"The Ugly Duckling" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans
Christian Andersen. The story tells of a homely little bird born in a barnyard
who suffers abuse from the others around him until, much to his delight, he
matures into a beautiful swan. The story is beloved around the world as a tale
about personal transformation for the better. “The Ugly Duckling” was first
published 11 November 1843, with three other tales by Andersen in Copenhagen,
Denmark to great critical acclaim. The tale has been adapted to various media
including opera, musical, and animated film. The tale is completely Andersen's
invention and owes no debt to fairy tales or folklore.
Plot summary When the tale begins, a mother duck's
eggs hatch. One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals
on the farm as a homely little creature and suffers much verbal and physical
abuse from them. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks
and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old
woman but her cat and hen tease him mercilessly and again he sets off on his
own. He sees a flock of migrating wild swans; he is delighted and excited but
he cannot join them for he is too young and cannot fly. Winter arrives. A farmer
finds and carries the freezing little bird home, but the foundling is
frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He spends
a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the
lake that partly freezes over. When spring arrives a flock of swans descends
on the now thawing lake. The ugly duckling, now having fully grown and
matured, unable to endure a life of solitude and hardship any more and
decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be
killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. He
is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking
at his reflection in the water that he has grown into one of them. The flock
takes to the air and the ugly duckling spreads his beautiful large wings and
takes flight with the rest of his new family.
Composition and publication history Andersen first conceived the story in
1842 while enjoying the beauty of nature during his stay at the country estate of
Bregentved, and lavished a year's worth of attention upon it. He initially
considered "The Young Swans" as the tale's title but, not wanting to spoil
the element of surprise in the protagonist’s transformation, discarded
it for "The Ugly Duckling". He later confessed that the story was "a
reflection of my own life", and, when the critic Georg Brandes questioned
Andersen about whether he would write his autobiography, the poet claimed that
it had already been written — "The Ugly Duckling".
“The Ugly Duckling” was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark 11 November 1843
in New Fairy Tales. First Book. First Collection. 1844.. For the first time
the phrase "told for children" was not part of the title—an omission Andersen
scholar Jackie Wullschlager believes exhibited a new confidence on Andersen's
part: "These [tales] were the most mature and perfectly constructed tales
he had written, and though some of them at once became, and have remained,
favorites of children, Andersen here melds together the childlike and the
profound with exceptional artistry." The first edition of 850 was sold out by
December 18, and Reitzel planned another 850.
The tale was fourth and last in the volume that included, "The Angel", "The
Nightingale", and "The Sweethearts; or, The Top and the Ball". The volume sold
out almost immediately and Andersen wrote on December 18, 1843: “The book is
selling like hot cakes. All the papers are praising it, everyone is reading it!
No books of mine are appreciated in the way these fairy tales are!” Andersen
promoted the tale by reading it aloud at social gatherings. The tale was
republished 18 December 1849 in Fairy Tales. 1850. and again 15 December 1862
in Fairy Tales and Stories. First Volume. 1862. The tale has since been
translated into various languages and published around the world and has
become the most famous story by Andersen.
Commentaries and criticism In reviewing Hans Christian Andersen: A
New Life by biographer Jens Andersen, British journalist Anne Chisholm writes
“Andersen himself was a tall, ugly boy with a big nose and big feet, and when
he grew up with a beautiful singing voice and a passion for the theater he
was cruelly teased and mocked by other children". The ugly duckling is the
child of a swan whose egg accidentally rolled into a duck's nest.
Speculation suggests that Andersen was the illegitimate son of Prince Christian
Frederik, and found this out some time before he wrote the book, and then that
being a swan in the story was a metaphor not just for inner beauty and talent but
also for secret royal lineage. Bruno Bettelheim observes in The Uses of
Enchantment that the Ugly Duckling is not confronted with the tasks, tests, or
trials of the typical fairy tale hero. “No need to accomplish anything is
expressed in “The Ugly Duckling”. Things are simply fated and unfold accordingly,
whether or not the hero takes some action.” In conjunction with
Bettelheim’s assessment, Maria Tatar notes in ’’The Annotated Hans Christian
Andersen’’ that Andersen suggests the Ugly Duckling‘s superiority resides in
the fact that he is of a breed different from the barnyard rabble, and that
dignity and worth, moral and aesthetic superiority are determined by nature
rather than accomplishment. According to Carole Rosen, the story was
inspired in part by Andersen's friend Jenny Lind.
