When did Hans Christian Andersen live? Andersen, Hans Christian

Composition

Scandinavian folklore was the precious medium that nourished the literary fairy tale, including the work of the great Danish storyteller H. C. Andersen, the Finnish writer S. Topelius and Swedish writer S. Lagerlöf. The work of Hans Christian Andersen - Chane Christian is one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Danish and world literature of the 19th century. The author of numerous works in various genres, he reached the pinnacle of his fairy tales, for the humanistic, ideological and aesthetic significance of these fairy tales is extremely great, revealing the world of great and pure human feelings, deep and noble thoughts.

Andersen's fairy tales occupy an important place in history national culture Denmark, since the writer invested them with a deep, concrete historical meaning. His works provide a broad critique of Danish society from the 20s to the 70s of the 19th century. “For us Danes,” said the Danish communist writer H. Scherfig, “Hans Christian Andersen is a truly national, original writer, inseparable from our native flourishing islands. In our minds, it is inextricably linked with the history of Denmark, with its traditions, nature, character of the people, with its peculiar penchant for humor.”

Andersen's fairy tales are dear and understandable to people of different ages, different eras, different countries. They contribute to the formation of children's consciousness and educate them in the spirit of democracy. Adults see deep philosophical content in them. Popular in 19th-century Russia, they are still alive today in the Soviet Union. Bright images of Andersen's fairy tales, their large humanistic ideas especially close to the Soviet reader. The celebration of the 150th anniversary of Andersen's birth, held on April 2, 1955 by decision of the World Peace Council, was evidence of the enormous international importance the writer's heritage.

Andersen is a democrat and humanist, whose worldview was strongly influenced by the traditions of the Enlightenment and contemporary political events in Europe; he welcomed the July Revolution in France and praised the “tree of liberty” that grew in Paris. He was sympathetic to the revolutionary events in Italy, Switzerland, Greece and to the peasant movement in his homeland. However, the patriarchal nature of Denmark at that time, about which F. Engels wrote that nowhere except this country there exists “such a degree of moral squalor, guild and class narrowness...” \ forced Andersen to cautiously accept the events of 1848 and the first steps of the labor movement in Denmark in the early 70s.

Andersen did not have a clear and defined political program; he took a general humanist position. The writer did not take part in the struggle for the constitution in his homeland, although he was sympathetic to the progressive ideas of the era. He fought for the ethical ideal of justice, goodness, love and human dignity. Andersen laid these educational and humanistic principles as the basis of his work. At the very beginning of his literary career, the writer followed the traditions of the romantic school, but already at the end of the 20s he spoke out against the excessive fantasy of German romanticism in the work of his Danish epigones. Subsequently, Andersen demanded that literature truthfully reflect life.

Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in Odense. His father was a shoemaker, his mother a laundress; the boy attended a school for the poor, and in 1818 he moved to Copenhagen, where he tried to become a singer and ballet actor. In 1823, the future writer entered school in Slagels, then in Helsingor, and in 1828 - at the university in Copenhagen. Since the early 30s, he was engaged in professional literary activities and traveled a lot. Andersen's worldview was particularly influenced by his travels to France, Switzerland and Italy, Greece and Spain. The writer was a member of the opposition society for the struggle for press freedom in Denmark. He read his works at the Workers' Union, and in 1867 he was elected an honorary citizen of his hometown of Odense. By the end of his life, the great storyteller became a truly national writer of Denmark.

Andersen began writing in the early 20s and tried his hand at the genres of lyricism, novel, drama, travel essay, biographical sketch, etc. Even in his very first poems, the motifs of future fairy tales are clearly visible (“The Mermaid from Samsø Island” , “Holger the Dane”, “The Snow Queen”, etc.), and later his patriotism (“Denmark is my homeland”) and sympathy for freedom-loving ideals (“The Sentinel”, “Chillon Castle”).

Of great interest are Andersen’s novels “The Improviser” (1835), then “O. T." (1836), which reflected the unrealized plan of works about the July Revolution.

The main part of Andersen's legacy is his fairy tales and stories (collections: “Fairy Tales Told to Children,” 1835-1842; “New Fairy Tales,” 1843-1848; “Stories,” 1852-1855; “New Fairy Tales and Stories,” 1858-1872 ), which made his name world famous.

Using Danish folk stories and creating new original fairy tales, Andersen introduced deeply relevant content into his works, reflecting in them the complex contradictions of contemporary reality (“Little Claus and Big Claus”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “The King’s New Clothes”, “Galoshes”) happiness”, etc.).

The originality of these wonderful fairy tales lies in the fact that Andersen, on the one hand, unusually humanized and brought to life the most fantastic characters of his works (“Thumbelina”, “The Little Mermaid”). On the other hand, he gave a fantastic quality to ordinary, real objects and phenomena. People, toys, household items, etc. become heroes of his works, experiencing unprecedented magical adventures (“Bronze Boar”, “Darning Needle”, “Collar”, etc.). Andersen's humor and lively character give fairy tales an unfading charm. spoken language. The role of the narrator in them is also unusually great. The narrator is the bearer of Andersen's ethical ideal, an exponent of his credo, an example of his positive hero. He reveals the plight of the people and condemns their enslavers; he denounces the vices of secular society.

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 washerwoman 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 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 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 home to 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 elongated and thin limbs, a neck and the same 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 later 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 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 mistakes 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 Real 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
  • Little Mermaid
  • Whatever the husband does is good
  • Ole Lukoje
  • Airplane chest
  • Steadfast Tin Soldier
  • Baby Ida's flowers
  • Golden treasure
  • The Professor and the Flea
  • The Princess and the Pea
  • Swineherd
  • Galoshes of happiness
  • The king's new dress
  • Bride and Groom
  • Old street lamp
  • Bottleneck
  • Gardener and family
  • Ugly duckling
  • 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 soprano solo, 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)
• Fairy tales by Andersen (Russian) (Ukrainian) (English)
• Andersen G. H. (Russian) - biography, collection of fairy tales

Biography of Andersen

Born on April 2, 1805 in the city of Odense on the island of Funen (Denmark). Andersen's father was a shoemaker and, according to Andersen himself, “a richly gifted poetic nature.” He instilled in the future writer a love of books: in the evenings he read the Bible aloud, historical novels, novellas and stories. For Hans Christian, his father built a home puppet theater, and his son composed plays himself. Unfortunately, the shoemaker Andersen did not live long and died, leaving behind his wife, little son and daughter.

Andersen's mother came from a poor family. In his autobiography, the storyteller recalled his mother's stories about how, as a child, she was kicked out of the house to beg... After the death of her husband, Andersen's mother began working as a laundress.

Andersen received his primary education at a school for the poor. Only the Law of God, writing and arithmetic were taught there. Andersen studied poorly; he hardly prepared any lessons. With much greater pleasure he told his friends fictional stories in which he himself was the hero. Of course, no one believed these stories.

Hans Christian's first work was the play "Crucian Carp and Elvira", written under the influence of Shakespeare and other playwrights. The storyteller received access to these books from his neighbors' family.

1815 - first literary works Andersen. The result most often was ridicule from peers, from which the impressionable author only suffered. The mother almost apprenticed her son to a tailor in order to stop the bullying and keep him busy with real work. Fortunately, Hans Christian begged to be sent to study in Copenhagen.

1819 - Andersen leaves for Copenhagen, intending to become an actor. In the capital, he gets a job at the Royal Ballet as a student dancer. Andersen did not become an actor, but the theater became interested in his dramatic and poetic experiments. Hans Christian was allowed to stay, study at a Latin school and receive a scholarship.

1826 - several poems by Andersen (“The Dying Child”, etc.) are published.

1828 - Andersen enters university. In the same year, his first book, “A Journey on Foot from the Galmen Canal to the Island of Amager,” was published.

