne Lisbeth (1859)
• Grandmother (Bedstemoder, 1845)
• Bronze boar (truth) (Metalsvinet, 1842)
• Mother Elder (Hyldemoer, 1844)
• Bottleneck (Flaskehalsen, 1857)
• The Wind talks about Waldemar Do and his daughters ( Vinden fortæller om Valdemar Daae og hans Døttre, 1859)
• Magic Hill (1845)
• Collar (Flipperne, 1847)
• Everyone know your place! (“Alt paa sin rette Plads”, 1852)
• The Ugly Duckling (Den grimme Ælling, )
• Hans Churban (Klods-Hans, 1855)
• Buckwheat (Boghveden, 1841)
• Two Maidens (1853)
• Yard cock and weathercock (Gaardhanen og Veirhanen, 1859)
• Little Match Girl ( Den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, 1845)
• The girl who stepped on bread ( Pigen, som traadte paa Brødet, 1859)
• Wild swans (De vilde Svaner, 1838)
• Director of a puppet theater (Marionetspilleren, 1851)
• The Shopkeeper's Brownie (1852)
• Traveling Companion (Reisekammeraten, 1835)
• The Marsh King's Daughter (Dynd-Kongens Datter 1858)
• Fool Hans (Klods-Hans, 1855)
• Thumbelina (Tommelise, 1835) (see also Thumbelina (character))
• There is a difference! (“Der er Forskjel!”, 1851)
• Spruce (Grantræet, 1844)
• Toad (Skrubtudsen, 1866)
• Bride and Groom (Kjærestefolkene or Toppen og Bolden, 1843)
• Evil prince. Tradition (Den onde Fyrste, 1840)
• Ib and Christine (Ib og lille Christine, 1855)
• The True Truth (Det er ganske vist!, 1852)
• History of the Year (Aarets Historie, 1852)
• The Story of a Mother (Historien om en Moder, 1847)
• How good! (1859)
• Galoshes of Happiness (Lykkens Kalosker, 1838)
• Drop of Water (Vanddraaben, 1847)
• Bell (Klokken, 1845)
• Bell Pool (Klokkedybet, 1856)
• The Red Shoes (De røde Skoe, 1845)
• Forest Hill (1845)
• Linen (Hørren, 1848)
• Little Claus and Big Claus (Lille Claus og store Claus, 1835)
• Little Tuk (Lille Tuk, 1847)
• Moth (1860)
• On the Dunes (En Historie fra Kliterne, 1859)
• In the Duck Yard (1861)
• The Silent Book (Den stumme Bog, 1851)
• Bad boy
• The King's New Dress (Keiserens nye Klæder, 1837)
• How the Storm Uplifted the Signs (1865)
• Flint (Fyrtøiet, )
• Ole Lukøie, 1841
• Offspring of the plant of paradise (Et Blad fra Himlen, 1853)
• The Couple (Kjærestefolkene, 1843)
• Shepherdess and chimney sweep ( Hyrdinden og Skorsteensfeieren, 1845)
• Peiter, Peter og Peer, 1868
• Pen and Inkwell (Pen og Blækhuus, 1859)
• Twin cities (Venskabs-Pagten, 1842)
• Snowdrop (excerpt) (1862)
• The last dream of the old oak ( Det gamle Egetræes sidste Drøm, 1858)
• The Last Pearl (Den sidste Perle, 1853)
• The Princess and the Pea (Prindsessen paa Ærten, 1835)
• Lost (“Hun duede ikke”, 1852)
• Jumpers (Springfyrene, 1845)
• Phoenix bird (Fugl Phønix, 1850)
• Five from One Pod (Fem fra en Ærtebælg, 1852)
• Garden of Eden (Paradises Have, 1839)
• Childish Talk (Børnesnak, 1859)
• Rose from Homer's Tomb (En Rose fra Homers Grav, 1842)
• Chamomile (Gaaseurten, 1838)
• The Little Mermaid (Den lille Havfrue, 1837)
• From the ramparts (Et Billede fra Castelsvolden, 1846)
• The Most Incredible (Det Utroligste, 1870)
• Swineherd (Svinedrengen, )
• The Snow Queen (Sneedronningen, 1844)

• Nightingale (Nattergalen, )
• The Dream (En Historie, 1851)
• Neighbors (Nabofamilierne, 1847)
• The Old House (Det gamle Huus, 1847)
• Old street lamp (Den gamle Gadeløgte, 1847)
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Den standhaftige Tinsoldat, )
• The Fate of the Burdock (1869)
• Airplane chest (1839)
• Sausage Stick Soup (1858)
• Happy Family (Den lykkelige Familie, 1847)
• Shadow (Skyggen, 1847)
• Whatever the hubby does is fine ( Hvad Fatter gjør, det er altid det Rigtige, 1861)
• Snail and Roses (Sneglen og Rosenhækken, 1861)
• Little Ida's Flowers (Den lille Idas Blomster, 1835)
• Teapot (1863)
• What they can’t come up with... (1869)
• After a Thousand Years (Om Aartusinder, 1852)
• Darning needle (Stoppenaalen, 1845)
• Elf of the Rosebush (Rosen-Alfen, 1839)

Film adaptations of works

• - “Hans Christian Andersen. Fairy Tales" - collector's edition of cartoons:
  • Wild Swans
  • Dung-beetle
  • Jumper
  • Flint
  • Mermaid
  • Whatever the husband does is good
  • Ole Lukoje
  • Airplane chest
  • The Steadfast Tin Soldier
  • Baby Ida's flowers
  • Golden treasure
  • The Professor and the Flea
  • Princess on the Pea
  • Swineherd
  • Galoshes of happiness
  • The king's new dress
  • Bride and groom
  • Old street lamp
  • Bottleneck
  • Gardener and family
  • ugly duck
  • The real truth
  • Sausage stick soup
  • Satellite
  • The Snow Queen (in two parts)
  • Snowman
  • Thumbelina
  • Nightingale
  • Hans Churban

Operas based on Andersen's fairy tales

• Opera-parable "The Ugly Duckling", Op. 1996, - free operatic version by Lev Konov to the music of Sergei Prokofiev (op. 18 and op. 22) for solo soprano, children's choir and piano. Act 1: 2 Epigraphs and 38 fleeting pictures, duration - 28 minutes.
• “The Ugly Duckling” Opera-Parable By Andersen For Mezzo-Soprano (Soprano), Three-part Childrens Choir And the Piano *

1 Act: 2 Epigraphs, 38 Theatrical Pictures * Length: Approximately 28 minutes * The opera version (Free transcription) Written by Lev Konov (1996) On music of Sergei Prokofiev: The Ugly Duckling, op. 18 (1914) And Visions Fugitives, op. 22 (1915-1917) * (Vocal score language: Russian, English, German, French)

Photo gallery

Links

• The Complete Works of Andersen. Fairy tales in 7 languages ​​with illustrations, stories, novels, poems, letters, autobiography, photographs, paintings. (Russian) (Ukrainian) (Belorian) (Mongolian) (English) (French) (Spanish)

One of the most famous fairy tale writers is Andersen. A short biography for schoolchildren of this author should include the main stages of his life, the main milestones of his work, and most importantly, the features of his literary activity. In this regard, it is also necessary to mention his main works, and also show that he wrote not only fairy tales, but tried himself in different genres, while simultaneously studying in the theater and writing travel notes. This man was a very multifaceted and versatile personality, while the general public knows him, as a rule, only as the author of fairy tales. However, a brief biography of Andersen should also include mention of other areas of his interests and activities.

Childhood

He was born in 1805 on the island of Funen. He came from a poor family: his father was a carpenter and shoemaker, and his mother was a laundress. The future writer already had problems getting an education: he was afraid of corporal punishment, and therefore his mother sent him to a Jewish school, where it was prohibited. However, he learned to read only by the age of ten and wrote with errors until the end of his life.

