Hans Christian Andersen; a biography

479 Pages·2004·18.33 MB·English

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

A BIOGRAPHY
BY-
/'
R. NISBET 'BAIN
LONDOX
L A W R E N C E A N D B U L L E N
16, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
NEW YORK

DODD,MEAD AND COMP4NY

1895

INTRODUCTION
A LIFE of Hans Christian Andersen will, I venture
to think, not be unwelcome in England. He is the
one foreign author whom we can never regard as an
alien ; whom, from long familiarity and association,
we have come to look upon as one of ourselves. His
stories have been the delight of our children for
three generations, and their popularity among us
increases &her than diminishes as time goes on;
scarcely a year passes without bringing with it a
new edition or translation of the incomparable
Fairy Tales."
"
But even if Andersen had not written a single line
of a single fairy tale he would still remain a tempting
subject for a, biographer. In practical life he was
essentially a shrewd, observant man of the world,
who saw more than most people, because he took
the trouble to keep his eyes open. Half his life was
spent in travelling up and down Europe; he was
more or less intimately acquainted with most of the
vi INTRODUCTION
leading men of ietters of his day ; he had at his
finger ends the literatures of half a dozen languages,
and he mas as much at home in the prince's palace
as in the peasant's hut. Such a man can tell us a
good deal, and is well worth listening to.
The materials available for a life of Andersen are
copious, not to say complete, as no appreciable
addition thereto is to be anticipated. I will
now set out the principal documents, which are,
briefly, as follows :-(I) Breve frcc H. C. Ander-
seqb, udgivne of C. A. S. Bille of N. Bogh, vols.,
2
Copenhagen, 1878. This collection contains 479
original letters of Andersen's, extending over a
period of more than forty years, and flling nearly
r 500 pages. (2) Bvwe ti1 H. C. A.izde"~-s(es~a~me
editors), Copenhagen, I 877, containing 329 letters
to Andersen from literary colleagues or contem-
poraries and private friends in Denmark and out
of it. (3) H. C. Andersen og det Collinske Bus
(" H. C. Andersen and the Collin Family "), Copen-
hagen, 1882. The first 5 18 pages of this notable
book consists of some scores of Andersen's most
characteristic letters, addressed to his intimate
friends the Collins, interspersed with numerous
original documents relating, principally, to his literary
INTRODUCTION vii
career, with vesy valuable explanatory and illus-
trative notes. It goes back as far as his student
days, but breaks off somewhat abruptly at the year
~ S j g . It is on th&"three documents that the
ensuing narrative is mainly based.-Next (4) comes
Anderseu's own autobiography, entitled, Mit Livs
E~cntyiz(" The Story of My Life "), first published in
I 855, a bulky volume containing, with its supple-
ment, nearly 700 pages. This a~tobio~raplw~hyi,c h
has never been translated into English, is an ampli-
fication of the earlier Das IMii~chenmeines Lebens,
Englished anony~nouslyi n I 852, and is a docu-
ment which should only be used with the utmost
caution. Herr Edward Collin, Andersen's oldest
and most intimate friend, has, severely but not
unjustly, called it that production of daily shifting
"
moods," and certainly a more misleading book call
scarcely be imagined. It is mainly responsible for
what I have elsewhere called "The Ugly Duckling
Theory of Andersen's Life," I mean that widely
received but perfectly gratuitous idea of him as the
constantly misunderstood and inercilessly persecuted
victim of captious and malicious critics. As a matter
of fact, whenever his critics are concerned, it is im-
possible for Andersen to be I will not say fair and
...
vm INTRODUCTION
just, but even reasonable and coherent. At least
one-third of .iEt Livs Erentyr is taken up with
Andersen's literary squabbles, nearly another third
of it relates to matters of considerable interest to
Danes, but to Danes only, while in the remahder
the facts are often too obviously grouped with an
eye to dramatic effect. Nevertheless, though of
somewhat doubtful value as a historical document,
iMit Livs Evemty~is, psychologically, of immense
importance, as showing, better perhaps than anything
else, the peculiar bent and bias of the author's mind.
It naturally abounds, too, with entertaining anec-
dotes not to be met with elsewhere, and conse-
quently furnishes a goodly supply of those piquant
seasoning ingredients tvhicli no biography can dis-
pense with. Finally, it gives us the only detailed
account we possess of Andersen's infancy and youth,
in some respects the most interesting period of his
life. Very important also to Andersen's biographer
are his four great travel books or itineraries-
(5) the Slizjggebilleder (" Silhouettes "), I 83I, (6)
En Digter's Bcczcw (" A Poet's Bazaar "), I 842, (7)
I Svewig (" In Sweden "), I 8j 2, and (8) I S'cinien
(" In Spain "), I 863, poetic but perfectly veracious
expansions of the diaries which he so conscientiously