Andersen's biography, like the life of any great person, is full of speculation and rumors, and sometimes it is difficult to figure out what is true and what is fiction, but there is no doubt that his fate was not easy.
He was born in the small town of Odense in the family of a shoemaker and a laundress, and the very ending of the surname (-sen) indicates his belonging to the commoners, although Andersen himself considered himself nothing less than the illegitimate son of King Christian XVIII of Denmark, who was known for his many love affairs. . Andersen continued to believe in his high origin not only in childhood, but also as an adult, when he became famous and received a royal scholarship. According to legend, the writer then exclaimed: “Father has not forgotten about me!” (He received his scholarship until his death at the age of 70).
From childhood, Andersen was quite artistic, had a good imagination, invented poems, fairy tales, plays, which he later staged in his home theater, and also sang well. When at the age of 14 he arrived in Copenhagen, thanks to a wonderful soprano he was accepted into the boys' choir, but soon his voice began to break and the future storyteller was shown the door. However, fate was favorable to him and gave him an acquaintance with Jonas Kollen, director of the Royal Danish Theater, who was able to patronize him, becoming interested not in fairy tales, but in dramatic works.
It's hard to believe, but the brilliant writer was an amazingly illiterate person, he wrote his masterpieces, which children all over the world know, with many mistakes, according to one of the opinions, he also suffered from dyslexia (impaired reading ability). He studied, at the insistence of his patron, in Copenhagen and constantly became the object of bullying from classmates, because he was older than them, came from a poor family and did not have enough stars from the sky because of his inability to read.
At the same time, everyone who knew the writer noted his difficult and even caustic character. He could easily put anyone in their place with some caustic phrase, and the offender then regretted for a long time that he had contacted him at all.
The famous storyteller could not boast of good health, he suffered from toothache all his life, but categorically did not want to pull out bad teeth, sincerely believing that the number of teeth affects his fertility as an author.
At the same time, he was never married and lived a virgin all his life, although physical passions were not alien to him.
"I still keep my innocence, but I'm all on fire..." Andersen wrote in his diary. Judging by the same diary, he was in love with the famous singer Jenny Lindt, about which a corresponding inscription appeared in his diary on September 20, 1843, but the singer left without knowing anything.
Perhaps the whole point is in some infantilism of the great writer, who not only could not build relationships with any woman, but was afraid to even confess his love. As for children, according to some reports, Andersen, to put it mildly, did not like them and was categorically against the monument, on which he would be depicted surrounded by children listening to his fairy tales.
“Yes, you are crazy - in such an environment I could not utter a word,” he said to the sculptor, who brought him for approval a sketch of the future monument, where the kids were sitting on the writer’s lap. We decided to stop at the sculpture of a writer with a book.
In general, Andersen had a lot of oddities: he had many phobias - he was terribly afraid of dogs, he was afraid of becoming a victim of a robbery, losing documents, going crazy, being buried alive. Having a difficult character, he was afraid that someone might hire an assassin to get rid of him, and he was also afraid of being poisoned.
With all his fears, Andersen was very fond of traveling, he visited many countries, and on one of his trips he even bought a book autographed by A.S. Pushkin, which he then kept all his life. It is also reliably known that the elderly writer was friends with the Danish princess Dagmar, who later became the wife of the Russian Emperor Alexander III and the mother of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. The future Russian empress was not the only one who patronized the great writer, many people of “blue blood” considered it an honor to make friends with the laundress’s son, and when the king of fairy tales died, members of the royal family were present at his funeral, and the day of his death was declared national in Denmark day of mourning.
There are few people in the world who do not know the name of the great writer Hans Christian Andersen. More than one generation has grown up on 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 bedtime stories to their children about the Princess and the Pea, Spruce, and little Thumbelina, whom a field mouse tried to marry off to a 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 the magic and the flight of fantasy, there is a philosophical thought in his fairy tales, because the writer devoted his work to both children and adults. Many critics agree that under the shell of Andersen's naivete and simple style of narration lies a deep meaning, the task of which is to give the reader the necessary food for thought.
