Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in Odense in a very poor family. He was a son of a shoemaker and a laundress. When his father died in 1816, the young Andersen had to earn a living. Among others, he worked in a cigarette factory. In 1819 he went to Copenhagen, where he frequented a ballet school. He wanted to work as an actor, but he did not succeed. In 1822 he accidentally met the king of Denmark which took an interest in him and sent him to school, paying all the expenses. In 1829 his first play was staged. He wrote many plays and novels, which, however, were not very successful. When he became better-off, he travelled in Europe. He was a man of difficult character, sensitive, anxious, egocentric, eccentric and a loner, craving for understanding which he always lacked. He died in 1875.
He gained immortal fame thanks to his "Fairy Tales" (first volume was published in Copenhagen in 1835). They were translated into more than 80 languages. The tales are by no means "innocent" - on the contrary, one could call them "dark", sometimes even cruel. In "The Ugly Duckling" the poor bird is constantly harassed by others because he is different from them. In "The Little Mermaid" the main character falls for a human prince but has to die on the day he marries another woman. In "The Story of a Mother", probably the saddest and "darkest" of all, the mother wants to get her child back from the Death who took it. But when the Death reveals to her the future of her child, which may be filled with misery and despair, the mother begs the Death to take the child.
