Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life

by Jens Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a storyteller for children of all ages, but he was also a critical journalist with great enthusiasm for science; an existential thinker; a travel writer; a passionate novelist; a paper cut-out artist; a neurotic hypochondriac; and a man with intense, but frustrated sexual desires. Andersen propagated myths about his life, but this new biography uncovers much about this man that has never been revealed before. This startling and immensely readable, definitive new biography, by Danish scholar Jens Andersen, is essential to a full understanding of the man whose writing has influenced the lives of readers young and old for centuries.

Genres: Biography, Fairy Tales, Nonfiction, Literature, History, Picture Books

600 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Mr. Andersen has a Ph.D. in Nordic Philology from the University of Copenhagen. He is a former soccer player and coach in Denmark. He has won several Danish literature prizes and recognitions over the years.

Reviews

[Therese]

Very interesting and readable biography of Hans Christian Andersen - long though! Interestingly, the biographer includes a kind of literary vignette at the start of each chapter - a kind of imagined short story involving Hans Christian Andersen. I wasn't quite sure what to make of those, and I was honing in on specific aspects of HCA's biography, so I mostly skipped them. HCA is a fascinating figure - very confident and persistent from a young age in his vision of his own destiny as an author, and throughout his life a constant hard worker and prolific producer in his craft. He was famous throughout Europe, though more respected abroad than at home in his native Denmark; an extremely social being for a writer, but also socially strange and awkward, and it seems in later years ever more self-centered.

[Christine]

Jens Andersen's biography of Hans Christian Andersen presents a detailed account of the writer's life, mostly in terms of HC Andersen's adult years. This book offers more of a look into HC Andersen's inner life, his inner person.

[Drianne]

Great biography. Very dense. I didn't know before reading it that Andersen was gay; I definitely believed he was afterwards.

[Stephanie]

informative and well organized- easy to use for academic papers

[Anne Marie Bøcker]

Det er en meget fyldestgørende og beskrivende biografi om HCA’ s forhold til hans nære relationer og ligesindede både på godt og ondt. Der hersker ikke nogen tvivl om, at han har været et krævende og excentrisk menneske, hvis personlighed på mange måder har været svær at forstå for sine omgivelser.

Derimod har han også været en højt respekteret forfatter, der omgik sig med andre store forfattere både herhjemme i Danmark og i udlandet. Han rejser bl.a. meget til udlandet og møder andre forfattere. Et voksenliv i stor kontrast til barndommen i Odense.

Biografien fortæller også beskrivende om Andersens kærlighedsliv. Han bliver såvel tiltrukket af mænd som kvinder, men det bliver ikke til noget. Han er afholdende og kærligheden opleves for ham som platonisk.

Hvis man skal komme med kritik, så savner jeg analyser af eventyrene og hvor han har hentet inspirationer fra. Han forstod barnesindet, som ikke var gængst af forfattere dengang og hvor kommer det fra? Det burde der være plads til i en biografi på lidt over 900 sider.

[Reni Grueva]

the sad irony when the life of a great storyteller is retold as the most boring story

[Shaitanah]

Exhaustively informative and hard to put down. A complex portrait of a very complicated man.

[Art Wangchu]

诘屈聱牙

[Niño Lobo KC]

Comenzó disgustándome y al final me gustó. Lo mejor, por su puesto, son los cuentos de Andersen. Inesperados, oscuros y tristes, algunos demasiado morales, como era normal para el Andersen de su tiempo. Lo peor fueron algunas anotaciones inútiles y puestas para rellenar. Al principio creí que todas serían absurdas, pero me di cuenta de que muchas eran interesantes. No había leído algo anotado y me gustó la sensación de diálogo que te aporta el punto de vista del analista. La calidad de la edición es insuficiente, sobre todo las imágenes que contiene no valen los 50 euros que pagué para nada. Me sentí estafada al sacar el libro de su plástico. Esperaba encontrar bellas reproducciones de los ilustradores, pero no las encontré. Una decepción completa, pues lo de las ilustraciones es uno de los puntos promocionales principales del libro. No compraría otro como estos a Akal.

[Christine]

A book to be read slowly if only to absorb the wealth of material; nearly overwhelming in its careful detail, but fascinating. Conting the footnotes, over 600 pages. Definitely worth the trouble.
Andersen was a very strange man, a very complex man, and had done much more than write fairy tales.