Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller - Softcover

Wullschlager, Jackie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226917479 ISBN 13: 9780226917474

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2002

Synopsis

Beloved by generations of children and adults around the world for tales such as "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) revolutionized children's literature. Although others before him had collected and retold folk stories and fairy tales, Andersen was the first to create the stories himself, instilling a previously stilted genre with new humor, wisdom, and pathos.

Drawing on letters, diaries, and other original sources (many never before translated from the Danish), Wullschlager shows in this compelling, extensively researched biography how Andersen's writings—darker and more diverse than previously recognized—reflected the complexities of his life, a far cry from the "happily ever after" of a fairy tale. As we follow in his footsteps from Golden Age Copenhagen to the princely courts of Germany and the villas of southern Italy, Andersen becomes a figure every bit as fascinating as a character from one of his stories—a gawky, self-pitying, and desperate man, but also one of the most gifted storytellers the world has ever known.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"In my view it is the best book ever written about Hans Christian Andersen. If someone had asked me a couple of months ago which biography of Andersen was the best I would immodestly have said my own work, but today I would answer that the best book is the one written by Jackie Wullschlager. Not only is is a fuller and more comprehensive biography, but it is the first book ever to place Andersen in a contemporary European tradition and to measure him with a European yardstick." —Elias Bredsdorff, Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Languages at Cambridge

"[T]his spring, Knopf will publish a biography by Jackie Wullschlager, a writer for the London Financial Times, which may add to the few reliable studies available in English, the most notable of which is Elias Bredsdorff's . . ." —Diana and Jeffrey Frank, The New Yorker

"Finely documented and insightful . . . Jackie Wullschlager's account . . . is a delight . . . her work gives off a classic sparkle. It will bring joy . . . "
-George Steiner, Observer

"Splendid . . . authoritative . . . gracefully written [and] meticulously referenced . . . will encourage many readers to revisit an author who undoubtedly deserves serious critical attention."
-Christina Hardyment, Financial Times

"Intensively researched and elegantly written."
-Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times

"Deals brilliantly with the whole man."

-Melanie McDonagh, Daily Telegraph

"Told with thoroughness and sympathy . . . [a life] as peculiar, fascinating and painful as any of his celebrated fairy tales."
-Rosemary Ashton, Sunday Telegraph

"An extraordinarily accomplished biography, both intellectually rigorous and emotionally wise . . . fascinating . . . Wullschlager wears her learning lightly but still we are left feeling we are in the hands of an expert guide."
-Kathryn Hughes, Literary Review

From the Inside Flap:

Drawing on letters, diaries, and other original sources (many never before translated from the Danish), Jackie Wullschlager shows in this compelling biography how the writings of Hans Christian Andersen (1805 1875)-darker and more diverse than previously recognized-reflected the complexities of his life, a far cry from the "happily ever after" of a fairy tale. As we follow in his footsteps from Golden Age Copenhagen to the princely courts of Germany and the villas of southern Italy, Andersen becomes a figure every bit as fascinating as a character from one of his stories-a gawky, self-pitying, and desperate man, but also one of the most gifted storytellers the world has ever known.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0226917479
• ISBN 13: 9780226917474
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 506