◊ The rating is calculated based on points awarded over the last week
◊ Points are awarded for:
⇒ visiting pages dedicated to the star
⇒voting for a star
⇒ commenting on a star
Biography, life story of Hans Christian Andersen
The world famous writer Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark in 1805 on April 2 on the island of Funen in the city of Odense. His father, Hans Andersen, was a shoemaker, his mother, Anna Marie Andersdatter, worked as a laundress. Andersen was not a relative of the king, this is a legend. He himself invented that he was a relative of the king and as a child played with Prince Frits, who later became the king. The source of the legend was Andersen's father, who told him many fairy tales and told the boy that they were relatives of the king. The legend was supported by Andersen himself throughout his life. Everyone believed in her so much that Andersen was allowed to be the only one other than his relatives to visit the king’s coffin.
Andersen studied at a Jewish school because he was afraid to go to a regular school, where children were beaten. Hence his knowledge of Jewish culture and traditions. He grew up as a delicately nervous child. After his father's death in 1816, he had to earn a living by working as an apprentice. In 1819 he went to Copenhagen, buying his first boots. He dreamed of becoming an artist and went to the theater, where he was taken out of pity, but then kicked out after his voice broke. While working in the theater between 1819 and 1822, he received several private lessons in German, Danish and Latin. He began to write tragedies and dramas. After reading his first drama, The Sun of the Elves, the management of the Royal Theater helped Andersen receive a scholarship from the king to study at the gymnasium. He began to study at the gymnasium, where he was cruelly humiliated, since he was 6 years older than his classmates. Inspired by his studies at the gymnasium, he wrote the famous poem “The Dying Child.” Andersen begged his guardian to take him out of the gymnasium, and in 1827 he was sent to a private school. In 1828, Hans Christian Andersen managed to enter the university in Copenhagen. He combined his studies at the university with his activities as a writer. He wrote a vaudeville which was performed at the Royal Theatre. In addition, the first was written romantic prose. Using the fees he received, Andersen went to Germany, where he met several interesting people and wrote many works under the impression of the trip.
CONTINUED BELOW
In 1833, Hans Christian made a gift to King Frederick - it was a cycle of his poems about Denmark, and after that he received a monetary allowance from him, which he spent entirely on traveling around Europe. Since then he has traveled continuously and been abroad 29 times, and also lived outside Denmark for about ten years. Andersen met many writers and artists. During his travels, he drew inspiration for his creativity. He had the gift of improvisation, the gift of transforming poetic images your impressions. His novel The Improviser, which was published in 1835, brought him European fame. Then many novels, comedy, melodrama and fairy-tale plays were written, which had a long and happy fate: “Oil-Lukoil”, “More expensive than pearls and gold” and “Mother Elder”. Andersen gained worldwide fame from his fairy tales for children. The first collections of fairy tales were published in 1835-1837, then in 1840, a collection of fairy tales and short stories for children and adults was published. Among these fairy tales were "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The Ugly Duckling" and others.
In 1867, Hans Christian Andersen received the rank of state councilor and the title of honorary citizen of his hometown Odense. He was also awarded the Order of Danebrog in Denmark, the Order of the White Falcon First Class in Germany, the Order of the Red Eagle Third Class in Prussia, and the Order of St. Olav in Norway. In 1875, by order of the king, it was announced on the writer’s birthday that a monument to Andersen would be erected in Copenhagen in the royal garden. The writer did not like the models of several monuments where he was surrounded by children. Andersen did not consider himself a children's writer and did not value his fairy tales, but continued to write more and more. He never married or had children. In 1872 he wrote his Christmas the last fairy tale. This year, an accident happened to the writer; he fell out of bed and was seriously injured. He was treated for this injury for the last three years of his life. He spent the summer of 1975 at his friends' villa, being seriously ill. On August 4, 1875, Andersen died in Copenhagen, the day of his funeral was declared a national day of mourning in Denmark. The royal family attended the writer's funeral service. In 1913, it was installed in Copenhagen famous monument The Little Mermaid, which has since become considered a symbol of Denmark. In Denmark, two museums are dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen - in Ourense and Copenhagen. Hans Christian's birthday, April 2, has long been celebrated as International Children's Book Day. Awarded annually by the International Children's Book Council since 1956 Gold medal Hans Christian Andersen, which is the highest international award in modern children's literature.
