Composition
Andersen deliberately cultivated a humorous and colloquial style in the tales of 1835, reminiscent of oral storytelling techniques rather than the sophisticated literary devices of the fairy tales written by les précieuses, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and other precursors. The earliest reviews criticized Andersen for not following such models. In the second volume of the 1863 edition of his collected works Andersen remarked in the preface: "The style should be such that one hears the narrator. Therefore, the language had to be similar to the spoken word; the stories are for children, but adults too should be able to listen in."
Although no materials appear to exist specifically addressing the composition of "The Princess and the Pea", Andersen does speak to the writing of the first four tales of 1835 of which "The Princess on the Pea" was one. New Year's Day 1835, Andersen wrote to a friend: "I am now starting on some 'fairy tales for children.' I am going to win over future generations, you may want to know", and, in a letter dated February 1835 he wrote to the poet, Bernhard Severin Ingemann: "I have started some 'Fairy Tales Told for Children' and believe I have succeeded. I have told a couple of tales which as a child I was happy about, and which I do not believe are known, and have written them exactly the way I would tell them to a child." Andersen had finished the tales by March 1835 and told Admiral Wulff's daughter, Henriette: "I have also written some fairy tales for children; Ørsted says about them that if The Improvisatore makes me famous then these will make me immortal, for they are the most perfect things I have written; but I myself do not think so." On 26 March, he observed that " will be published in April, and people will say: the work of my immortality! Of course I shan't enjoy the experience in this world."
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