L. Frank Baum
The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
—from his introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Hilaire Belloc
What a great thing it is in this perplexed, confused, and, if not unhappy at least unrestful time, to come across a thing which is cleanly itself! What a pleasure it is amid our entwining controversies to find straightness, and among our confused noises a chord. Hans Christian Andersen is a good type of that simplicity; and his own generation recognised him at once; now, when those contemporaries who knew him best are for the most part dead, their recognition is justified. Of men for whom so much and more is said by their contemporaries, how many can stand the test which his good work now stands, and stands with a sort of sober triumph? Contemporary praise has a way of gathering dross. We all know why. There is the fear of this, the respect for that; there is the genuine unconscious attachment to a hundred unworthy and ephemeral things; there is the chance philosophy of the moment overweighing the praise-giver. In a word, perhaps not half a dozen of the great men who wrote in the generation before our own would properly stand this test of a neat and unfringed tradition....
Andersen could not only tell the truth but tell it in twenty different ways, and of a hundred different things. Now this character has been much exaggerated among literary men in importance, because literary men, perceiving it to be the differentiation which marks out the great writer from the little, think it to be the main criterion of letters. It is not the main criterion; but it is a permanent necessity in great writing. There is no great writing without this multiplicity, which is sometimes called imagination, sometimes experience, and sometimes judgment, but which is in its essence a proper survey of the innumerable world. This quality it is which makes the great writers create what are called “characters”; and whether we recognise those “characters” as portraits drawn from the real world (they are such in Balzac), or as figments (they are such in Dickens), or as heroines and heroes (they are such in Shakespeare and in Homer, if you will excuse me), yet that they exist and live in the pages of the writer means that he had in him that quality of contemplation which corresponds in our limited human nature to the creative power.
—from On Anything (1910)
William Dean Howells
Never has a beautiful talent needed an introduction less than Hans Christian Andersen from the sort of glibness which is asked to officiate in that way at lectures and public meetings and in the forefront of books. Every one knows who this gentle Dane was, and almost every one knows what he did.... I suppose there never were stories with so little harm in them, so much good. Each of them has a moral, but so neatly tucked away that it does not stick out at the end as morals usually do, particularly in stories meant for children, but [it] is mostly imparted with the sort of gay wisdom which a friendly grown-up uses with the children when they do not know whether he is funning or not. The great beauty of them is the homely tenderness which they are full of, the kind of hospitality which welcomes all sorts and conditions of children to the same intimacy. They are of a simplicity always so refined that there is no touch of coarseness in them; with their perfect naturalness they are of a delicate artistry which will take the young children unaware of its perfection, and will only steal into their consciousness perhaps when they are very old children. Some may never live to feel the art, but they will feel the naturalness at once.
How wholesome, how good, how true, how lovely! That is what I think, when I think of any of Andersen’s stories, but perhaps I think it most when I read “The Ugly Ducking,” which is the allegory of his own life, finding its way to fame and honor through many kinds of difficulty and discouragement from others and from the consequences of his own defects and foibles. Nobody could have written those benignant fables, those loving parables, who had not suffered from impatience and misunderstanding such as Andersen exaggerates in his autobiography and travesties in that story; and his rise to good will above the snubs and hurts which he somewhat too plaintively records is as touching a thing as I know in literary history. His sole revenge takes in that sweet satire, and it is no great excess after owning himself an ugly duckling if he comes at last to see himself a swan. He was indeed a swan as compared with most ducklings that grow up to ordinary proportions of ducks from their humble origin, but I do not care if in his own nature and evolution he did not always get beyond a goose. There are many ducklings who do not get as far as being geese, and I mean what I say for high praise of our poet. Swans are magnificent birds, and as long as they keep in the water or the sky they are superbly graceful, with necks that curve beyond anything, but they are of no more use in the world than eagles; they have very bad tempers, and they bite abominably, and strike with their wings with force to break a man’s bones, so that I would have ugly ducklings mostly stop short of becoming swans.
