Anderson was born into a family of a laundress and a shoemaker. It happened on April 2, 1805. Hans Christian Anderson I have been familiar with fairy tales since childhood. He liked to read them to his father. In the evenings, he spoiled his children with various stories - "A Thousand and One Nights", the Bible, novels, etc. Hans also inherited a love of singing and theater from his father. Especially for his son, the father built a home theater, and Hans himself came up with the plots for the action. Unfortunately, this happy time did not last long for the children - soon the elder Andersen died. His wife was left with a young daughter and Hans in her arms. As a child, the child talked a lot with the mentally ill in the hospital, where his grandmother then worked. The boy was fond of their crazy stories and subsequently wrote himself that his father's songs and the stories of the crazy made him a writer.
Hans Christian I had to go and earn my own living. His seniority began with an assistant at the weaver. Then he worked as an assistant at a tailor, and even worked for a while at a cigarette factory. Since Andersen was very fond of singing, and he had a clear beautiful soprano, he often sang right in the factory until the guys who worked with him caught him and pulled down his pants to see if he was a girl.
Hans Christian learned to read by the age of four. And he graduated from a school for the poor, but since Andersen grew up as an emotional and nervous child, his mother sent him to a Jewish school - since corporal punishment was in use in all other schools at that time. Andersen forever retained this connection with the Jewish people, knowledge of its traditions and language. Subsequently, Hans Christian even wrote several stories and fairy tales on a Jewish theme, they were never translated into Russian.
At the age of 14, the young man leaves his home and goes to Copenhagen. And for 3 years trying to become an actor. At the same time, he began to write plays. But since they were still weak, they did not attract the attention of the management. However, from the theater, Hans is arranged for a free gymnasium and even a scholarship is knocked out for him. In the second half of the 20s of the 19th century, he began to publish his works. His poems were the first to be published. Then the author published his fantastic story. But fame brought him, of course, fairy tales. The first fairy tale was published in 1835.

The second was published in 1839, and the third already in 1845. Oddly enough, Hans Christian Anderson did not like his fairy tales and protested when he was called a children's writer. He wanted to become famous as a playwright and novelist, continued to write plays and novels in the second half of the 40s. But they were not as popular as his fairy tales. So he was forced to write them over and over again. Andersen wrote his last fairy tale in 1872. This year Hans Christian was seriously injured and was treated for three years. However, already in 1875 he died, and was buried in Copenhagen at the famous Assistens cemetery.

Biography of Andersen

Born 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 aloud the Bible, historical novels, short stories and short 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 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 to work 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, almost did not prepare lessons. With much greater pleasure, he told his friends fictional stories, the hero of which was himself. Of course, no one believed these stories.

The first work of Hans Christian was the play "Karas and Elvira", written under the influence of Shakespeare and other playwrights. The storyteller got access to these books in the family of neighbors.

1815 - Andersen's first literary work. The result most often was the ridicule of peers, from which the impressionable author only suffered. The mother almost gave her son as an apprentice to a tailor in order to stop bullying and take him to the real thing. Fortunately, Hans Christian begged to send him 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.)

1828 - Andersen enters the university. In the same year, his first book "Traveling on foot from the Galmen Canal to Amagera Island" was published.

The attitude of society and critics to the newly appeared writer was ambiguous. Andersen becomes famous, but is laughed at for spelling mistakes. It is already being read abroad, but it is difficult to digest the special style of the writer, considering him vain.

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

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

1831 - Andersen's novel "Travel Shadows" is published.

1833 Hans Christian receives a Royal Scholarship. He sets off on a journey through Europe, actively engaging in literary work along the way. On the road, the following were written: the poem "Agneta and the Sailor", the fairy tale-story "Ice"; In Italy, the novel "The Improviser" was begun. Having written and published The Improviser, Andersen becomes one of the most popular writers in Europe.