Most of us have known the name Hans Christian Andersen since childhood. He said about his life that it was wonderful and beautiful, that even in his childhood, disastrous years for the family Good Fairy invited him to choose a life for himself, anyway the chosen one would not have been better lived.
What was Andersen like? Outwardly, he was an awkward tall man with disproportionately long arms and legs, with a funny gait, because of which the boys gave him the nicknames “stork” and “lamppost.” The life of Hans Christian Andersen is unusual for a great man. He was born into the family of a shoemaker and a washerwoman in the provincial Danish town of Odense in 1805. Fairy tales and fantasy constantly lived in this family. His father not only read him tales from the Arabian Nights from infancy, he also told the boy that royal blood flowed in his veins. Most likely, it was a fantasy that Hans Christian sincerely believed in, written by him personally, claiming that his only childhood friend was Prince Frits.) However, we are talking about mysterious man. Who knows when the stories of a person who knows how to light up children's eyes became a fairy tale, and when they became a reality? The fact remains that after the death of King Frederick VII (Frits received this name at the coronation), the only person allowed to the coffin, besides the family, was Andersen.
The biography of Hans Christian Andersen is illuminated by his love for the theater. His favorite game was a home puppet theater, where the “actors” were homemade wooden dolls with clothes sewn from scraps. The boy came up with more and more new performances for them. But Hans learned to write and read only at the age of 10. This was preceded next story. When a few years earlier his father sent him to study with the widow of a glover, she somehow (as was customary in the 18th century) punished him with rods. He did not tolerate violence. Hans, taking the primer under his arm, sedately, with his head held high, left the tormentor’s house forever.
Trouble came to the family when Andersen was 11 years old - his father died suddenly. The child had to go to work to feed his family: first as an apprentice at a cloth factory, then at a tobacco factory.
The further biography of Hans Christian Andersen again becomes like a fairy tale. As his mother later recalled, one fortune teller in her presence, predicting the fate of her son, told him about fame, about a monument during his lifetime. Once a puppet theater that came to the town needed an occasional actor-extra to play the role of a coachman. Hans gladly took advantage of this opportunity. Giving homemade puppet shows in the wealthy houses of Odense, he enlisted the help of the colonel in order to realize his dream - to become an actor at the Royal Theater. Having bought boots with the money he earned, fourteen-year-old Andersen went to Copenhagen. His mother allowed him to leave, hoping that Hans would soon return, because they had neither relatives nor friends in the capital. Having told him about this, she asked the question: “Why are you going?” To this the teenager answered succinctly and exhaustively: “To become famous!”
The dream came true: first out of pity, and also thanks to his “theatrical” voice, the boy was accepted to cameo roles. When Hans turned into a young man and his voice “broke,” he was disappointed - he was fired from the theater due to lack of prospects. But he has already been noticed, thanks to his unusual imagination. A friend from the theater, the poet Ingeman, revealed the essence of Hans Christian Andersen’s talent - to be able to see for himself and show his readers “pearls in the gutter.” The talented boy was noticed and, upon a satisfied petition to King Frederick VI, he was given the opportunity to receive an education for a government fee. Now Hans was fed, dressed, and had a roof over his head. But the awkward young man, chronically unfriendly with grammar, was constantly criticized by teachers and fellow students who were six years younger. Great storyteller I wrote that way until the end of my days!
The biography of Hans Christian Andersen as a writer begins at the age of 25, after the publication of a fantastic story about adventures romantic hero when sailing through canals. Two years later, having received the Royal Prize, Hans Christian Andersen received a powerful stream of impressions while traveling around Europe. Two years later, in 1835, he finally gave up trying to write plays and created the first cycle of his fairy tales.
The Danes were delighted and surprised. Many were perplexed: how in general ordinary person could create such a miracle? After all similar stories can only be known to Ole Lukoya, who is able to hear the words, catch the thoughts of the Rose Bush, and talk with little Thumbelina. The second cycle was published by him three years later. When asked by journalists about where he gets his stories from, Andersen was usually surprised and asked if they themselves didn’t notice anything. After all, if you look closely and listen carefully, then every fence, every wild flower strives to tell its own story. Being famous, the writer nevertheless tried to return to the path of a theater playwright. However, the attempt did not bring him success. In 1845, he created the third cycle of fairy tales.
Think, isn’t this a miracle - it was given to one single person to create the folklore of an entire country and generously give it to his homeland?! His “The Snow Queen”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “Thumbelina”, “The Princess and the Pea” are known all over the world.