But here I am, trying to put a moral in the poet’s mouth, not reflecting that a moral is the last thing he means in his fairy tales and wonder stories. They are of a witchery far beyond sermoning, in that quaint humor, that subtle suggestion, that fidelity to what we know of ourselves, of our small passions and vanities and follies as young children and our full-sized faults as old ones. You might go through them all with no more sense of instruction, if you pleased, than you would feel in walking out in a pleasant country, with here and there a friendly homestead, flocks grazing, and boys and girls playing. But perhaps such a scene, such a mild experience, makes one think as well as a direct appeal to one’s reason or conscience. The children, however, need not be afraid. I think I could safely assure the worst of them (and how much better the worst of them are than the best of us!) that they can get back to themselves from this book, for the present at least, with no more trouble of spirit, if they choose, than if they had been reading the Arabian Nights. Long afterward it may be that, when they have forgotten many Arabian Nights, something will come to them out of a dim memory of these fairy tales and wonder stories, and they will realize that our dear Hans Christian Andersen meant so and so for their souls’ good when he seemed to be merely amusing them. I hope so.
—from his Introduction to
Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales and Wonder Stories (1914)
W. H. Auden
Hans Andersen, so far as I know, was the first man to take the fairy tale as a literary form and invent new ones deliberately. Some of his stories are, like those of Perrault, a reworking of folk material—“The Wild Swans,” for example, is based on two stories in the Grimm collection, “The Six Swans,” and “The Twelve Brothers”—but his best tales, like “The Snow Queen,” or “The Hardy Tin Soldier,” or “The Ice Maiden” are not only new in material but as unmistakeably Andersen’s as if they were modern novels.
—from his introduction to Tales of Grimm and Andersen (1952)
Alison Lurie
Mutual romantic love is very rare in Andersen’s tales. Again and again, his protagonists are rejected by those they court—and in this they share the unhappy experience of their author. All his life, Andersen continually fell in love with upper-class or titled persons, both male and female. Though he made many acquaintances, he had almost no romantic success: these people liked having him come to their houses, tell stories to their children, and sign books, but their attitude always remained one of friendly, slightly distant patronage.
—from Boys and Girls Forever: Children’s Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter (2003)
QUESTIONS
1. Is there a philosophy, theory, thesis, morality, or conception of human life that holds these tales together?
2. What do these tales reveal to us about Andersen’s understanding or feeling about the relations between the sexes?
3. Money certainly holds a prominent place in Andersen’s tales. Can you think of anything in the tales that has greater value?
4. If you were told you had to invent a tale of the sort Andersen wro
te, what, in brief, would it be about? Compose a paragraph-length synopsis of your plot.
For Further Reading
TRANSLATIONS OF ANDERSEN’S WORKS IN ENGLISH
Andersen, H. C. Author’s Edition [Andersen’s Works]. 10 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1869-1908.
The Andersen-Scudder Letters. Edited and translated by Waldemar Westergaard; introduction by Jean Hersholt; interpretative essay by Helge Topsøe-Jensen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949. Andersen’s correspondence with American editor, publisher, and writer Horace Elisha Scudder.
Brothers, Very Far Away and Other Poems. Edited by Sven Rossel. Seattle, WA: Mermaid Press, 1991.
The Diaries of Hans Christian Andersen. Edited and translated by Patricia Conroy and Sven Rossel. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990.
The Fairy Tale of My Life. Translated by W. Glyn Jones. New York: British Book Centre, 1954.
The Fairy Tale of My Life. Translated by Horace Scudder. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1871.
Hans Christian Andersen’s Correspondence with the Late Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Charles Dickens, etc. etc. Edited by Frederick Crawford. London: Dean and Son, 1891.
The Improvisatore; or, Life in Italy. Translated by Mary Howitt. 2 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1845.
In Spain. Translated by Mrs. Bushby. London: Richard Bentley, 1864.
In Spain, and A Visit to Portugal. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1870.