Hans Christian Andersen (generally accepted Russian spelling, Hans Christian would be more correct) was born on April 2, 1805 in the third largest city in Denmark, Odense. Some biographers assured 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 challenged 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 grandfather of the writer - a carver by profession - was considered crazy in the town, because he made incomprehensible figures of people with wings, similar to angels, out of wood.
Hans Sr. introduced the child to literature. He read to his offspring "1001 nights" - traditional Arabic tales. Therefore, every evening, little Hans plunged into the magical stories of Scheherazade. Also, the father and son 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 severe test for Hans, he grew up as an emotional, nervous and sensitive child. Andersen’s state of mind is to blame for the local bully, who simply distributes cuffs, and teachers, because in those troubled times, punishment with rods was commonplace, so the future writer considered school an unbearable torture.
When Andersen flatly refused to attend classes, the parents assigned 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.
Andersen's relations with colleagues in the workshop, to put it mildly, did not work out. He was constantly embarrassed by vulgar anecdotes and narrow-minded jokes of workers, and one day, under the general laughter, Hans pulled down his pants to make sure he was a boy or a girl. And all because in childhood the writer had a thin voice and often sang during the shift. This event forced the future writer to completely withdraw into himself. The only friends of the young man 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 leave for 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, he wanted to learn acting and play on the stage of the theater 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 in childhood as a “playwriter”, because the boy’s house had a toy theater with rag “actors”. A diligent 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 was an excellent soprano. On the stage of the theater, Hans played minor roles. But soon his voice began to break, so 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 finance during the reign of Frederick VI, was very fond of a young man unlike everyone else and convinced the king to pay for the education of a young writer.
Andersen studied at the prestigious Slagels and Elsinore schools (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 diligent student: Hans never mastered the letter and made multiple 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 the nines, and, as you know, Andersen did not like this.
During his lifetime, Hans Christian Andersen wrote poetry, short stories, novels and ballads. But for all readers, his name is primarily associated with fairy tales - there are 156 works in the track record of the master of the pen. However, Hans disliked being called a children's writer and claimed to write for boys and girls as well as adults. It got to the point that Andersen ordered that there should not be a single child on his monument, although initially the monument was supposed to be surrounded by children.
Illustration for Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" Hans gained recognition and fame in 1829, when he published the adventure story "Hiking from the Holmen canal to the eastern tip of Amager". Since then, the young writer did not leave his pen and inkwell and wrote literary works one after another, including fairy tales that glorified him, into which he introduced a system of high genres. True, novels, short stories and vaudevilles were given to the author hard - at the moments of writing, he seemed to suffer a creative crisis in spite.
Illustration for Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "Wild Swans" 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 we recall the works of the creator, then even each galosh or pea from a pod has an amazing biography. Hans relied both on his own fantasy and on the motifs of the folk epic, thanks to which he wrote The Flint, The Wild Swans, The Swineherd and other stories published in the collection Tales Told to Children (1837).
Illustration for the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen "The Little Mermaid" Andersen loved to make protagonists of characters who are looking for a place in society. This includes Thumbelina, the Little Mermaid, and the Ugly Duckling. Such characters make the author sympathetic. All Andersen's stories from cover to cover are saturated with philosophical meaning. It is worth recalling the fairy tale "The King's New Clothes", where the emperor asks two rogues to sew an expensive garment for him. However, the outfit turned out to be difficult and consisted entirely of "invisible threads". The crooks assured the customer that only fools would not see the extremely thin fabric. Thus, the king flaunts around the palace in an indecent form.
Illustration for the fairy tale "Thumbelina" by Hans Christian Andersen 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 is walking 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 winged expressions. It is noteworthy that not all Andersen’s fairy tales are saturated with luck, not all of the writer’s manuscripts contain the “deusexmachina” technique, when a random coincidence that saves the protagonist (for example, the prince kisses the poisoned Snow White) seems to appear out of nowhere by God’s will.
Illustration for the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Andersen Hans is loved by adult readers for not drawing a utopian world where everyone lives happily ever after, but, for example, without a twinge of conscience sends a steadfast tin soldier into a burning fireplace, dooming a lonely little man to death. In 1840, the master of the pen tried his hand at the genre of short stories and miniatures and published the collection "A Book with Pictures without Pictures", in 1849 he wrote the novel "Two Baronesses". Four years later, the book To Be or Not to Be was published, but all Andersen's attempts to establish himself as a novelist were in vain.
