Famed Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen ( 1805 - 1875 ) is recognize around the world for his dear books , includingThe Ugly Duckling , Thumbelina , The Little Match Girl , The Princess and the Pea , and many others . However , few masses know much about the man behind these famous fairy taradiddle — a human being who endure many rigor and , by some accounts , transformed his pain into fine art . Here are seven surprising facts about Andersen ’s life and legacy that you wo n’t regain in the nestling ’s subdivision of a bookstall .
1. Some of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are autobiographical.
According to scholars , the tale ofThe Ugly Ducklingreflects Andersen ’s own tactual sensation of disaffection . As a boy , he was teased for his visual aspect and luxuriously - pitch voice , which often made him palpate isolated , and he laterwrotea story about a boy name Hans who stupefy made playfulness of as a child . Much like the frightful duckling , Andersen only later on in life became the “ swan”—a cultured , world - renowned writer with friend in gamy places . Andersen evenadmittedofThe Ugly Duckling , “ This narrative is , of course , a reflection of my own aliveness . ”
There ’s alsoevidencethat Andersen station his fictional character in desperate and hopeless situations to reflect his own personal trauma , which include being lift in impoverishment , losing his father , and having to brieflyworkin a factory at age 11 to support his female parent . Paul Binding , a literary critic who write abookabout Andersen , said the long - endure appeal of his storey go beyond their genuineness . " True , some of Andersen ’s most famous stories — The Ugly Duckling , The Steadfast Tin Soldier , evenThe Little Mermaid — are dramatisation or sublimations of his own dilemmas , but they would not work on us as they do if they did not overstep the personal — in language , in observation and detail , and in intricate but unnoticeable structure — to stick out on their own as absolutely wrought artifact of universal charm , " tie write forThe Guardian .
2. Hans Christian Andersen’s original version ofThe Little Mermaidwas a lot more depressing than Disney’s take.
Andersen’sLittle Mermaidstory from 1837 wasfar darkerthan the kid - friendly Disney movie it would by and by inspire . In the original ( which you could read online for freehere ) , an unnamed mermaid who lessen in dearest with a prince is offer the chance to take a human manakin , even though she ’ll live in perpetual excruciation and has to have her natural language hack out . The mermaid ’s goal — besides love — is to gather an immortal soul , which is only potential if the prince falls in dear with her and marries her . After the prince marries someone else , however , the mermaid contemplates murdering him , but alternatively accept her fate and throw herself into the ocean , where she unthaw into ocean froth . The mermaid is greeted by spiritual beings who say they ’ll help her get into heaven if she does expert works for 300 years . So there ’s that , at least .
3. Poor translations may have altered Hans Christian Andersen’s image abroad.
accord toUNESCO , Andersen is the eighth most - translated author in the world , trail right behind Vladimir Lenin . Though his body of work have beenreproducedin more than 125 languages , not all of them have been faithful retellings . From the beginning , there have been many lesson of “ shoddy transformation ” that “ obliterated ” his original stories , harmonize to the writers Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank in theirmodern translationofThe Stories of Hans Christian Andersen . As a result , Andersen ’s reputation beyond Scandinavia was “ not as a literary genius but as a quaint nineteenth - century writer of wizardly children ’s story , ” the couplet write .
4. Hans Christian Andersen wore out his welcome while staying with Charles Dickens.
Andersenmethis literary hero , Charles Dickens , at an aristocratic party in 1847 . They kept in touch , and a X afterwards Andersen come to persist with Dickens at the British writer ’s home in Kent , England . The visit was intend to last two weeks at most , but Andersen terminate up staying five week — to the discouragement of the Dickens family . On his first dawning there , Andersen exalt that it was a Danish custom for one of the boy of the household to plane their male node . alternatively of complying , the syndicate fix him up with a local barber . Andersen was also prostrate to scene , at one point throw himself face down on the lawn and sob after record a particularly bad review of one of his books . Once Andersen eventually pull up stakes , Dickenswroteand displayed a note that read , “ Hans Andersen slept in this way for five calendar week — which seemed to the household age ! ” Dickens stop responding to Andersen ’s letters , which effectively finish their friendly relationship .
5. Hans Christian Andersen was terrified of being buried alive.
Andersen had a lot ofphobias . He was afraid ofdogs . He did n’t eat pork barrel because he worried he would contract trichinae , a parasite that can be found inpigs . He kept a long rope in his luggage while travel , in grammatical case he require to escape a firing . He even fear he would incidentally be declared bushed and buried alive , so before seam each dark , he shore up a notation that translate , “ I only appear to be dead . ”
6. Hans Christian Andersen may have been celibate his whole life.
Although Andersen hold out a long and full aliveness , he struggled with personal relationships and never produce his own fairy tale ending . At unlike stage in his life , he fell for a routine of charwoman — and possibly a few men as well , according to some rendering of the amorous letter he write to new men — but his intuitive feeling were unrequited each sentence . " I believe he never had a sexual relationship , " biographer Bente Kjoel - byetoldtheDeseret News . Although Andersen is often consider as a pure and chaste figure , he was no stranger to lascivious thought . When he was 61 year old , he went to a brothel in Paris for the first time and pay a tart , but did n’t do anything except observe her undress . After a second visit to a " store which sell in human existence , " hewrotein his journal , " I spoke with [ a woman ] , paid 12 franc , and leave without having sinned in activity , but probably in thought . "
7. Hans Christian Andersen is considered a “national treasure” in Denmark.
The Danish governmentdeclaredAndersen a “ home gem ” when he was in his later sixties , around the same metre that he started showing symptoms of the liver cancer that would ultimately claim his aliveness . The governing subsequently pay him a stipend and started construct astatueof the author in the King ’s Garden in Copenhagen to commemorate his seventieth natal day . Andersen know to see his birthday , but died four calendar month later . Over a C later , you could still see tribute to the writer ’s bequest inCopenhagen , including a second statue of Andersen along the street bring up after him ( H.C. Andersens Boulevard ) and a carving of the Little Mermaid at Langelinje Pier . visitant are also welcome at hischildhood homein Odense , Denmark , and at amuseumdedicated to his work in the same urban center .
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