1834 Andersen returns to Denmark.

1835 - 1837 - "Tales told for children" were published. It was a three-volume collection, which included "The Flint", "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", etc. Again the attacks of criticism: Andersen's fairy tales were declared insufficiently instructive for educating children and too frivolous for adults. Nevertheless, 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 - G. H. Andersen's novel "Only a 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 are addressed to both children and adults: "A Book of Pictures without Pictures", "Swineherd", "Nightingale", "Ugly Duckling" , "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The Match Girl", "Shadow", "Mother", etc. The peculiarity of Hans Christian's fairy tales is that he was the first to turn to stories from the life of ordinary heroes, and not elves, princes, trolls and kings. As for the happy ending, traditional and obligatory for the fairy tale genre, Andersen parted ways with him back in The Little Mermaid. In his tales, according to the author's own statement, he "did not address children." The same period - Andersen still becomes known as a playwright. Theaters put on 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 common public. 1842 - Andersen travels to Italy. He writes and publishes a collection of travel essays "The Poet's Bazaar", which became a harbinger of his autobiography. 1846 - 1875 - for almost thirty years Andersen wrote 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 "Agasfer" was written and published. 1849 - publication of the novel by G. H. Andersen "Two Baronesses". 1853 Andersen writes To Be or Not to Be. 1855 - the writer's journey to Sweden, after which the novel "In Sweden" was written. Interestingly, in the novel, Andersen highlights the development of new technologies for that time, demonstrating good knowledge of them. Little is known about Andersen's personal life. Throughout his life, the writer never got a family. But often he was in love with "inaccessible 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 family. 1872 - Andersen first experiences an attack of an illness from which he was no longer destined to recover. August 1, 1875 - Andersen dies in Copenhagen, in his villa "Rolighead".

Danish literature

Hans Christian Andersen

Biography

ANDERSEN, HANS-CHRISTIAN (Andersen, Hans Christian) (1805−1875), Danish storyteller, author of more than 400 fairy tales, poet, writer, playwright, essayist, author of memoir essays The Tale of My Life (Mit livs eventir).

Mother was a laundress. She dreamed that her son would become a successful tailor, and taught him to sew, cut and darn. The father was considered an unlucky shoemaker and carpenter. Most of all, he liked to make children's toys “from which he would turn up”, enthusiastically sing songs, read fairy tales from the Thousand and One Nights to his son and play scenes from the comedies of the Danish playwright Golberg with him. Andersen's imagination was forever struck by his crazy, benevolent grandfather, a great craftsman who carved figures of unknown winged animals and people with bird heads from wood.

His maternal grandmother worked in a hospital for the mentally ill, where little Andersen spent long hours and enthusiastically listened to the stories of the inhabitants of the hospital. At the end of his life, he wrote: "I was made the writer of my father's songs and the speeches of the insane."

Not having time to enroll his son in a city school, his parents sent him to study with the widow of a glover, but after the first flogging he took his primer and proudly left.

Thanks to the performance of Abellino - a terrible bandit, which was shown in Odense by the Copenhagen troupe, Andersen fell in love with the theater. For three months, with the help of his father, who made him a special box for the performance, he came up with his first play, cutting out puppet artists from logs, sewing costumes from scraps, and learning to lead his characters on strings.

He never finished elementary school, and learned to read and write only by the age of ten. At the age of eleven he received a gift - a volume of Shakespeare's plays and began to play scenes from Macbeth.

After the death of his father, the family barely made ends meet, and the twelve-year-old Andersen was sent as an apprentice, first to a cloth factory, then to a tobacco factory. Soon a troupe arrived from Copenhagen in Odense, which urgently needed an extra for the performance, and Andersen received the silent role of a coachman, convinced that the theater was his vocation. In 1819, fourteen-year-old Andersen, having earned some money and bought the first boots in his life, went to conquer Copenhagen.

Thanks to the help of patrons, he attended a ballet school, received free lessons in Latin, German and Danish, and began to seriously study world drama and poetry. And he constantly composed, living in the corners and starving. Dreams of a theatrical career came to an end after the verdict of the actor Lindgren: "You have many feelings, but you will never be an actor."