Adaptations = Film=
"The Ugly Duckling" became one of Andersen's best loved tales and was
reprinted around the world. The tale was adapted to a variety of media. Films
based on the tale include two Silly Symphonies animated shorts produced by
Walt Disney called The Ugly Duckling. The first was produced in 1931 in black
and white, and a remake in 1939 in Technicolor. The latter film won the
1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, and was the last Silly Symphony
to be made. The main difference between the Andersen story and the Disney
version is that, in the latter, the little bird's ordeal lasts for only a
few minutes, not for months. In 1936, the Fleischer brothers adapted the story
for their animated short "The Little Stranger", reversing the story by having
an odd chick born into a family of ducks.
In 2006, the Danish animation studio A. Film produced a spin-off CG feature
called The Ugly Duckling and Me!, and later produced a children's CG
television series Ugly Duckling Junior which featured the same characters as
the movie. The 1954 Tom and Jerry cartoon Downhearted Duckling is also
based on the famous story. The tale has seen various musical
adaptations. In 1914, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed a
work for voice and piano based on Nina Meshcherskaya's adaptation of the tale
and, in 1932, arranged the work for voice and orchestra. This was
transcribed by Lev Konov in 1996, and his opera was a great success in Russia.
Other musical versions include the song “The Ugly Duckling” composed by Frank
Loesser and sung by Danny Kaye for the 1952 Charles Vidor musical film Hans
Christian Andersen, and Honk!, a musical based on the tale which was produced in
Britain and won an Olivier Award. The tale was adapted to a musical by Gail
Deschamps and Paul Hamilton with a planned United States tour 2002-2003. In
1998, the musical played the Piccolo Spoleto for seventeen days.
In 2010, Garri Bardin directed a feature-length stop-motion musical of
the story set to Tchaikovsky's ballet music.
= Theatre= In 2009, the Dance Theatre of Bradenton,
Florida, presented the ballet version of the popular tale.
In 2012, a musical adaptation of the story, with ten original songs, was
released by JJ’s Tunes & Tales. The album, titled “The Ugly Duckling: Story
with Songs” contains both songs and spoken narration, and was released
independently on CD Baby and iTunes. Examples of song titles include:
Hatching of the Eggs; A Better Place; Song of the Swans; What’s the Matter
with You; It’s a Big, Big World; Pretty Good Place to Live.
GivingTales – in 2015 a storytelling app for children was created in aid of
Unicef. The Ugly Duckling read by Stephen Fry is included in this
collection of fairy tales, along with other Hans Christian Andersen stories.
= Anime and manga= The anime Princess Tutu is about a duck
that turns into a swan-like ballerina. See also
List of works by Hans Christian Andersen References
^ a b c Tatar, Maria. The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen. W.. Norton &
Company. pp. 99–118. ^ Bredsdorff, Elias. Hans Christian
Andersen: The Story of his Life and Work 1805-75. Phaidon. ISBN 0-7148-1636-1.
^ Wullschlager, Jackie. Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller.
University of Chicago Press. ^ "Hans Christian Andersen - FAQ: Books
by Hans Christian Andersen". Hans Christian Andersen Center.
^ "Hans Christian Andersen: The Ugly Duckling". Hans Christian Andersen
Center. ^ Chisholm, Anne. "The tale of an ugly
duckling". The Daily Telegraph. ^ Philip, Neil. "The Little Prince". The
Times. ^ Rosen, Carole. "Lind, Jenny". In
Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, Brian. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198614111. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
[Lind] inspired at least partly two of his best-known children's stories, The
Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's Nightingale [sic]...
^ "The 1939 Silly Symphony". The Internet Animation Database.
^ "GMT: The Ugly Duckling". External links
The Ugly Duckling English translation by Jean Hersholt
SurLaLune's Annotated The Ugly Duckling The Ugly Duckling in full length.
"The Ugly Duckling", LibriVox audiobook.