The biography of Hans Christian Andersen is life in a fairy tale. After his death in 1875, under his pillow, friends found handwritten sheets with a new, almost written magical story.
He told stories
Hans Christian Andersen
“In 1805, in the town of Odense (on the island of Fionia, Denmark), a young couple lived in a poor closet - a husband and wife who loved each other endlessly: a young twenty-year-old shoemaker, a richly gifted poetic nature, and his wife, several years older, who knew nothing life, no light, but with a rare heart. Only recently became a master, my husband put together with his own hands the entire furnishings of the shoemaker's workshop and even the bed. On April 2, 1805, a small, screaming lump appeared - I, Hans Christian Andersen. I grew up as an only child and therefore a spoiled child; I often had to hear from my mother how lucky I was, because I live much better than she did in childhood: well, just a real count’s son, she told her herself when she was. when she was little, they kicked her out of the house to ask for alms. She couldn’t make up her mind and spent whole days sitting under the bridge, by the river, listening to her stories about this, I burst into burning tears.” (G.-K. Andersen “The Tale of My Life”. 1855, translation by A. Hansen)
Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in Odense on the 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 the royal origin of Andersen, 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 writer was sure: his father was King Christian the Eighth, who, as a prince, allowed himself numerous novels.
From a relationship with a noble girl Elisa Ahlefeld-Laurvig, a boy was allegedly born, who was given to the family of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. During a trip to Rome, the Danish princess Charlotte Frederica actually told Andersen that he was illegitimate son king. Apparently, she just laughed at the poor dreamer. However, when a penniless writer at the age of 33 unexpectedly received an annual royal scholarship, he became even more convinced that “his father did not forget him.”
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 1816, 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. Andersen became interested in puppet theater later.
He grew up as a very subtly nervous child, emotional and receptive. At that time, physical punishment of children in schools was common, so the boy was afraid to go to school, and his mother sent him to a Jewish school, where physical punishment of children was prohibited. Hence Andersen’s forever preserved connection with the Jewish people and knowledge of their traditions and culture; he wrote several fairy tales and stories on Jewish themes.
At the age of 14, Hans 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 Hans Christian 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. Just to get rid of the annoying teenager, she promised to arrange everything, but did not fulfill her promise. She later told Andersen that she simply mistook him for a madman.
Hans Christian was a lanky teenager with long and thin limbs, a neck and an equally long nose. 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. Hans Christian, meanwhile, composed a play in five 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 gave an announcement 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 complete absence author's 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 errors in his writing - Andersen never mastered literacy.
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.
“I am still innocent, but my blood burns,” Andersen wrote at age 29. It seems that Hans Christian never bothered to put out this fire.
He promised to marry his first girlfriend when he began to earn one and a half thousand riksdalers 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 his apartment in Copenhagen cost at least 300 thousand.
All of Andersen’s “great loves” remained platonic. For two years he went to Sweden to visit the singer Jenny Lindt (she was nicknamed the nightingale for her beautiful voice), showered her with flowers and poems. 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 40 and she was only 26 years old. In 1852 Lind married young pianist Otto Holschmidt. 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.
For the second half of Andersen’s life, young friends accompanied him on his travels, but no open evidence of the friends’ close relationships has been preserved.
Published by Andersen in 1829 fantastic story“A journey on foot from the Holmen canal to the eastern tip of Amager” brought the writer fame. Little was written before 1833, when Andersen received a financial allowance from the king, which allowed him to make the first trip abroad in his life. From this time on, Andersen writes large number literary works.
Since 1835, Hans Christian Andersen begins to periodically publish fairy tales, which in 1841 will be included in the book “A Tale That Was Told to Children.” Early tales Andersen is, as a rule, a literary adaptation folk tales which he himself heard in childhood ("Flint", "Little Claus and Big Claus", "The Princess and the Pea", "Wild Swans", "The Swineherd", but others). The plot of "The King's New Clothes" was borrowed from a Spanish source. But “Thumbelina”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Galosh of Happiness”, “Chamomile”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “Ole Lukoie”, although somewhat related to folklore, are still original works. Against the backdrop of numerous storytellers that the era of romanticism gave birth to different countries, Andersen's fairy tales are distinguished by the lack of a didactic basis and, as it seemed, criticism of XIX century, the lack of proper honor for the royal persons, who in Andersen’s fairy tale walk around the palace in pantofle (after all, the palace is their home), make their bed and cook buckwheat porridge.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, Andersen's fairy tales become very popular and bring the author fame throughout Europe. Stories about the ugly duckling To the Snow Queen, the swineherd, and the tin soldier won the hearts of not only children, but also adults.
