Autobiography of Hans Christian Andersen

Andersen sees his own life as a fairy tale. He came from the lower class of the small town of Odense and went to Copenhagen at the age of fourteen, where he made his way and became a friend of Kings and princes.

In his autobiography, he gives a vivid account of the city life he knew as a child and the Danish aristocratic circles and European high society with which he came into contact.

He also gives a vivid account of his interactions with the leading writers, composers and singers of his time.As one of the most widely travelled writers of his time, travelling took him to Constantinople in the far east and the loch Lomond in the north.

His description of all this is a great 19th-century European genre painting.