The personal life of the failed actor, but the eminent writer Andersen is a mystery shrouded in darkness. Rumor has it that throughout the existence of 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 heritage), he had close friendly relations with friends Edward Collin, the Crown Duke of Weimar and with the dancer Harald Schraff. Although there were three women in the life of Hans, the matter did not go beyond fleeting sympathy, not to mention marriage.
The first chosen one of Andersen was the sister of a school friend Riborg Voigt. But the indecisive young man did not dare to talk to the object of his desire. Louise Collin - the writer's next potential bride - stopped any attempts at courtship and ignored the fiery stream of love letters. The 18-year-old girl preferred Andersen to a wealthy lawyer.
In 1846, Hans fell in love with the opera singer Jenny Lind, who was nicknamed "The Swedish Nightingale" because of her sonorous soprano voice. Andersen guarded Jenny backstage 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 plunged into depression. Cold-hearted Jenny Lind became the prototype of the Snow Queen from the writer's fairy tale of the same name.
Illustration for Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" Andersen was unlucky in love. Therefore, it is not surprising that the storyteller, upon arrival in Paris, visited the red light districts. True, instead of debauchery all night long with frivolous young ladies, Hans talked with them, sharing the details of his unhappy life. When an acquaintance of Andersen 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 admirer, talented writers met at a literary meeting held by the Countess of Blessington in her salon. After this meeting, Hans wrote in his diary:
"We went out on the veranda, I was happy to talk to the living writer of England, whom I love most."
After 10 years, the storyteller again arrived in England and came as an uninvited guest to Dickens' house to the detriment of his family. As time passed, Charles ceased correspondence with Andersen, and the Dane sincerely did not understand why all his letters remained unanswered.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed, hitting the floor hard, because 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 the Assistance Cemetery in Copenhagen.
1. Son of a king
Andersen explained the meaning of his "Ugly Duckling" differently than we do.
“You can grow up in a poultry house, the main thing is that you hatched from a swan egg. If you turned out to be the son of a drake, then from an ugly duckling you turned into just an ugly duck, no matter how kind you are! Here is the unexpected moral of the story. The writer was sure that his father was King Christian the Eighth, who, being a prince, allowed himself numerous novels.
From a relationship with a noble girl, Eliza Ahlefeld-Laurvig, a boy was allegedly born, who was given to the family of a shoemaker and a laundress. During a trip to Rome, the Danish princess Charlotte-Frederika did tell Andersen that he was the king's illegitimate son. Apparently, she just laughed at the poor dreamer. However, when a penniless writer unexpectedly received an annual royal stipend at the age of 33, he was even more convinced that "his father does not forget him."
Now in Denmark there are talks about checking the origin of Andersen and conducting a genetic analysis.
2. Magic rose - the emblem of sadness
As a child, Hans Christian was "chased" by everyone - from the teacher, who hit his hands with a ruler for inattention and terrible illiteracy, to classmates, whom he "filled" in black. Only one and only girl Sarah once gave a white rose. The long-nosed awkward little boy was so amazed that he remembered the miracle all his life. The magic rose is in many of his fairy tales.
3. "To live is to travel"
This phrase of Andersen in our time has been adopted by thousands of travel agencies. The storyteller was obsessed with movement, in total he made 29 great journeys, which at that time seemed almost unbelievable. On trips, he showed himself to be a brave and hardy person, rode horseback and swam well.
4. Great coward
It is difficult to say what Andersen was not afraid of and what he did not suffer from. He was a terrible alarmist. The slightest scratch brought him to a fit of horror, and the names of diseases caused shivers. He shied away from dogs, was afraid of strangers. Robbery seemed to him at every turn, and the habit of saving made him constantly tormented by the question of whether he overpaid for the purchase.
He dined only "on the side", for years keeping a list of "eaten" to come to them in turn.
In his nightmares, he imagined that he would be buried alive, and every evening he put a note by the bed: "I'm alive!"
Andersen's eternal suffering was a toothache. Losing another tooth, he was upset, and saying goodbye to the last one at the age of 68, he said that now he would not be able to write fairy tales.