The 19th century can be called the era of folklore revival. At this time, philologists carefully studied folk tales and legends, many walked around villages and wrote down fairy tales from the words of peasants. The Brothers Grimm in Germany, Alexander Afanasyev in Russia, Elias Lönnort in Finland made up the most complete collections folk tales, published national epic works.
Hans Christian Andersen was one of the first authors in Europe to begin writing his own magical stories. It is no coincidence that literary scholars call him the founder literary fairy tale. The writer was also the first to make the heroes of fairy tales not fictional characters, A ordinary people, the action in his works does not take place in Far Far Away Kingdom, and in an ordinary city in which any of us could live, and finally, Andersen’s fairy tales do not always end happily for the heroes.
In the 1840s, Andersen tried to return to the stage, but without much success. At the same time, he confirmed his talent by publishing the collection “Picture Book Without Pictures.”
The fame of his “Fairy Tales” grew; The 2nd issue of “Fairy Tales” was started in 1838, and the 3rd in 1845. By this time it was already famous writer, widely known in Europe. In June 1847 he came to England for the first time and was given a triumphant welcome.
One day the writer was walking along the street of Copenhagen in the Old Port area. As he passed by one of the windows, the woman said to her son: “Here comes Mr. Andersen. His lullaby makes you fall asleep so well.”
The boy looked at a tall and thin man in a black suit, somewhat reminiscent of a foreigner, took his only soldier, ran out into the street, gave it to the stranger and ran away...
When some dandy in Copenhagen, seeing an old, worn hat on the writer’s head, exclaimed: “And what, this pathetic thing on your head is called a hat?!” - he immediately replied: “Is this pathetic thing under your hat called a head?”
The monument to Andersen was erected during his lifetime; he himself approved the design of the architect Auguste Sabø. Initially, according to the project, he sat in a chair, surrounded by children, and this outraged Andersen. “I couldn’t say a word in that atmosphere,” he said. Now on the square in Copenhagen, named after him, there is a monument: the storyteller in a chair with a book in his hand - and alone.
Andersen was sure that if he lost all his teeth, he would stop writing. And indeed, the writer no longer picked up a pen after his last tooth fell out.
In 1872, Andersen fell out of bed, was badly hurt and never recovered from his injuries, although he lived for another three years. He died on 4 August 1875 at the age of seventy and is buried in Assistance Cemetery in Copenhagen.
Andersen wrote his last fairy tale in 1872 for Christmas. The writer died on August 4, 1875. According to eyewitnesses, all of Denmark gathered to say goodbye to the storyteller. Friends joked: “If Hans Christian had seen his funeral, he would have been very pleased.”
One of the most famous writers fairy tales is Andersen. Brief biography for schoolchildren, this author should include the main stages of his life, the main milestones of creativity, and most importantly, features literary activity. In this regard, it is also necessary to mention his main works, and also show that he wrote not only fairy tales, but tried his hand at different genres, while simultaneously practicing in the theater and creating travel notes. This man was a very multifaceted and versatile personality, while the general public knows him, as a rule, only as the author of fairy tales. However, a brief biography of Andersen should also include mention of other areas of his interests and activities.
Childhood
He was born in 1805 on the island of Funen. He came from a poor family: his father was a carpenter and shoemaker, and his mother was a laundress. The future writer already had problems getting an education: he was afraid of corporal punishment, and therefore his mother sent him to a Jewish school, where it was prohibited. However, he learned to read only by the age of ten and wrote with errors until the end of his life.
On school lessons it is very important to emphasize how complex labor school Andersen passed through his life. The biography for children should be briefly stated taking into account several facts of this kind, namely, that he was an apprentice in two factories, and these harsh ones left a strong imprint on his worldview.
Adolescence
His father and grandfather had a great influence on him. He himself wrote in his autobiography that his interest in theater and writing arose in childhood, when he listened to the stories of his grandfather and, together with his father, staged improvised home performances. In addition, the boy remembered the grandfather for carving funny toys from wood, and the future storyteller himself made clothes and costumes, arranging real scenes at home. A visit to the Copenhagen troupe had a great influence on him, where he once even played one small role. So he realized that he wanted to be a writer and artist. Andersen's short biography is also interesting because he himself is still very at a young age decided that he wanted to be famous and, having saved some money, went to Copenhagen.
