Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Improvisatore, or, Life in Italy | - | Hans Christian Andersen | Buy |
| 2 | O. T. | - | Hans Christian Andersen | N/A |
| 3 | Only a Fiddler! | - | Hans Christian Andersen | Buy |
| 4 | The Two Baronesses | - | Hans Christian Andersen | Buy |
| 5 | Lucky Peer | - | Hans Christian Andersen | N/A |
| 6 | To Be, Or Not to Be? | 2016 | Hans Christian Andersen | Buy |
Before Hans Christian Andersen became famous for fairy tales, he was a novelist. The Improvisatore, set in Italy, was his first major success and earned him literary recognition in Denmark. He went on to write several more novels, including O.T. and Only a Fiddler, which drew on his own experiences of poverty and social climbing.
These novels are much less widely read today than Andersen’s fairy tales, but they offer insight into his broader literary ambitions. Lucky Peer and To Be, Or Not to Be? are among his later novels, and all of them share themes of artistic struggle and class that also appear in his short fiction.