In school lessons, it is very important to emphasize how difficult Andersen went through the labor school of life. The biography for children should be briefly stated taking into account several facts of this kind, namely, that he was an apprentice in two factories, and these harsh ones left a strong imprint on his worldview.

Adolescence

His father and grandfather had a great influence on him. He himself wrote in his autobiography that his interest in theater and writing arose in childhood, when he listened to the stories of his grandfather and, together with his father, staged impromptu home performances. In addition, the boy remembered the grandfather for carving funny toys from wood, and the future storyteller himself made clothes and costumes, arranging real scenes at home. A visit to the Copenhagen troupe had a great influence on him, where he once even played one small role. So he realized that he wanted to be a writer and artist. Andersen's short biography is also interesting because at a very young age he himself decided that he wanted to be famous and, having saved some money, went to Copenhagen.

Study and theater experience

In the capital, he tried to become an actor, but he never managed to master this art. But here he received a good education. At the request of influential acquaintances, he studied in two cities of the country, learned several languages ​​and passed exams for a candidate's degree. Seeing in the young man a great desire to become an actor, the theater director gave him small roles, but very soon he was told that he would never be able to play professionally on stage. However, by that time his talent as a writer, playwright and writer had already emerged.

First works

A very short biography of Andersen should include his most famous works (besides his fairy tales, which everyone probably knows about, even those who have not read them). It is significant that his first literary experience was not fairy tales, but plays written in the genre of tragedies. Here success awaited him: they were published, and the writer received his first fee. Inspired by success, he continued to write in the genres of large prose, miniature short stories, plays, and notes. A short biography of Andersen, the most important content of which, perhaps, is, of course, the stage associated with writing fairy tales, should also take into account other aspects of the activity of this author.

Travel and dating

Despite the lack of funds, the writer still had the opportunity to travel around Europe. Having received small monetary rewards for his literary works, he visited various European countries, where he made many interesting acquaintances. Thus, he met the famous French writers V. Hugo and A. Dumas. In Germany he was introduced to the German poet Heine. Interesting facts about his life include the fact that he had Pushkin’s autograph. These travels were of great importance for the further development of his work, since thanks to them he mastered a new genre of travel writing.

Creativity flourishes

A short biography of Andersen, which is studied by school-age children, should include, first of all, that stage of the writer’s life that is associated with writing fairy tales, which gained popularity not only in his homeland, but throughout the world. The beginning of their creation dates back to the second half of 1830, when the author began to publish his first collections. They immediately gained fame, although many criticized the author for being illiterate and too free in this genre. Nevertheless, it was this genre that made the writer famous. The peculiarity of his tales is the combination of reality and fantasy, humor, satire and elements of drama. It is significant that the writer himself did not consider that he was writing for children, and even insisted that there should not be a single figure of a child around his sculptural image. The secret to the success of the popularity of the author's fairy tales is that he created a new type of writing, where inanimate objects, as well as plants, birds and animals, became full-fledged characters.

Mature stage of creativity

A brief biography of Andersen should highlight his other achievements in the field of fiction. Thus, he wrote in the genre of large prose (the novel “The Improviser” brought him European fame). He wrote miniature novels. The end of his long and fruitful creative career was his writing of an autobiography entitled “The Tale of My Life.” It is interesting because it reveals the character of this difficult person. The fact is that the writer was a reserved and very sensitive person. He was not married and had no children. The impressions of his youth and difficult childhood left an indelible imprint on him: he remained an extremely sensitive person throughout his life. The author died in Copenhagen in 1875.

The significance of his work is difficult to overestimate. It's hard to find another writer as popular for schoolchildren as Andersen. Biography for children is briefly one of the important topics in school classes: after all, he became, perhaps, the most famous storyteller in the whole world. Interest in his work continues to this day. Thus, in 2012, a manuscript of a previously unknown fairy tale by the writer “The Wax Candle” was found on the island of Funen.