Study and theater experience
In the capital, he tried to become an actor, but he never managed to master this art. But here he received a good education. At the request of influential acquaintances, he studied in two cities of the country, learned several languages and passed exams for a candidate's degree. Seeing in the young man a great desire to become an actor, the theater director gave him small roles, but very soon he was told that he would never be able to play professionally on stage. However, by that time his talent as a writer, playwright and writer had already emerged.
First works
A very short biography of Andersen should include his most famous works(besides his fairy tales, which everyone probably knows about, even those who haven’t read them). It is significant that his first literary experience was not fairy tales, but plays written in the genre of tragedies. Here success awaited him: they were published, and the writer received his first fee. Inspired by success, he continued to write in the genres of large prose, miniature short stories, plays, and notes. A short biography of Andersen, the most important content of which, perhaps, is, of course, the stage associated with writing fairy tales, should also take into account other aspects of the activity of this author.
Travel and dating
Despite the lack of funds, the writer still had the opportunity to travel around Europe. Having received small monetary rewards for their literary works, he visited various countries in Europe, where he made many interesting acquaintances. So, he met famous French writers V. Hugo and A. Dumas. In Germany he was introduced to the German poet Heine. TO interesting facts The fact that he had Pushkin’s autograph can also be attributed to his life. These travels had great value and for the further development of his work, since thanks to them he mastered a new genre of travel writing.
Creativity flourishes
A short biography of Andersen that children study school age, should include first of all that life stage a writer who is associated with writing fairy tales that have gained popularity not only in his homeland, but throughout the world. The beginning of their creation dates back to the second half of 1830, when the author began to publish his first collections. They immediately gained fame, although many criticized the author for being illiterate and too free in this genre. Nevertheless, it was this genre that made the writer famous. The peculiarity of his tales is the combination of reality and fantasy, humor, satire and elements of drama. It is significant that the writer himself did not consider that he was writing for children, and even insisted that there should not be a single figure of a child around his sculptural image. The secret of the success of the popularity of the author's fairy tales is that he created new look essays where inanimate objects, as well as plants, birds and animals became full-fledged characters.
Mature stage of creativity
A brief biography of Andersen should indicate his other achievements in the field fiction. Thus, he wrote in the genre of large prose (the novel “The Improviser” brought him European fame). He wrote miniature novels. The end of his long and fruitful creative path was the writing of his autobiography entitled “The Tale of My Life.” It is interesting because it reveals the character of this difficult person. The fact is that the writer was a reserved and very sensitive person. He was not married and had no children. The impressions of his youth and difficult childhood left an indelible imprint on him: he remained an extremely sensitive person throughout his life. The author died in Copenhagen in 1875.
The significance of his work is difficult to overestimate. It's hard to find another one like this popular writer for schoolchildren, like Andersen. Biography for children briefly is one of the important topics on school activities: after all, he became, perhaps, the most famous storyteller all over the world. Interest in his work continues to this day. So, in 2012, a manuscript was found on the island of Funen. unknown fairy tale writer "Wax Candle".
(1805 - 1875)
Danish writer. 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 called), in the family of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. Andersen heard his first fairy tales from his father, who read him stories from One 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, where his maternal grandmother worked. The boy listened to their stories with enthusiasm and later wrote that he “was made the writer of his father’s songs and the speeches of the mad.” Andersen began writing small plays as a child: the first play for his own " puppet theater", consisting of a performance box made by his father and wooden puppets for which Hans Christian sewed costumes, took him three months to compose. The first attempt to educate their son was unsuccessful: his parents sent him to study with the widow of a glover, but after the first flogging, Hans Christian took his primer and proudly left. He learned to read and write only when he was 10 years old. At the age of 12, Andersen was sent as an apprentice to a cloth factory, and then to a tobacco factory, since after the death of his father the family could barely make ends meet. Soon the mind accidentally had the chance to perform on the stage of a real theater. A theater troupe came from Copenhagen. An extra was required for the performance and Hans Christian received the wordless role of the coachman. From that moment on, the boy decided that theater was his calling.
