Cricket201905-06

ONCE THERE WAS the son of a poor village shoemaker. What an
awkward, ungainly boy he was! Yet he dreamed of being an actor, a singer,
a dancer. So at fourteen, he set off alone to seek his fortune in the capital.
There, he nearly starved to death. A rich man took pity on him, gave the
wretched lad food and shelter, and sent him to a fine school. But no one
expected that a day would come when the king would summon him to the
palace— Wait a minute! Is this some kind of fairy tale? Yes. A true one.
The boy was Hans Christian Andersen, born in Denmark in 1805, and his
career began as I’ve told it. Giving up the idea of going on the stage, he turned
to writing plays, novels, and travel books. Not until he was thirty did he
publish the first of his 168 fairy tales, now known and loved throughout the
world. From then on, he was entertained by kings and queens, became friends
with composers and authors. A comical sidelight: Andersen spent a month
visiting one of his admirers, Charles Dickens, completely disrupting the house-
hold and driving the great novelist and his family out of their wits. Andersen
was fussy about meals and complained that the tea was always cold. Worse,
Dickens couldn’t speak Danish, and Andersen could barely speak English.
They stayed friends, but both were happy when the visit ended.
Have you read “The Ugly Duckling”? This is Andersen’s way of telling his
feelings about his life. I think we love that tale so much because it’s our own
story, too. We can all grow up to be beautiful swans. It just takes a little time.