ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that there is more to Danish Hans Christian Andersen than beauty and that the incandescent objects in his works are deeply connected with the grotesque pictures of misery that unfold in his narratives. Capitalizing on an aesthetics of misery, Andersen inaugurates a new era in children's literature, turning away from the flat morals of nineteenth-century writers and promoting an ethics of empathy that remains a hallmark of children's literature today. If Andersen's magic lies in his ability to combine beautiful surfaces with emotional power surges, critics have been reluctant to dwell on it, focusing instead on autobiographical features of his stories. For Andersen, beauty has transformative energy, but its link with pleasure arouses profound fears about excesses both evil and dangerous. Andersen inserted himself into an alternative tradition, a folkloric register that famously staged spectacular punishments, but nearly always reserved for ogres and other evildoers.
