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Practice Reading: Reading and Writing Fill in the Blanks ID: #31489 Hans Christian Andersen
Instructions
Fans  of  biographical  criticism  have  a  luxurious  source  in  the  works  of  Hans  Christian  Andersen.  Like  Lewis  Carroll  (and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  Kenneth  Grahame),  Andersen  was  near-pathologically  uncomfortable  in  the  company  of  adults.  Of  course,  all  three  had  to  work  and    with  adults,  but  all  three  really    well  to  children  and  their  simpler  worlds.  Andersen,  for  a  time,  ran  a  puppet  theatre  and  was  incredibly  popular  with  children,  and,  of  course,  he  wrote  an  impressive  body  of  fairy  tales  which  have  been  produced  in  thousands  of  editions  since  the  19th  century.
Most  everyone  has  read  or  at  least  knows  the  titles  of  many  of  Andersens  works:  The  Ugly  Duckling,  The  Emperors  New  Clothes,  The  Nightingale,  The  Little  Mermaid,  The  Match  Girl,  and  many  others.  Though,  as  with  most  folk  and  fairy  tales,  they    adult  readers  much  differently  than  they  do  young  first-time  readers.
Charming  tales  of  ducks  who  feel    because  they  dont  fit  in,  only  to  exult  in  the  discovery  that  they  are  majestic  swans,  gives  child  readers  clearly-identifiable  messages:  dont  tease  people  because  theyre  different;  dont  fret  about  your  being  different  because  someday  youll  discover  what  special    you  have.  A  closer,  deeper  look  at  many  of  Andersens  tales  (including  The  Ugly  Duckling,  which  is  not  on  our  reading  list),  reveals  a  darker,  harder,  more    thread.  People  are  often  cruel  and  unfeeling;  love  is  torturousin  general,  the  things  of  the  material  world  cause  suffering.  There  is  often  a  happy  ending,  but  its  not  conventionally  happy.  Characters  are  rewarded,  but  only  after  they  manage  (often  through  death)  to  transcend  the  rigours  of  the  mortal  world.

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