Hans Christian Andersen

by Wullschlager, Jackie

• ISBN13: 9780226917474
• ISBN10: 0226917479
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Beloved by generations of children and adults around the world for tales such as "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) revolutionized children's literature. Although others before him had collected and retold folk stories and fairy tales, Andersen was the first to create the stories himself, instilling a previously stilted genre with new humor, wisdom, and pathos. Drawing on letters, diaries, and other original sources (many never before translated from the Danish), Wullschlager shows in this compelling, extensively researched biography how Andersen's writings--darker and more diverse than previously recognized--reflected the complexities of his life, a far cry from the "happily ever after" of a fairy tale. As we follow in his footsteps from Golden Age Copenhagen to the princely courts of Germany and the villas of southern Italy, Andersen becomes a figure every bit as fascinating as a character from one of his stories--a gawky, self-pitying, and desperate man, but also one of the most gifted storytellers the world has ever known.

Author Biography

Jackie Wullschlager is a literary critic and European arts correspondent for the Financial Times in London. She is the author of Inventing Wonderland: The Lives and Fantasies of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, J. M. Barrie, Kenneth Grahame and A. A. Milne.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgements	xiii
Map of Andersen's Denmark, c. 1850	xv
Map of Andersen's Europe, c. 1850	xvi
Introduction Life Stories	3	(4)
The Country, 1805-1812	7	(17)
Master Comedy-Player, 1812-1819	24	(11)
The City, 1819-1822	35	(24)
Aladdin at School, 1822-1827	59	(21)
Fantasies, 1827-1831	80	(23)
My Time Belongs to the Heart, 1831-1833	103	(19)
Italy, 1833-1835	122	(25)
First Fairy Tales, 1835	147	(20)
Walking on Knives, 1836-1837	167	(12)
Le Poete, C'est Moi! 1837-1840	179	(18)
I Belong to the World, 1840-1843	197	(22)
Jenny, 1843-1844	219	(23)
Winter's Tales, 1844-1845	242	(20)
The Princes' Poet, 1845-1846	262	(18)
The Shadow, 1846-1847	280	(15)
Lion of London, 1847	295	(28)
Between the Wars, 1848-1851	323	(14)
Weimar Revisited, 1851-1856	337	(14)
Dickens, 1856-1857	351	(10)
Experiments, 1858-1859	361	(12)
Kiss of the Muse, 1860-1865	373	(26)
Aladdin's Palace of the Present, 1865-1869	399	(19)
So Great a Love of Life, 1869-1875	418	(23)
Sources	441	(2)
Notes	443	(30)
Select Bibliography	473	(4)
Index	477