Overcoming despair, he took up the tragedy of the Robbers in Wissenberg. The first act was published by the Arfa newspaper, and for the first time he received a literary fee. Inspired by luck, Alfsol took up the tragedy.

By this time, Copenhagen celebrities began to welcome him, including the physicist Oersted, theater director J. Collin, the poet Raabek, and the famous playwright Elenschleger. Thanks to the efforts of J. Collina, he received a royal scholarship and in 1822 went to Slagels, where he was enrolled in the second class of the Latin gymnasium, where he did not have a relationship with its rector. He writes a lot, and his poems Evening and the Dying Child are highly acclaimed by critics. In 1828 he entered the University of Copenhagen, where among the beginning university poets he was unanimously recognized as the first, after graduation he passed two exams for the title of candidate of philosophy.

In 1829, Andersen's first romantic prose was published - Traveling on foot from the Holmen Canal to the eastern cape of Amager Island, where the author parodied himself in the form of "a skinny cat in a raincoat over a nightgown." An ancestor of Danish vaudeville, essayist Geiberg later called the book a musical fantasy. The acting beginning, which helps Andersen to mentally transform into his characters, has brought long-awaited results. His vaudeville Love on the Nicholas Tower (1829) was a resounding success. In 1831 he went on his first trip to Germany, the result of which was an essay-reflection Shadow Pictures (1831) and a collection of poems Fantasies and sketches. In two years, 4 collections of poems were published. In 1833 he gave King Frederik a cycle of poems about Denmark and received a small allowance for traveling around Europe. His "era of wanderings" had begun. In Paris he met Heinrich Heine, in Rome - with the famous sculptor Thorvaldsen, and here he began to write his first novel, The Improviser.

After Rome he went to Florence, Naples, Venice, wrote an essay on Michelangelo and Raphael. In England, a friendship is struck with Charles Dickens. In France, he became close to Victor Hugo, met O. de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas. Schumann and Mendelssohn wrote romances on Andersen's poems.

Andersen nurtured each idea for a long time, but he wrote relatively quickly, but he copied and corrected many times, tormented by cruel doubts. And Danish criticism accused him of negligence and imitation, literary slovenliness and wretchedness of plots. At the same time, he lived very poorly, since only small literary earnings brought him income.

In addition to poetry, travel notes and philosophical essays, he creates novels Improviser (1835), who brought him European fame, Just a violinist (1837), To be or not to be (1857). Recognition was given to his comedy The Firstborn and the sharply social melodrama Mulatto (1840). A long and happy fate befell the plays-tales More expensive than pearls and gold, Elder mother, Ole Lukoye.

