If you
tell a child about a horse, you don't say that it neighed, but you
imitate the sound; and the child's laughter or fascinated attention
compensates you for your loss of dignity. The more successfully you
crow, roar, grunt, and mew, the more vividly you call up the image and
demeanor of the animal you wish to represent, and the more impressed is
your juvenile audience. Now, Andersen does all these things in print: a
truly wonderful feat. Every variation in the pitch of the voice--I am
almost tempted to say every change of expression in the story-teller's
features--is contained in the text. He does not write his story, he
tells it; and all the children of the whole wide world sit about him
and listen with, eager, wide-eyed wonder to his marvellous
improvisations.[18]
[18] Brandes: Kritiker og Portraiter, p. 303.
In reading Andersen's collected works one is particularly impressed with
the fact that what he did outside of his chosen field is of inferior
quality--inferior, I mean, judged by his own high standard, though in
itself often highly valuable and interesting.
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