"In my view it is the best book ever written about Hans Christian Andersen. If someone had asked me a couple of months ago which biography of Andersen was the best I would immodestly have said my own work, but today I would answer that the best book is the one written by Jackie Wullschlager. Not only is is a fuller and more comprehensive biography, but it is the first book ever to place Andersen in a contemporary European tradition and to measure him with a European yardstick." -Elias Bredsdorff, Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Languages at Cambridge "[T]his spring, Knopf will publish a biography by Jackie Wullschlager, a writer for the London Financial Times , which may add to the few reliable studies available in English, the most notable of which is Elias Bredsdorff's ." -Diana and Jeffrey Frank, The New Yorker "Finely documented and insightful . Jackie Wullschlager's account . is a delight . her work gives off a classic sparkle.

It will bring joy . " -George Steiner, Observer "Splendid . authoritative . gracefully written [and] meticulously referenced . will encourage many readers to revisit an author who undoubtedly deserves serious critical attention." -Christina Hardyment, Financial Times "Intensively researched and elegantly written." -Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times "Deals brilliantly with the whole man." -Melanie McDonagh, Daily Telegraph "Told with thoroughness and sympathy .

[a life] as peculiar, fascinating and painful as any of his celebrated fairy tales." -Rosemary Ashton, Sunday Telegraph "An extraordinarily accomplished biography, both intellectually rigorous and emotionally wise . fascinating . Wullschlager wears her learning lightly but still we are left feeling we are in the hands of an expert guide." -Kathryn Hughes, Literary Review.