His other alternative would have been mawkishness.
His vaudeville, "Love on the Nicholas Tower," which satirizes the drama
of chivalry, is in the same vein and made a similar hit. A volume of
"Poems" was also well received. But in 1831 he met with his first
literary reverse. A second collection of verses, entitled "Phantasies
and Sketches," was pitilessly ridiculed by Henrik Hertz, in his "Letters
from the Dead." Andersen's lack of style and violations of syntax were
rather maliciously commented upon. If Gabriel's trump had sounded from
the top of the Round Tower, it would not have startled Andersen more.
He was in despair. Like the great child he was, he went about craving
sympathy, and weeping when he failed to find it.
"I could say nothing," he writes in "the Fairy-Tale of My Life," "I
could only let the big, heavy waves roll over me; and it was the common
opinion that I was to be totally washed away. I felt deeply the wound of
the sharp knife; and was on the point of giving myself up, as I was
already given up by others.
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