Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was born into a poor family of shoemakers in Odense, his father a shoemaker and a mother a servant, having a poor childhood, attending a charity school and working as an apprentice. Influenced by his father and folk oral literature, Andersen loved literature from an early age.
In 1814, Hans Christian Andersen's father died. After 2 years, the mother remarried. At the age of 14, Hans Christian Andersen traveled alone to the capital, Copenhagen, to pursue his artistic ideals. At the age of 17, he published the poem "Alfsor", which came to prominence. As a result, he was sent to the Slagless grammar school and the Helsingo School for free at the Royal Theatre of the Arts. In 1828, he was admitted to the University of Copenhagen. After graduation, Andersen lived mainly on the fees of the manuscript, and in 1838 received a writer's prize.
Andersen's literary career began in 1822 with the writing of plays. After entering the university, his creations matured. He has published travelogues and cabaret comedies, as well as poetry collections and poetry plays. In 1835 he published the novel Improv Poet, which earned him an international reputation and was a masterpiece of adult literature.
Andersen's fairy tales are divided into three periods: early, middle and late. Early fairy tales are full of beautiful fantasies and optimistic spirits, reflecting the characteristics of a combination of realism and romanticism. Representative works include "Lighting Box", "Little Itida's Flower", "Thumbelina", "Daughter of the Sea", "Wild Swan", "Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor's New Clothes". In the middle of the fairy tale, the fantasy component weakens, and the reality component is relatively enhanced. In the lashing out at the ugly and praising the good, it shows the persistent pursuit of a better life, and also reveals the melancholy mood of lack of confidence. Representative works include "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches", "The Ice Queen", "Shadow", "A Drop of Water", "Mother's Story", and "The Puppeteer".
Late fairy tales face reality more than in the middle period, focusing on depicting the tragic fate of the people at the bottom, exposing the coldness, darkness and unfairness of social life. The tone of the work is low. Representative works include "Dream Under the Willow Tree", "She is a Waste", "Bachelor's Nightcap", "Lucky Belle".
Hans Christian Andersen never married. He has spent his whole life in fairy tales, he is reluctant to contact outsiders, he is very inferior, thinking that he is not only ugly, but also poor. Shortly before his death, Andersen told a young writer: "I have paid a huge, if incalculable, price for my fairy tales." For the sake of fairy tales, I rejected my own happiness and missed a time when, how powerful and glorious the imagination was, should give way to reality. ”
At 11:00 a.m. on August 4, 1875, Hans Christian Andersen died of liver cancer at a friend's country house at the age of 70. Behind him is known as the "sun of world children's literature".
Representative works "Daughter of the Sea", "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Wild Swan", "Thumbelina" and so on.
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