World fame and love of readers brought Andersen his fairy tales. In May and December 1835, the first two editions of Fairy Tales Told for Children appeared. The third collection of fairy tales was published in April 1837. (Everi, fortalte for born, book 1-3, 1835-1837). The collections included the fairy tales Flint, The Princess and the Pea, The Little Mermaid, and others well-known to the Russian reader. Since that time, collections called simply Tales have been regularly published. The heyday of creativity falls on Tue. floor. 1830-1840s, when the famous fairy tales The Snow Queen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, The Shadow, The Mother, The Nightingale, etc. were written. They were not immediately accepted and appreciated, the author was criticized for spelling errors and innovation in style, for the fact that his tales are supposedly lightweight for adults and not edifying enough for a children's audience. But the physicist Oersted, immediately after the release of the first issue of fairy tales, prophetically remarked: “You will see, The Improviser will glorify you, and fairy tales will make your name immortal.” L. N. Tolstoy, after reading the fairy tale Five from one pod, spoke of her like this: “What a mischievous and wise fairy tale. One of these is enough to remain in the history of literature. One of the paradoxes of Andersen's fairy tales is that even the saddest and most tragic of them have an amazing ability to give hope and heal the soul. Andersen's Little Mermaid, a symbol of Copenhagen, has become the personification of selfless love for millions of people, where a monument has been erected to her. The tale The King's New Dress turns out to be relevant again and again, ridiculing the servile-slave psychology of loyalty, giving rise to the cult of insignificant, "naked" kings. Or the magical irony of the Galosh of happiness and mocking associativity, subtle humor and imagery of the Swineherd and the Princess and the Pea and the Merry Disposition. In the best fairy tales, high poetics is organically intertwined with reckless mockery, and romantic irony with mysticism. Such are the tales of The Shadow, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Flint, The Storm Moves Signs. The uniqueness of Andersen is that he endowed not only the Little Mermaid with a wonderful gift. He saw and with persuasiveness sang the strength of spirit of earthly fragile girls. Such as Gerda from the Snow Queen or Elsa from the Wild Swans, whose selfless heroism and sacrifice overshadow the deeds of even mighty heroes. For they are performed by inconspicuous, weak babies, whose souls are penetrated and moved by great selfless love, which carries millions of children's hearts with it. Andersen with certainty endowed inanimate objects with human properties. And most importantly - with the soul, thereby opening for its reader a previously unknown, immeasurable world, awakening "good feelings" to flowers and trees, a worn coin and a gnawed chip, to a slob-troll or a brownie-loser. The parable-multidimensional fairy tale Len tells about the immortality of the creative principle and the reality of miracles. This is the story of a blue flower that came from ancient Egypt, whose weightless petals are like the wings of a moth. With a wonderful flower, many transformations take place. Here are its dried stems crucified and stretched into threads. From the threads, clothes are made that warm in the cold, giving coolness in the heat. But clothes wear out. However, a rag is also suitable for mopping and dusting. And when it turns into dust, then paper is made from it. Paper turns into books - containers of wisdom and light. And even if the books fall into the fire, the ashes and ashes that fertilize the fields again give rise to myriads of blue flowers. Everything repeats itself from the beginning, glorifying the invincibility of jubilant life. An example of a fairy tale, equal to a lofty, bright tragedy, is the fairy tale-parable Mother. Death stole the child from the mother. In order to find out the way to the kidnapper, the mother gives her eyes to the lake. Pressing it to the chest, it warms the frozen blackthorn, so that it begins to turn green and bloom. She gives her beautiful black hair in exchange for the gray locks of the old doorkeeper in order to enter the magical garden of death and save her child. Andersen was also interested in the problem of true and false in art, as the story of the Nightingale narrates. The originality of Andersen's fairy tales lies in the fact that, contrary to literary traditions, he used elements of the spoken language in his stories, combined the imaginary with the universal, taken from folk legends, as well as in the features of the description of landscapes - spiritual, dynamic and at the same time accurate. In the fairy tales of the "Dane with sunken cheeks" we meet biblical heroes and characters from the myths of Ancient Egypt, Tristan and Iseult and those about whom the Koran narrates. Here the West and the East organically merged and there is a mystery that is difficult to explain, but can only be comprehended by the soul. One of the best children's tales in world literature - they are equally addressed to adults, which the author himself was aware of. Andersen's life is impossible to imagine without love, most often unrequited. The last and deepest love came to him in the autumn of 1843, when the famous opera singer Jenny Lind arrived in Copenhagen. It seemed that here it is, the long-awaited "consonance of souls." But this meeting turned into a heartache for Andersen, and he lived all his life as a bachelor. Two months before his death, he learned from an English newspaper that his fairy tales are among the most read in the whole world. He died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen. The Swedish writer and playwright August Strindberg said of him: “In Sweden we just say Andersen. No initials. For we know only one Andersen. He belongs to us and our parents, he is our childhood and our maturity. As well as our old age. In connection with the 200th anniversary of the birth of 2005, UNESCO declared the year of Andersen.

