Anderson wrote these stories 'exactly as I would tell them to a child'. But critics complained of his rough colloquial style, and at the lack of lessons to be learnt from these tales, given that they were meant for children. But Anderson continuing writing his stories, and by the end of ten years was recognized as a master of this form of story.

All of Andersen's tales - whether based on folk themes or of his own invention - had a personal touch to them: 'Most of what I have written is a reflection of myself. Every character is from life.'

Andersen continued to write and to travel, meeting many well-known writers along the way. In Berlin he met the brothers Grimm; and in 1847, in England, he met and became friends with Charles Dickens, a friendship that remained close till 1857 when Andersen overstayed his welcome at the Dickens's house: he had been invited for two weeks, and stayed for five. Dickens stuck a card on the mirror of the spare room which said, 'Han Andersen slept in this room for five weeks - which to the family seemed AGES!'

Andersen published his autobiography, The Fairy Tale of My Life, in 1855.

His last fairy tales were published in 1872, and the second collected edition of 152 fairy tales and longer stories appeared in 1874.

He died in 1875, at the age of seventy, of liver cancer.

Selections of Anderson's stories first appeared in English in 1846.

Hans Christian Andersen cont'd... 
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