圖書推介 Recommended Books by Teachers 11-12

About Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was an author and poet famous for his fairy tales. His fairy tales were not meant merely for children but for adults as well.

The year 2005 marked the 200th anniversary of Anderson's birthday. He was born in Denmark in 1805. He was the son of a sickly young shoemaker of twenty-two and his several years older wife: the whole family lived and slept in one little room.

As a child, Andersen was highly emotional. However, he showed imagination early, which was fostered by the indulgence of his parents and by his mother's superstition. In 1816 the shoemaker died and the child was forced to go to work.

He ceased to go to school; he built himself a toy-theatre and also sat at home making clothes for his puppets, and reading all the plays that he could borrow; among them were those of Ludig Holberg and William Shakespeare.

He worked hard and with the support of some good people, later on, he went to Copenhagen to continue his study.

Andersen's fame today rests on his Fairy Tales and Stories, written between 1835 and 1872. The third volume of his tales, published in 1973, contained "The Little Mermaid" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Among Anderson's other best known fairy tales are "The Ugly Duckling", "The Tinderbox", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Snow Queen", "The Nightngale" and "The Steadfast Tin Solder".

In his fairy tale collections Andersen broke new ground in both style and content, and employed the idioms and constructions of spoken language in a way that was new in Danish writing. His identification with the unfortunate and outcast made his tales very compelling.

Andersen died in his home in 1875 at that time he was 70 years old. He is one of the world's best known and most translated authors.