Hans-Christian Andersen was born into the family of a laundress and a cobbler-carpenter, in the city of Odense (Funn) on April 2, 1805. His childhood was spent with the stories and songs of his father and the carvings of his grandfather. His mother taught him the art of sewing. After watching Abellino's play "The Terrible Bandit", he began to invent his first play, making puppet artists for her. He learned to read and write by the age of 10, he could not finish elementary school.

When Hans was 12 years old, his father died. And the boy had to go as an assistant, first to the cloth factory and then to the tobacco factory. After earning some money, fourteen-year-old Christian went to Copenhagen in 1819. There he received lessons in ballet, Latin, German and Danish. He also began to deepen his knowledge of world poetry and dramaturgy. Living in hunger and poverty, he begins to write his first tragedy, Robbers in Wissenberg. For the publication of the first act in the newspaper "Harp", he received his first fee. Then he began to write the tragedy "Alfsol". At this time, he became famous among Copenhagen celebrities. For the assistance of J. Collin, he gets a royal scholarship. 1822 - was admitted to the second class of the Latin gymnasium in Slagels. In those years, he writes a lot, and his poems "The Dying Child", "Evening" are highly appreciated by critics.

1828 - enrolled in the University of Copenhagen and received the title of candidate of philosophy. Hans' first romantic prose was published in 1829. His vaudeville Love on the Nikolaev Tower in 1829 brought him great triumph. In 1831 he wrote Shadow Paintings and a collection of poems Fantasies and sketches. In 1833 he created a cycle of poems for King Frederik of Denmark. In Rome, he begins to write "The Improviser" in 1835 - the first novel. After that, he wrote an essay on Michelangelo and Raphael, "Just a violinist" 1837, "To be or not to be" 1857, "Mulatto" 1840. From 1835 to 1837, the world saw his three editions of Tales. In 1843 he met his last and strongest love, the opera singer Jeni Lind. But their meeting did not bring anything good for Andersen's heart. He dies a bachelor on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen.

Artworks

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in the city of Odense on the island of Funen (in some sources the island of Fionia is named), in the family of a shoemaker and a laundress. Andersen heard the first fairy tales from his father, who read him stories from the Thousand and One Nights; along with fairy tales, my father loved to sing songs and make toys. From his mother, who dreamed of Hans Christian becoming a tailor, he learned to cut and sew. As a child, the future storyteller often had to communicate with patients in the hospital for the mentally ill, in which his maternal grandmother worked. The boy enthusiastically listened to their stories and later wrote that he was "made a writer of his father's songs and the speeches of the insane." From childhood, the future writer showed a penchant for dreaming and writing, often staging impromptu home performances.

In 1816, Andersen's father died, and the boy had to work for food. He was an apprentice first to a weaver, then to a tailor. Andersen later worked in a cigarette factory.

In 1819, having earned some money and bought the first boots, Hans Christian Andersen went to Copenhagen. The first three years in Copenhagen, Andersen connects his life with the theater: he makes an attempt to become an actor, writes tragedies and dramas. In 1822, the play "The Sun of the Elves" was published. The drama turned out to be an immature, weak work, but it attracted the attention of the theater management, with which the novice author was collaborating at that time. The board of directors secured scholarships for Andersen and the right to free study at the gymnasium. A seventeen-year-old boy enters the second grade of a Latin school and, despite the ridicule of his comrades, finishes it.

In 1826-1827, Andersen's first poems ("Evening", "The Dying Child") were published, which received a positive response from critics. In 1829, his fantasy-style short story "A Walking Journey from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern End of Amager" was published. In 1835, Andersen brought fame to "Tales". In 1839 and 1845, the second and third books of fairy tales were written respectively.

In the second half of the 1840s and in the following years, Andersen continued to publish novels and plays, trying in vain to become famous as a playwright and novelist. At the same time, he despised his fairy tales, which brought him the fame he deserved. Nevertheless, he continued to write more and more. The last tale was written by Andersen on Christmas Day 1872.