5. Platonic lover
“I am still innocent, but my blood burns,” Andersen wrote at 29. It seems that Hans Christian did not bother to extinguish this fire.
He promised to marry his first girlfriend when he started earning fifteen hundred riksdaler a year. At 35, his annual income was already higher, but he never married. Although by the end of his life his fortune had grown to half a million dollars (by today's standards), and the apartment in Copenhagen cost no less than 300 thousand.
All Andersen's "great loves" remained platonic. For two years he went to Sweden to the singer Jenny Lindt (she was nicknamed the nightingale for her beautiful voice), showered flowers and poems, but was rejected. But the readers got a fairy tale about a wonderful songbird.
The second half of Andersen's life was accompanied by young friends on his travels, but there is no open evidence of the close relationship of friends.
6. Children and death
Andersen had no children of his own. He willingly told stories to strangers, but he did not tolerate them sitting on his lap. Shortly before his death - and he lived for 70 years - Hans Christian asked the composer Hartmann to compose a march to his funeral. And adjust the rhythm to the children's step, as the children will participate in the ceremony.
He was not afraid to injure the child's psyche, hating a happy ending and leaving us sad and sometimes gloomy tales. The only work that, as he admitted, touched him himself, was The Little Mermaid.
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 fairly poor family. His father worked as a shoemaker, and his mother worked as a laundress.
Young Hans was quite a vulnerable child. In educational institutions of that time, physical punishment was often used, so the fear of studying did not leave Andersen. Because of this, 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 a big city for fame. Some time later, he ended up at the Royal Theatre. There he played supporting roles. Surrounding, paying tribute to the zeal of the guy, 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.
A huge influence on the biography of Hans Christian Andersen had his work. In 1829 his first work was published. This is an incredible story called "Hiking 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, "Tales" appear, which bring the author's fame to a new level. In the future, it is works for children that become Andersen's hallmark.
In the 1840s, Hans Christian was completely absorbed in writing the Picture Book without Pictures. This work only confirms the talent of the writer. At the same time, "Tales" are gaining more and more popularity. He returns to them again and again. He began work on the second volume in 1838. He started the third in 1845. During this period of his life, Andersen had already become a popular author.
Toward the end of the 1840s and beyond, he sought self-development and tried himself as a novelist. The 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 some works are studied in the 5th grade. In our time, one cannot fail to note the accessibility of Andersen's creations. Now his work can be simply downloaded.
In 1871 the writer attended the premiere of a ballet based on his works. Despite the failure, Andersen contributed to the fact that his friend, choreographer Augustin Bournonville, was awarded the prize. He wrote his last story on Christmas Day 1872.
In the 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 could not recover from this incident. August 4 (August 17), 1875 - was the last day of the life of the famous storyteller. Andersen was buried in Copenhagen.
Andersen is a cult figure for millions of people. After all, it was the characters of his fairy tales that children all over the world loved so much, taught them goodness and justice. It doesn’t matter who you are now: a shoe salesman, a journalist, or a St. Petersburg car rental, you were children and read his works. And what do we know about the author himself, about his secrets and habits?
A rather strange fact from the writer's life at first glance is that he studied very poorly at school. Language was especially difficult for him. The boy wrote dictations and compositions with a bunch of grammatical errors, for which he received low marks.
Andersen had a couple of strange phobias. For example, he was madly afraid of dogs. When even a small-sized "bobby" ran past, the writer was seized by panic and horror. It even seemed to Hans Christian that he could be buried alive, and a scratch on his body also brought him out of balance.
Andersen paid almost no attention to appearance. His favorite clothes were a worn raincoat and an old hat. Who knows, if he lived in our time, then cheap car rental in St. Petersburg would be just his option. Although he was not a stingy person, he simply did not want to spend money on expensive "unnecessary" things.
Andersen adored Pushkin. And he, by the way, had his autograph. It was placed on the "Elegy" of 1816. The storyteller guarded him until the end of his life.
A monument was erected in honor of Andersen, moreover, when he was still alive. Hans had a hand in its creation. They wanted to surround the sculpture with children, but he wanted to "sit" alone, alone with his favorite book.
