The Improvisatore by Hans Christian Andersen

The deep sigh from the sea of boiling pitch went to my heart. I forgot entirely that the whole was but a fiction. Wherefore had not Christ, when he was down in hell, and again ascended to the right hand of the Father, taken all with him out of the Valley of Longing? Could Love make a selection among the equally unfortunate? Existence there was yet a grief without suffering, a hopeless longing they belonged still to the realm of the damned, were inclosed by the deep marshes of hell, from which the sighs of the damned rose up bubble on bubble of poisonous and pestilent vapor. (.) It was not enough for me that Dante had made everything as comfortable and well as it could be in hell. Tears filled my eyes at the sight of noble, lofty beings who, unparticipants of Christianity, had here their abode. 'I saw in that air, ever black, like the sand of the desert which is whirled by the tempest, the race of Adam falling like leaves in autumn, whilst lamenting spirits howled in the torrent of air. Peter in the 1830s, of walking by a lava stream in Vesuvius, and visiting the Grotta Azzurra, which was very recently discovered.Īndersen on reading the Divina Commedia for the first time:

I liked the descriptions of the carnival and the Easter illumination of St. The book has vivid descriptions of Italy, full of color and wonder as seen by the eyes of a child. Having read Andersen's autobiography, it is very clear that 'The improvisatore' is himself: an extremely sensitive poet with several benefactors who do not understand his art and criticize him severely 'for his own good', but his sense of gratitude is so high that he cannot stop loving them and submitting to their plans.

The Improvisatore by Hans Christian Andersen