Lucky Peer. Translated by Horace E. Scudder. Scribner’s Monthly (January, February, March, and April 1871).
Only a Fiddler! and O. T.; or, Life in Denmark. 3 vols. Translated by Mary Howitt. London: Richard Bentley, 1845.
Pictures of Sweden. Translated by I. Svering. London: Richard Bentley, 1851.
Pictures of Travel in Sweden, among the Hartz Mountains, and in Switzerland, with a Visit at Charles Dickens’s House, etc. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1871.
A Poet’s Bazaar. 3 vols. Translated by Charles Beckwith Lohmeyer. London: Richard Bentley, 1846.
Rambles in the Romantic Regions of the Hartz Mountains. Translated by Charles Beckwith Lohmeyer. London: Richard Bentley, 1848.
Seven Poems—Syv digte. Translated by R. P. Keigwin. Odense: Hans Christian Andersen’s House, 1955.
The Story of My Life. Translated by Horace E. Scudder. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1871.
To Be, or Not to Be? Translated by Mrs. Bushby. London: Richard Bentley, 1857.
The True Story of My Life. Translated by Mary Howitt. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1847.
The Two Baronesses. 2 vols. Translated by Charles Beckwith Lohmeyer. London: Richard Bentley, 1848.
A Visit to Portugal 1866. Translated and edited by Grace Thornton. London: Peter Owen, 1972.
A Visit to Spain and North Africa. Translated and edited by Grace Thornton. London: Peter Owen, 1975.
CRITICAL WORKS
Andersen, Jens. Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life. Translated by Tiina Nunnally. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2006.
Atkins, A. M. “The Triumph of Criticism: Levels of Meaning in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier.” Scholia Satyrica 1 (1975), pp. 25-28.
Bain, R. Nisbet. Hans Christian Andersen: A Biography. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1895.
Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells, eds. From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Book, Fredrik. Hans Christian Andersen: A Biography. Translated by G. Schoolfield. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Born, Ann. “Hans Christian Andersen: An Infectious Genius.” Anderseniana 2 (1976), pp. 248-260.
Brandes, Georg. “Hans Christian Andersen.” In Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century. Translated by R. B. Anderson. New York: Crowell, 1886.
Braude, L. Y “Hans Christian Andersen and Russia.” Scandinavica 14 (1975), pp. 1-15.
Bredsdorff, Elias. Hans Andersen and Charles Dickens: A Friendship and Its Dissolution. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1956.
—. Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805-75. London: Phaidon, 1975.
Bredsforff, Thomas. Deconstructing Hans Christian Andersen: Some of His Fairy Tales in the Light of Literary Theory—and Vice versa. Minneapolis: Center for Nordic Studies, University of Minnesota, 1993.
Browning, George. A Few Personal Recollections of Hans Christian Andersen. London: Unwin, 1875.
Burnett, Constance B. The Shoemaker’s Son: The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. New York: Random House, 1941.
Dahlerup, Pil. “Splash! Six Views of “The Little Mermaid.” Scandinavian Studies 63:2 (1991), pp. 141-163.
Dal, Erik. “Hans Christian Andersen’s Tales and America.” Scandinavian Studies 40 (1968), pp. 1-25.
Duffy, Maureen. “The Brothers Grimm and Sister Andersen.” In The Erotic World of Faery. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1972, pp. 263-284.
Frank, Diane Crone, and Jeffrey Frank. “A Melancholy Dane.” The New Yorker (January 8, 2001), pp. 78-84.
. “The Real Hans Christian Andersen.” In The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Diane Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, pp. 1-36.
Godden, Rumer. Hans Christian Andersen: A Great Life in Brief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954.
Grønbech, Bo. Hans Christian Andersen. Boston: Twayne, 1980.
Haugaard, Erik C. “Hans Christian Andersen: A Twentieth-Century View.” Scandinavian Review 14 (1975), pp. 1-15.
