From Publishers Weekly
Andersen (1805-1875) and his work receive perceptive and uncondescending treatment from Financial Times arts critic Wullschlager (Inventing Wonderland). In his autobiographies (and autobiographical novels), Andersen portrayed his life as a Danish Horatio Alger story, "the poor shoemaker and washerwoman's son" who rose to international prominence through a talent for storytelling. While that summary is accurate enough in itself, that talent for storytelling led him to embellish some details, such as family stories about aristocratic connections, while obscuring others, particularly his unrequited attachments to the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and a series of stern and serious Copenhagen gentlemen. Gauche and gawky, self-absorbed and self-pitying, Andersen nonetheless had his own personal charm and could hold audiences spellbound at his readings. As one of the first Danish writers with an international reputation, he parlayed his fame into visits with assorted German princes and the likes of Franz Liszt and Charles Dickens. Wullschlager gives a colorful travelogue of his restless journeys in Italy, France and England and contrasts them with his upbringing and adulthood in the parochial Denmark, which, as Wullschlager notes, felt stifling to his romantic temperament. Yet he could work only in his homeland and needed its praise to the end of his life. That praise usually was for him as a children's author, but Wullschlager also reads into the adult themes and artistry of The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen, as well as Andersens's adult novels, giving him full credit as a real, adult person. 24 pages of photos. (May 3)Forecast: Favorable reviews might convince literary readers that the life of an author of fairy tales is worth their time.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was one of the greatest fairy-tale writers of all time, with stories like "The Ugly Duckling," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "The Tin Soldier" defining him as an all-time great in the world of children's literature. Wullschlager, a literary critic and European arts correspondent for the Financial Times, has written the first major biography of this consummate storyteller. She shatters what has become the standard image of the author as a "sweet-natured, pathetic entertainer." In fact, Andersen lived a difficult life and never found real satisfaction with his success. Wullschlager succeeds brilliantly at portraying Andersen's inner mind and uncovering his hopes and fears and details the historical context that served to produce such a grand body of literature. Relying on letters, diaries, and original German and Danish accounts, Wullschlager has written a biography that will be a standard study for years to come. Recommended for all libraries. Ron Ratliff, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
It is a truism of literary history that the Danish inventor of modern children's literature was the prototype of his most famous creation, the ugly duckling. The gawky, effeminate, only son of a depressive father who died young and an illiterate mother, Andersen came out of more impoverished circumstances than did any other giant of world literature. Moreover, he retained peasantlike gaucheness, servility toward authority, and feelings of social inferiority throughout his life. Balancing such qualities was an irrepressible drive to entertain. As a boy, Andersen, a naturally gifted singer, extemporized songs and dramatic contexts for them and presented himself before prospective patrons. He succeeded often enough to eventually be given a grant to start school at 17, a full six years older than his classmates. Success followed success, especially when he started to write fairy tales, at first based on folktales and Romantic literary precedents but eventually as original in matter as they were in manner. Throwing "proper" written grammar to the winds, Andersen strove to write as if he were speaking to children while being heard by adults. So doing, he became an acknowledged great writer, the peer of his friend Dickens, within his lifetime. So much for the ugly duckling part of the scenario. Writing with a scholar's authority, a critic's perspicacity, a fan's enthusiasm, and an artist's skill, Wullschlager argues that Andersen's many neuroses and his bisexuality, which drove him repeatedly to simultaneously court a man and a woman, often brother and sister, influenced his stories as much as his rags-to-riches success. Fascinating is too mild a word for this gripping biography. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"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


Book Description
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.

"



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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Andersen (1805-1875) and his work receive perceptive and uncondescending treatment from Financial Times arts critic Wullschlager (Inventing Wonderland). In his autobiographies (and autobiographical novels), Andersen portrayed his life as a Danish Horatio Alger story, "the poor shoemaker and washerwoman's son" who rose to international prominence through a talent for storytelling. While that summary is accurate enough in itself, that talent for storytelling led him to embellish some details, such as family stories about aristocratic connections, while obscuring others, particularly his unrequited attachments to the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and a series of stern and serious Copenhagen gentlemen. Gauche and gawky, self-absorbed and self-pitying, Andersen nonetheless had his own personal charm and could hold audiences spellbound at his readings. As one of the first Danish writers with an international reputation, he parlayed his fame into visits with assorted German princes and the likes of Franz Liszt and Charles Dickens. Wullschlager gives a colorful travelogue of his restless journeys in Italy, France and England and contrasts them with his upbringing and adulthood in the parochial Denmark, which, as Wullschlager notes, felt stifling to his romantic temperament. Yet he could work only in his homeland and needed its praise to the end of his life. That praise usually was for him as a children's author, but Wullschlager also reads into the adult themes and artistry of The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen, as well as Andersens's adult novels, giving him full credit as a real, adult person. 24 pages of photos. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was one of the greatest fairy-tale writers of all time, with stories like "The Ugly Duckling," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "The Tin Soldier" defining him as an all-time great in the world of children's literature. Wullschlager, a literary critic and European arts correspondent for the Financial Times, has written the first major biography of this consummate storyteller. She shatters what has become the standard image of the author as a "sweet-natured, pathetic entertainer." In fact, Andersen lived a difficult life and never found real satisfaction with his success. Wullschlager succeeds brilliantly at portraying Andersen's inner mind and uncovering his hopes and fears and details the historical context that served to produce such a grand body of literature. Relying on letters, diaries, and original German and Danish accounts, Wullschlager has written a biography that will be a standard study for years to come. Recommended for all libraries. Ron Ratliff, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews