Hans Christian Andersen

Only 7 of the 156 fairy tales and stories that Hans Christian Andersen published in his lifetime are retellings, in his own style, of folktales. Some of the others, such as "Den lille Havfrue" (The Little Mermaid, 1837) and "Skyggen" (The Shadow, 1847), have literary origins, while a few of the tales are based on legends or historical material. But the majority of Andersen's stories are completely original. Andersen wrote the story of his life three times. He wrote the first account in 1832 when he was twenty-seven years old and about to embark on a grand cultural tour of Europe. Research paper hint: This autobiography remained unfinished and was not published until 1926, when it was discovered by Hans Brix, professor of Danish literature at the University of Copenhagen, who published it then under the title Levnedsbogen (Autobiography). Andersen's first official autobiography was written for inclusion in the German edition of his collected works published beginning in 1847 as volumes one and two under the title Das Merchen meines Lebens ohne Dichtung (and the same year in English as The True Story of My Life). The Danish version of his autobiography, Mit Livs Eventyr, an edited and expanded edition of the German, was published in 1855 as part of his Samlede Skrifter (Collected Works, 1854-1879). In connection with the ten-volume American "Author's Edition" of his works (1869-1871), Andersen updated his autobiography (volume seven in the collection) to include events up until 1867.

Andersen himself stated in the German version that his life provides the best key to understanding his work. When the French critic Xavier Marmier heard the details of Andersen's life from the author himself and asked whether he might be allowed to tell the story to the rest of the world, Andersen replied, "My life belongs to the world." This attitude can be explained in two ways. First, Andersen belongs to those modern authors whose lives and work are closely intertwined. Second, the nature of Andersen's life reached far beyond his personal sphere and took on a universal quality. This truth is apparent in the Danish title of his autobiography, translated literally as "The Fairy Tale of My Life." Thus, the genre that made him well known becomes an interpretative model for the course of his life. You may be asked to write an essay on the story of Andersen's life as one of unparalleled social and artistic success, rising as he did from the lowest and poorest layer of society to achieve not only the acceptance but the utter devotion of the highest social groups, the artistic elite and royal houses of many European countries. Outwardly, his story was a tremendous success - but he achieved it at great personal and psychological cost.