Hees, Annelies van. “The Little Mermaid.” In H. C. Andersen: Old Problems and New Readings, edited by Steven Sondrup. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 2004, pp. 259-270.
Heltoft, Kjeld. Hans Christian Andersen as an Artist. Translated by Reginald Spink. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1977.
Holbek, Bengt. “Hans Christian Andersen’s Use of Folktales.” In A Companion to the Fairy Tale, edited by Hilda Ellis David-son and Anna Chaudri. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003, pp. 149-158.
Houe, Poul. “Going Places: Hans Christian Andersen, the Great European Traveler.” In Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World, edited by Sven Rossel. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, pp. 123-175.
. “Andersen in Time and Place—Time and Place in Andersen.” In Hans Christian Andersen: A Poet in Time, edited by Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen, and Viggo Hjør-nager Pedersen. Odense: Odense University Press, 1999, pp. 87-108.
Johnson, Spencer. The Value of Fantasy: The Story of Hans Christian Andersen. La Jolla, CA: Value Communications, 1979.
Jones, W. Glyn. Denmark. New York: Praeger, 1970.
. “Andersen and Those of Other Faiths.” In Hans Christian Andersen: A Poet in Time, edited by Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen, and Viggo Hjørnager Pedersen. Odense: Odense University Press, 1999, pp. 259-270.
Jørgensen, Aage. Hans Christian Andersen Through the European Looking Glass. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998.
Koelb, Clayton. “The Rhetoric of Ethical Engagement.” In his Inventions of Reading: Rhetoric and the Literary Imagination. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988, pp. 202-219.
Kofoed, Niels. “Hans Christian Andersen and the European Literary Tradition.” In Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World, edited by Sven Rossel. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, pp. 209-356.
Lederer, Wolfgang. The Kiss of the Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen and Man ’s Redemption by Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Manning-Sanders, Ruth. Swan of Denmark: The Story of Hans Christian Andersen. London: Heinemann, 1949.
Marker, Frederick. Hans Christian Andersen and the Romantic Theatre: A Study of Stage Practices in the Prenaturalistic Scandinavian Theatre. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971.
Massengale, James. “The Miracle and A Miracle in the Life of a Mermaid.” In Hans Christian Andersen: A Poet in Time, edited by Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen, and Viggo Hjørager Pedersen. Odense: Odense
University Press, 1999, pp. 555-576.
Meynell, Esther. The Story of Hans Andersen. New York: Henry Schuman, 1950.
Mishler, William, “H. C. Andersen’s ‘Tin Soldier’ in a Freudian Perspective.” Scandinavian Studies 50 (1978), pp. 389-395.
Mitchell, P. M. A History of Danish Literature. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1957, pp. 150-160.
Mortensen, Finn Hauberg. A Tale of Tales: Hans Christian Andersen and Danish Children’s Literature. Four parts in 2 vols. Minneapolis: Center for Nordic Studies, University of Minnesota, 1989.
Mouritsen, Flemming. “Children’s Literature.” In A History of Danish Literature, edited by Sven Rossel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992, pp. 609-631.
Mudrick, Marvin. “The Ugly Duck.” Scandinavian Review 68 (1980), pp. 34-48.
Mylius, Johan de. The Voice of Nature in Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Odense: Odense University Press, 1989.
. “Hans Christian Andersen and the Music World.” In Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World, edited by Sven Rossel. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, pp. 176-208.
Mylius, Johan de, Aage Jørgensen, and Viggo Hjørnager Pedersen, eds. Hans Christian Andersen: A Poet in Time. Odense: Odense University Press, 1999.
Nielsen, Erling. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875): The Writer Everybody Reads and Loves, and Nobody Knows. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1983.
Pedersen, Viggo Hjørnager. Ugly Ducklings? Studies in the English Translations of Hans Christian Andersen’s Tales and Stories. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004.
Prince, Alison. Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer. London: Allison and Busby, 1998.
Reumert, Elith. Hans Christian Andersen the Man. Translated by Jessie Bröchner. London: Methuen, 1927.