In 1872, the writer was seriously injured as a result of a fall, from which he was treated for three years. On August 4, 1875, Hans Christian Andersen died. He was buried in Copenhagen at the Assistance Cemetery.

• Andersen was angry when he was called a children's storyteller and said that he wrote fairy tales for both children and adults. For the same reason, he ordered that all children's figures be removed from his monument, where the storyteller was originally supposed to be surrounded by children.
• Andersen had the autograph of A. S. Pushkin.
• The tale of H. H. Andersen "The King's New Dress" was placed in the first primer by L. N. Tolstoy.
• Andersen has a fairy tale about Isaac Newton.
• In the fairy tale "Two Brothers" G. H. Andersen wrote about the famous brothers Hans Christian and Anders Oersted.
• The name of the fairy tale "Ole Lukoye" is translated as "Ole-Close your eyes".
• Andersen paid very little attention to his appearance. He constantly walked the streets of Copenhagen in an old hat and worn raincoat. One day a dandy stopped him on the street and asked:
  “Tell me, is this pathetic thing on your head called a hat?”
  To which the immediate response was:
  “Is that pathetic thing under your fancy hat called a head?”

Be like children

Boring, empty and unpretentious life without fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen understood this perfectly. Even if his character was not easy, but opening the door to another magical story, people did not pay attention to it, but gladly plunged into a new, previously unheard story.

Family

Hans Christian Andersen is a world famous Danish poet and novelist. He has more than 400 fairy tales on his account, which even today do not lose their popularity. The famous storyteller was born in Odnes (Danish-Norwegian Union, Funen Island) on April 2, 1805. He comes from a poor family. His father was a simple shoemaker, and his mother was a laundress. All her childhood she lived in poverty and begged on the street, and when she died, she was buried in a cemetery for the poor.

Hans' grandfather was a woodcarver, but in the city where he lived, he was considered slightly out of his mind. Being a creative person by nature, he carved figures of half-humans, half-animals with wings from wood, and such art was completely incomprehensible to many. Christian Andersen did not study well at school and wrote with errors until the end of his life, but from childhood he was attracted to writing.

Fantasy world

There is a legend in Denmark that Andersen came from a royal family. These rumors are related to the fact that the storyteller himself wrote in an early autobiography that he played as a child with Prince Frits, who years later became King Frederick VII. And among the yard boys he had no friends. But since Christian Andersen loved to compose, it is likely that this friendship was a figment of his imagination. Based on the storyteller's fantasies, his friendship with the prince continued even when they became adults. In addition to relatives, Hans was the only person from outside who was allowed to visit the coffin of the late monarch.

The source of these fantasies was Father Andersen's stories that he was a distant relative of the royal family. From early childhood, the future writer was a great dreamer, and his imagination was truly violent. More than once or twice, he staged impromptu performances at home, played various skits and made adults laugh. His peers openly disliked him and often mocked him.

Difficulties

When Christian Andersen was 11 years old, his father died (1816). The boy had to earn his own living. He began to work as an apprentice at a weaver, and later worked as a tailor's assistant. Then his labor activity continued at the factory for the production of cigarettes.

The boy had amazing big blue eyes and an introverted personality. He liked to sit alone somewhere in the corner and play puppet theater - his favorite game. He did not lose this love for puppet shows even in adulthood, carrying it in his soul until the end of his days.

Christian Andersen was different from his peers. Sometimes it seemed as if a hot-tempered “uncle” lives in the body of a little boy, to whom you don’t put a finger in his mouth - he will bite off his elbow. He was too emotional and took everything too personally, because of which he was often subjected to physical punishment in schools. For these reasons, the mother had to send her son to a Jewish school, where various executions were not practiced on students. Thanks to this act, the writer was well aware of the traditions of the Jewish people and forever kept in touch with him. He even wrote several stories on Jewish topics, unfortunately, they were never translated into Russian.

Youth years

When Christian Andersen was 14 years old, he went to Copenhagen. The mother assumed that the son would soon return. In fact, he was still a child, and in such a big city he had little chance of "hooking". But, leaving his father's house, the future writer confidently declared that he would become famous. Above all, he wanted to find a job that would please him. For example, in the theater, which he loved so much. He received money for the trip from a man in whose house he often staged impromptu performances.

The first year of life in the capital did not bring the storyteller one step closer to fulfilling his dream. Once he came to the house of a famous singer and began to beg her to help him with work in the theater. To get rid of a strange teenager, the lady made a promise that she would help him, but she did not keep her word. Only many years later, she confesses to him that, when she first saw him, she thought that he was devoid of reason.

At that time, the writer was a lanky, thin and stooping teenager, with an anxious and nasty character. He was afraid of everything: a possible robbery, dogs, fire, losing his passport. All his life he suffered from toothache and for some reason believed that the number of teeth affects his writing. He was also scared to death of being poisoned. When Scandinavian children sent sweets to their favorite storyteller, he sent a gift to his nieces in horror.

We can say that in adolescence, Hans Christian Andersen himself was an analogue of the Ugly Duckling. But he had a surprisingly pleasant voice, and whether thanks to him, or out of pity, he still got a place at the Royal Theater. True, he never achieved success. He constantly got supporting roles, and when the age-related breakdown of his voice began, he was completely kicked out of the troupe.

First works

But in short, Hans Christian Andersen was not very upset by the dismissal. At that time, he was already writing a play for five acts and sent a letter to the king asking for financial assistance in the publication of his work. In addition to the play, Hans Christian Andersen's book includes poetry. The writer did everything to sell his work. But neither the announcements nor the promotions in the newspapers led to the expected level of sales. The storyteller did not give up. He took the book to the theater in the hope that a performance would be staged based on his play. But here, too, disappointment awaited him.

Studies

The theater said that the writer had no professional experience, and offered him to study. People who sympathized with the unfortunate teenager sent a request to the King of Denmark himself, so that he would allow him to fill in the gaps in knowledge. His Majesty listened to the requests and provided the storyteller with the opportunity to get an education at the expense of the state treasury. As the biography of Hans Christian Andersen says, a sharp turn took place in his life: he got a place as a student in the school of the city of Slagels, later in Elsinore. Now the talented teenager did not have to think about how to earn a living. True, school science was given to him hard. He was constantly criticized by the rector of the educational institution, in addition, Hans felt uncomfortable due to the fact that he was older than his classmates. The study ended in 1827, but the writer was never able to master the grammar, so he wrote with errors until the end of his life.

Creation

Considering a brief biography of Christian Andersen, it is worth paying attention to his work. The first ray of fame brought the writer a fantastic story "Hiking from the Holmen canal to the eastern tip of Amager". This work was published in 1833, and for it the writer received an award from the king himself. The cash reward enabled Andersen to make the trip abroad he had always dreamed of.

This was the start, the runway, the beginning of a new life stage. Hans Christian realized that he could prove himself in another field, and not just in the theater. He began to write, and wrote a lot. Various literary works, including the famous "Tales" by Hans Christian Andersen, flew out from under his pen like hot cakes. In 1840, he once again tried to conquer the theater stage, but the second attempt, like the first, did not bring the desired result. But in the writing craft, he was successful.

success and hate

The collection “A Book with Pictures without Pictures” is published in the world, 1838 was marked by the release of the second issue of “Fairy Tales”, and in 1845 the world saw the bestseller “Fairy Tales-3”. Step by step, Andersen became a famous writer, he was talked about not only in Denmark, but also in Europe. In the summer of 1847 he visits England, where he is greeted with honors and triumph.

The writer continues to write novels and plays. He wants to become famous as a novelist and playwright, only fairy tales, which he quietly begins to hate, brought him true fame. Andersen no longer wants to write in this genre, but fairy tales appear from under his pen again and again. In 1872, on Christmas Eve, Andersen wrote his last story. In the same year, he inadvertently fell out of bed and was seriously injured. He never recovered from his injuries, although he lived for another three years after the fall. The writer died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen.