The attitude of society and critics towards the newly-minted writer was ambiguous. Andersen becomes famous, but is laughed at for his spelling mistakes. He is already being read abroad, but they have difficulty digesting the writer’s special style, considering him vain.

1829 - Andersen lives in poverty, he is fed exclusively by royalties.

1830 - the play “Love on the Nicholas Tower” was written. The production took place on the stage of the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

1831 – Andersen’s novel “Shadows of the Way” is published.

1833 - Hans Christian receives the Royal Scholarship. He goes on a trip to Europe, actively engaging in literary work along the way. On the road they wrote: the poem “Agnetha and the Sailor”, the fairy tale “The Ice Lady”; The novel “The Improviser” was started in Italy. Having written and published The Improviser, Andersen becomes one of the most popular writers in Europe.

1834 - Andersen returns to Denmark.

1835 – 1837 – “Fairy Tales Told for Children” was published. It was a three-volume collection, which included “Flint,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Princess and the Pea,” etc. Criticism attacks again: Andersen’s fairy tales were declared insufficiently instructive for raising children and too frivolous for adults. However, until 1872 Andersen published 24 collections of fairy tales. Regarding criticism, Andersen wrote to his friend Charles Dickens: “Denmark is as rotten as the rotten islands on which it grew up!”

1837 - H. H. Andersen’s novel “Only the Violinist” is published. A year later, in 1838, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” was written.

1840s - a number of fairy tales and short stories were written, which Andersen published in the collections “Fairy Tales” with the message that the works were addressed to both children and adults: “Book of Pictures without Pictures”, “The Swineherd”, “The Nightingale”, “The Ugly Duckling” , “The Snow Queen”, “Thumbelina”, “The Little Match Girl”, “Shadow”, “Mother”, etc. The peculiarity of Hans Christian’s fairy tales is that he was the first to turn to plots from the lives of ordinary heroes, and not elves, princes, trolls and kings. As for the traditional and obligatory happy ending for the fairy tale genre, Andersen parted with it back in The Little Mermaid. In his fairy tales, according to the author’s own statement, he “did not address children.” During the same period, Andersen still became known as a playwright. Theaters stage his plays “Mulatto”, “Firstborn”, “Dreams of the King”, “More expensive than pearls and gold”. The author watched his own works from the auditorium, from the seats for the general public. 1842 - Andersen travels through Italy. He writes and publishes a collection of travel essays, “The Poet’s Bazaar,” which became a harbinger of autobiography. 1846 - 1875 - for almost thirty years Andersen writes the autobiographical story “The Tale of My Life.” This work became the only source of information about the childhood of the famous storyteller. 1848 - the poem “Ahasfer” was written and published. 1849 - publication of the novel by H. H. Andersen “The Two Baronesses”. 1853 - Andersen writes the novel To Be or Not to Be. 1855 – the writer’s journey through Sweden, after which the novel “In Sweden” was written. It is interesting that in the novel Andersen highlights the development of technologies that were new for that time, demonstrating good knowledge of them. Little is known about Andersen's personal life. Throughout his life, the writer never started a family. But he was often in love “with unattainable beauties,” and these novels were in the public domain. One of these beauties was the singer and actress Ieni Lind. Their romance was beautiful, but ended in a break - one of the lovers considered their business more important than their family. 1872 - Andersen first experiences an attack of illness from which he was no longer destined to recover. August 1, 1875 - Andersen dies in Copenhagen, in his Villa Rolighead.

"Fairy Tales" H.K. Andersen constitute the main, most vital part of his literary heritage. It was fairy tales that created world fame for the writer. However, at the beginning creative path Andersen did not attach much importance to them, considering them almost a side activity, unrelated to serious literature. Only over time did his views change, and for Andersen the fairy tale became synonymous with poetry as such. “For me, a fairy tale, which incorporates ancient legends about graves smoking with blood, and pious stories from children's books, both folk and literary traditions, is the most poetic in the entire vast kingdom of poetry. [...] After all, the hero folk tale Hans Churban always wins in the end: he climbs the glass mountain on horseback and wins the princess. Thus, poetic spontaneity, which the older brothers openly mocked, nevertheless declares itself loudly, and the younger brother, rising to poetry, conquers her, this royal daughter, and half the kingdom,” he wrote in 1857. Andersen , of course, was far from the first among European authors who decided to retell folk tales and create new works in this literary genre. [...]

