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Hans Christian Andersen Filmography
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Hans Christian Andersen: Personal life
Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, on April 2 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.
Hans Christian 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 left entirely to his own devices. Hans Christian ceased to go to school. He built himself a little toy-theatre and sat at home making clothes for his puppets, and reading all the plays that he could borrow; among them were those of Ludvig Holberg and William Shakespeare. Andersen, throughout his childhood, had a passionate love for literature. He was known to memorize entire Shakespeare plays and recite them using his wooden dolls as the characters.
King Frederick VI was interested in the strange boy and sent him for some years, free of charge, to the grammar-school at Slagelse. Before he started for school, Andersen published his first volume, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave (1822). Andersen, a very backward and unwilling pupil, actually remained at Slagelse and at another school in Elsinore until 1827. These years, he says, were the darkest and bitterest in his life.
Some hold that his works express the sorrow of being different. One of the most telling stories in that respect is the tale of the Little Mermaid, who takes her own life since she cannot be loved by her beautiful prince. It is thought to exemplify his love for the young Edward Collin, to whom he writes:
I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench . . . my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery. Collin, who was not erotically attracted to men, writes in his own Memoirs: I found myself unable to respond to this love, and this caused the author much suffering. Likewise, the infatuations of the author for the Danish dancer Harlod Scharf and the young duke of Weimar likely remained on a Platonic level. Andersen's private journal records his refusal to have sexual relations with either men or women and his release through masturbation.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed and severely hurt himself. He was never again quite well, but he lived until the 4th of August 1875, when he died very peacefully in the house called Rolighed, near Copenhagen. He is buried in the Assistens Cemetery, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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