In 1819, having earned some money and bought his first boots, Hans Christian Andersen went to Copenhagen. Patrons appeared, thanks to whom he could study literature, Danish, German and Latin languages, attended classes at a ballet school. After one of the capital’s actors said that Andersen would not make an actor, he had to give up his dream of the stage. Desperate and living from hand to mouth, Hans Christian decides to write a play. After the publication of the first act of “The Robbers in Wissenberg” in the Harp newspaper, he received his first literary fee. His works attracted the attention of the director of the capital's theater, J. Collin, thanks to whom Andersen received a royal scholarship and in 1822 he went to Slagelse. In Slagels, the seventeen-year-old writer was enrolled in the second grade of the Latin gymnasium. In 1826-1827, Andersen’s first poems (“Evening”, “The Dying Child”) were published, receiving positive reviews from critics.
In 1828, Hans Christian Andersen entered the University of Copenhagen and upon graduation passed two exams for the title of Candidate of Philosophy. In 1831, Andersen went on his first trip to Germany. In 1833, he presented King Frederick with a cycle of poems about Denmark, as a reward for which he received a small allowance for traveling around Europe, thanks to which he visited Paris, London, Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice. In France he met Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, in England - with Charles Dickens, in Italy - with the sculptor Thorvaldsen. He lived very poorly, since literary earnings were the only source of income, and works were not accepted immediately; critics pointed out spelling errors, were dissatisfied with the unusual style, the use of elements of colloquial language, and said that his fairy tales were not interesting to either adults or children. The heyday of Hans Christian Andersen's work occurred in the second half of the 1830s and 1840s; During this period, most of the fairy tales were written, which later brought him world fame.
Hans Christian Andersen lived his entire life as a bachelor, never waiting for the long-awaited “harmony of souls.” The last one was love for the famous opera singer Jenny Lind, who arrived in Copenhagen in the fall of 1843.
Two months before his death, the writer learned in one of the English newspapers that his fairy tales were among the most read throughout the world. Hans Christian Andersen died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen.
The heroine of Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid", to whom a monument was erected in Copenhagen, has become a symbol of the capital of Denmark. Since 1967, by decision of the International Children's Book Council (IBC), April 2, the birthday of the great storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, has been celebrated as International Children's Book Day (ICBD). In connection with the 200th anniversary of his birth, 2005 was declared by UNESCO as the Year of Andersen.
Bibliography
Works of Hans Christian Andersen
Among the works of Hans Christian Andersen are novels, stories, plays, short stories, short stories, philosophical essays, essays, poems, and more than 400 fairy tales. Poems were set to music: romances were written by Schumann and Mendelssohn. In Russia, Andersen's fairy tales were first published in 1844 ("The Bronze Boar"), and in 1894-1895 the first collected works of Andersen were published in 4 volumes.
- "Robbers in Wissenberg" (1819; tragedy)
- "Alfsol" (1819; tragedy)
- "Evening" (1826; poem)
- "The Dying Child" (1826; poem)
- “A Journey on Foot from the Holmen Canal to the Eastern Cape of the Island of Amager” (1829; first prose work)
- "Love on the Nicholas Tower" (1829; vaudeville)
- "Shadow Pictures" (1831; essay written after a trip to Germany)
- "Agnetha and Vodyanoy" (1834)
- “The Improviser” (1835, Russian translation - in 1844; novel)
- "Only the Violinist" (1837; novel)
- “Fairy tales told for children” (Everi, fortalte for born; 1835-1837; collection of fairy tales; in May and December 1835 - the first two collections, in April 1837 - the third collection)
- "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" (1838; fairy tale)
- “The Book of Pictures without Pictures” (1840; collection of short stories)
- "The Mulatto" (1840; a play against racial inequality)
- “The Poet’s Bazaar” (1842; collection of travel essays - the first version of the autobiography)
- "The Nightingale" (1843; fairy tale)
- "The Ugly Duckling" (1843; fairy tale)
- "The Snow Queen" (1844; fairy tale)
- "The Little Match Girl" (1845; fairy tale)
- “The Tale of My Life” (Mit livs eventir; 1846, Russian translation - in 1851, 1889; autobiography)
- "Shadow" (1847; fairy tale)
- "Mother" (1848; fairy tale)
- "Two Baronesses" (1849; novel in 3 volumes)
- "To be or not to be" (1857; novel)
- "Firstborn" (comedy)
- “More expensive than pearls and gold” (fairy tale play)
- “Elderberry Mother” (fairy tale play)
- “Ole-Lukoje” (fairy tale play)
