Video: Indeed, with the prototype of Thumbelina, the hunchback Henrietta Wolfe became
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In Hans Christian Andersen's sad fairytale world, there are very few happy endings, especially for female characters. However, the great storyteller loved one of his heroines, it seems, more than others - her story ended surprisingly happily. Biographers believe that the sweet and kind Thumbelina had a real prototype. True, apart from small stature and angelic character, Henrietta Wolfe had little resemblance to the fairy-tale girl. But it was to her that Andersen gave on paper that happiness that a real woman lacked in life.
At the end of 1822, the young playwright Andersen came to the house of the famous Danish admiral, head of the Naval Cadet Corps Peter Wolf. The honored naval officer was engaged in translations of Byron and Shakespeare, so his opinion about the new play was very important for the son of a shoemaker and a laundress, who himself made his way to the capital. The awkward and long Andersen, who was clearly not handsome and was afraid of women all his life, nevertheless, surprisingly quickly paved his way to the hearts of people. Arriving in Copenhagen at the age of 15, he managed to find patrons for himself, even among high-ranking dignitaries. However, this time, entering a posh house - one of the Amalienborg palaces, which were the centuries-old residence of Danish kings - the 17-year-old writer was more timid than usual.
The old admiral found the young author's play extremely weak, but he unexpectedly liked the young man himself, and he decided to invite him to dinner. So Andersen entered the Wulf family. He began to visit them so often that after a few years he was even given his own rooms in the house. The young writer had especially warm relations with the eldest daughter of Admiral Henrietta. The portraits convey to us an intelligent and penetrating look, a pretty pretty face of this girl. However, artists, more than photographers, have the ability to embellish reality.
In fact, Henrietta could not go out into the world and count on happiness in her personal life - the girl was very small, almost a dwarf, and, moreover, a hunchback. Long awkward Andersen next to his petite girlfriend looked very comical, but poor Henrietta immediately fell in love with him. The girl undoubtedly had tender feelings for him, and the young writer treated her like a sister. Andersen's female preferences are a separate topic for researchers in different specialties. Today, not only historians and biographers, but also psychologists and sexologists express opinions about his strange attitude towards women … It is clear that the young man, entangled in his fears and ambitions, has been drawn to the fatal beauties all his life, although it was really for him to conquer them an overwhelming task. And the dear loving Henrietta, who had been near for many years, he called "his light elf" and sincerely wished her happiness, realizing that she was unlikely to find him. Henrietta Wolfe was a real friend and confidante for Andersen, with her he could discuss any business, discuss the plots of future fairy tales. They really were a great couple and could be happy together if the writer wanted to.
Henrietta was in poor health, and in 1834 she left for a few years in Italy, in a mild sunny climate. Friends began to actively exchange letters. It was at this time that Andersen wrote several magical stories, which were then included in the collection "Tales Told for Children." The fairy tale "Thumbelina" became a greeting and a gift created for her beloved friend. A little girl, abandoned in a huge world of alien creatures, was able to find her prince and become happy in a beautiful southern country, so similar to Italy.
The fate of a real woman turned out to be much more terrible. Henrietta traveled a lot around the world. Together with her beloved brother, who was also called Christian, she visited America, the West Indies. However, it was there that Christian Wolfe fell ill from yellow fever, died in his sister's arms and was buried far from his native Denmark. Henrietta returned home alone, but for many years after that she dreamed of visiting her brother's grave again. She got ready for this long journey only in 1858. In the last letter to her sister, she told how, during the stopping of the ship in England, she was attacked by a wild fear of the trip, the woman was about to give up the long and dangerous journey, but on the same night in a dream her dead brother begged her to return to him. Having sailed from the English shores, Henrietta never returned home. A month later it became known that the steamer "Austria" burned down in the vastness of the ocean.
Andersen was so struck by the death of his beloved friend that for a while he could not think of anything else. He wrote in his diary about these days: For the rest of his life, Andersen was afraid of water and fires.
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