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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Listings for Author:  

Hans Christian Anderson

  

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Hans Christian Anderson : 

'Charles was reading Hans Andersen: I wanted the book, asked for it, fussed for it, and finally broke into tears.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Thomas      Print: Book

  

Hans Christian Anderson : The Little Mermaid

Once or twice some description of physical pain broke through my detachment: the detailed account of the binding of a young girl's feet in a missionary book about China, or the evocation of the agony, like walking on a thousand knives, endured by the mermaid who was given human legs. The story of 'The Little Mermaid' was in fact one which did make me feel and understand. The hopelessness of a relationship between two people born in different elements was somehow an emotion which I could grasp to the point of distress and one which came back to me in adult life with a sense of complete continuity. But this understanding was almost an aberration.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer      Print: Book

  

Hans Christian Anderson : The Ugly Duckling

In 'The Ugly Duckling' the meaning was something that in my own way I thought about much of the time: I was destined for a higher sphere and would be appreciated when I achieved it; and yet I did not see it in the story or make the connection at all. In fact I interpretted it in the most banal and inaccurate fashion as saying that the plain would become pretty.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Patricia Beer      Print: Book

  

Hans Christian Anderson : The Snow Queen

'During these early years [Daphne du Maurier] filled her head with tales of adventure, romances, histories and popular novels, including such books as Treasure Island, The Snow Queen, The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Old St Paul's, The Tower of London, Nicholas Nickleby, Mr Midshipman Easy, Bleak House, Robinson Crusoe, The Mill on the Floss, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. The seeds of her own novels were planted during these intensive, sometimes acted-out, reading sessions. The fascination with the sea, the importance of an historical sense of place, the theme of the dual personality, are all reflected in her reading during these formative years'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier      Print: Book

  

Hans Christian Anderson : The Little Match Girl

'In the 1920s Janet Hitchman acquired her literary education among the derelict bookshlves of an orphanage, which included a huge collection of "drunken father deathbed conversion" stories (Christie's Old Organ, 'The Little Match Girl', A Peep behind the Scenes), as well as everything by Dickens, old volumes of Punch and the Spectator and The Life of Ruskin. "My undigested reading made me look at the world with mid-Victorian eyes", she recalled'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Janet Hitchman      Print: Book

  

Hans Christian Anderson : 

?One has no inclination at all to work or to read seriously ? so I?ve been dipping into an enormous range of stuff ? from Hans Anderson to Boris Godonof.?

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Benjamin Britten      Print: Book

  

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