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Informationen zum Autor Hans Christian Andersen (Author) Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. He was the first writer to take the folk tale as a literary genre and create new stories, such as 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Ugly Duckling' and 'The Snow Queen'. His influence on children's literature is inestimable, yet his stories work on many levels. He died in Copenhagen in 1875. Tiina Nunnally (Author) Tiina Nunnally is an award-winning translator (from Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) and novelist. She was awarded the prestigious PEN Translation Prize in 2001 for her translation of the third volume of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter , and her translations of Hans Christian Andersen and Tove Ditlevsen for Penguin Classics have been widely praised. Jackie Wullschläger (External Editor) Jackie Wullschläger is Chief Art Critic of the Financial Times . Her books include the prize-winning Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller (2000) and Chagall: Love and Exile (2008), which won the Spear's Biography of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. She lives in London. Klappentext Hans Christian Andersen (1805¿75) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama, and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital, who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. He hated school: aged seventeen, he was in a class of twelve-year-olds and was constantly mocked by them and by the teachers. In 1829 his first book ¿ an account of a walking trip ¿ was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. At first, he considered his adult books more important than his fantasies. In later life, however, he began to see that these apparently trivial stories could vividly portray constant features of human life and character, in a charming manner. There were two consequences of this. First, he stopped regarding his stories as trifles written solely for children; second, he began to write more original stories, rather than retelling traditional tales. He once said that ideas for stories ¿lie in my mind like seeds and only need the kiss of a sunbeam or a drop of malice to flower¿. He would often thinly disguise people he liked or disliked as characters in his stories: a woman who failed to return his love becomes the foolish prince in ¿The Little Mermaid¿; his own ugliness and humiliation, or his father¿s daydream of being descended from a rich and powerful family, are reflected in ¿The Ugly Duckling¿. Hans Andersen¿s stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and a Disney cartoon, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world. JACKIE WULLSCHLAGER is a literary critic and European Arts Correspondent of the Financial Times. Her biography of Andersen (2000) was published to critical acclaim and great popular success and is now considered the standard life of the writer. She lives in London. TIINA NUNNALLY is known for her many award-winning translations of Nordic fiction, including the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2003. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Zusammenfassung With this new translation and selection, the unique inventiveness of Andersen's genius is revealed. Ages 8+....