The very first fairy tale

Not so long ago, researchers in Denmark discovered a fairy tale “The Tallow Candle” by Hans Christian Andersen, unknown until that time. The summary of this find is simple: the tallow candle cannot find its place in this world and will become discouraged. But one day she meets a tinderbox that kindles a fire in her, to the delight of others.

In terms of its literary merits, this work is significantly inferior to the fairy tales of the late period of creativity. It was written when Andersen was still at school. He dedicated the work to the priest's widow, Mrs. Bunkeflod. Thus, the young man tried to appease her and thank her for the fact that she paid for his unlucky science. The researchers agree that this work is filled with too much moralizing, there is no that gentle humor, but only morality and "spiritual experiences of the candle."

Personal life

Hans Christian Andersen never married and had no children. In general, he was not successful with women, and did not strive for this. However, he still had love. In 1840, in Copenhagen, he met a girl named Jenny Lind. Three years later, he will write in his diary the cherished words: “I love!” For her, he wrote fairy tales and dedicated poems to her. But Jenny, addressing him, said "brother" or "child." Although he was almost 40 years old, and she was only 26. In 1852, Lind married a young and promising pianist.

In his declining years, Andersen became even more extravagant: he often visited brothels and sat there for a long time, but never touched the girls who worked there, but only talked to them.

As you know, in Soviet times, foreign writers were often published in an abridged or revised version. This did not bypass the works of the Danish storyteller: instead of thick collections, thin collections were published in the USSR. Soviet writers had to remove any mention of God or religion (if not, soften it). Andersen does not have non-religious works, it's just that in some works it is immediately noticeable, while in others the theological overtones are hidden between the lines. For example, in one of his works there is a phrase:

Everything was in this house: both prosperity and swaggering gentlemen, but there was no owner in the house.

But in the original it is written that in the house there is not a master, but the Lord.

Or take Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" for comparison: the Soviet reader does not even suspect that when Gerda is scared, she begins to pray. It’s a little annoying that the words of the great writer were twisted, or even thrown out altogether. After all, the real value and depth of a work can be understood by studying it from the first word to the last point set by the author. And in the retelling, something fake, unspiritual and unreal is already felt.

A few facts

Finally, I would like to mention a few little-known facts from the life of the author. The storyteller had Pushkin's autograph. "Elegy", signed by a Russian poet, is now in the Danish Royal Library. Andersen did not part with this work until the end of his days.

Every year on April 2, Children's Book Day is celebrated all over the world. In 1956, the International Council on Children's Books awarded the storyteller the Gold Medal, the highest international award that can be received in modern literature.

Even during his lifetime, a monument was erected to Andersen, the project of which he personally approved. At first, the project depicted the writer sitting surrounded by children, but the storyteller was outraged: "I would not have been able to say a word in such an environment." Therefore, the children had to be removed. Now on the square in Copenhagen sits a storyteller with a book in his hand, all alone. Which, however, is not so far from the truth.

Andersen cannot be called the soul of the company, he could be alone for a long time, reluctantly converged with people and seemed to live in a world that existed only in his head. No matter how cynical it may sound, but his soul was like a coffin - designed for only one person, for him. Studying the storyteller's biography, only one conclusion can be drawn: writing is a lonely profession. If you open this world to someone else, then the fairy tale will turn into an ordinary, dry and emotional story.

"The Ugly Duckling", "The Little Mermaid", "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The King's New Dress", "The Princess and the Pea" and more than a dozen fairy tales gave the world the author's pen. But in each of them there is a lone hero (main or secondary - it does not matter), in which Andersen can be recognized. And this is right, because only a storyteller can open the door to that reality where the impossible becomes possible. If he had cut himself out of the story, it would have become a mere story with no right to exist.