Thus, in his early tales, Andersen, on the one hand, following the example Brothers Grimm or Winter, preserves the simple and natural intonation of a folk tale, and on the other hand, introduces a fantastic beginning in the spirit of the German romantics.

Andersen made a decisive revolution in his attitude towards the literary fairy tale in 1835, when, shortly after the publication of the novel “The Improviser,” he published his first collection “Fairy Tales Told to Children,” consisting of the fairy tales “Flint,” “Little Claus and Big Claus.” ", "The Princess and the Pea", "Little Ida's Flowers". In them he departs from the tradition already established in German and Danish literature literary fairy tale and returns to the folk tale, replacing the form of folk storytelling with a free oral story. As G. Brandes noted. "Andersen begins to tell fairy tales as he heard them in childhood." Andersen himself wrote to Ingemann on February 10, 1835, regarding his first collection: “I told several fairy tales that I loved in childhood, in my opinion, few people are familiar with them; I wrote them the way I would tell them to children.” However, Ingemann failed to appreciate their significance, believing that Andersen could have used the time spent on composing fairy tales for himself more profitably.” […]

Andersen's fairy tales reveal to the reader the beauty and spiritual richness of the world. The writer's author's credo is sincerity of soul and spontaneity of feeling, as well as, despite the tragic aspects of life, faith in the final victory of good. This victory, Andersen believes, is “the triumph of the immediate, the divine in ourselves.” Andersen places his hopes on a good God. “Through all the events and manifestations of human life there runs an invisible thread indicating that we all belong to God.” However, Providence helps only those who, realizing the severity of life, are able to survive all the trials and change for the better.

In "The Ugly Duckling", embodying Andersen's ideas about the fate and purpose of a genius, the fairy-tale hero, despite all the circumstances, achieves recognition and fame. He was born in a duck's nest, and is considered ugly, since he is not at all like the rest of the inhabitants of the poultry yard. He seems just as ugly and good for nothing to the cat and chicken living in the old woman’s wretched house. He suffers from the hostility of others and painful doubts about himself. He has to endure a lot in life, until one day strong wings grow behind his back. The ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan. “He was glad that he had endured so much grief and suffering - now he could better appreciate his happiness and all the beauty that surrounded him.” Like the writer’s novels, the fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” is largely autobiographical. In allegorical form, it depicts the struggle that Andersen had to wage on his path to fame. […]

In the philosophical fairy tale “The Shadow,” the ball is ruled by mediocrity, posing as a genius. The hero of the fairy tale is a young talented scientist who has turned into a servant of his own shadow, which eventually begins to impersonate the scientist and call him his own shadow. When the shadow appropriates his mind and knowledge and wooes the royal daughter, the scientist is going to open her eyes to her future husband: “I will tell her everything! I’ll say that I’m a man, and you’re just a shadow!” However, all his attempts to expose the deception lead nowhere. Fought for the Truth. The goodness and beauty of the scientist is executed, and his shadow becomes the husband of the king’s daughter.”

Sergeev A.V., The evolution of the fairy tale genre in the works of Kh.K. Andersen, in Sat.: Along the heavenly rainbow beyond the world: on the 200th anniversary of H.K. Andersen / Rep. editors Vishnevskaya N.A. et al., M., “Science”, 2008, p. 8-10 and 17-18.

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 aloud to his son various magical stories, 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 one's own fairy 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 ideas of the British of the second half of the 19th century century about children's literature. Therefore, before publishing on 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.

While 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 the engulfed civil war Russia. 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.