O. T. a Danish Romance

by Hans Christian Andersen

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

153 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1830

About the author

Hans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H.C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.

Reviews

[Mariangel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t manage to feel sympathy for the main character, Otto, nor for his best friend Wilhelm. Otto is gloomy and melancholic, too much affected by his past to even try to enjoy his life. The main character in The Improvisatore: A Novel of Italy, on the other hand, had a luminous, pure and childlike quality mixed with his melancholy. The first chapters when Otto first gets acquainted with Wilhelm’s family in Copenhagen are similar to Andersen’s arrival into the city as he relates it in his autobiography, feeling shy and out of place.

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andersen paints a picture of the morals of Danes during the romantic period, when we follow Otto Thostrup who shares initials with his birth place Odense Tugthus (Odense prison). The morals are so old fashioned that they are almost incomprehensible today, but as a social study, the book is very interesting, especially if you (like me) are born in Odense city in Denmark.

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having enjoyed Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and having learned of his unrequited love for some of his male friends I decided to read one of his few novels with the hope that he would have explored these feelings more fully in them. However, and unsurprisingly given that the book was written in 1836, this novel turned out to be a classic coming of age story, if a little on the gloomy side. Telling the story of the title character as he completes his university exams, Andersen makes use of the familiar tropes of 19th century literature to highlight such aspects as how the nobility of a person can shine through their social strata, and how we suffer for the conditions of our birth. Although the novel does exhibit some subtle notes of homoeroticism, none of it is further explored and it is even used to alert us to the “true” love behind it. Though I have never been a fan of this type of literature, I was not surprised to learn that the book was well received in its time and am sure that even now some would find it charming.