Hans Christian Andersen, the outsider

‘The poor duckling didn’t know where it dared stand or where it dared walk. It was so sad, because it looked so ugly and was made fun of by everyone in the duckyard.’ ‘The Ugly Duckling’.

At the age of 14, Andersen left Odense and set out for Copenhagen, determined to make his name in the theatre. Despite many disappointments he clung to his ambition, seizing every opportunity to act, sing or dance before an audience, or to recite the poems and plays he had begun to write.

He gained the patronage of the Collin family, who arranged for him to be sent away to school. This unhappy experience haunted him into adulthood. These were difficult years for Andersen as he lived in two contrasting worlds – the poverty of his own circumstances and the well-to-do bourgeois circle of his benefactors. Two members of the Collin family (Edvard and his sister Louise) became objects of his unrequited love: a pattern that was to repeat itself throughout his life.