Italy had on him much the same clarifying effect that it had on Goethe; and his next book, the novel ‘Improvisatore’ (1835), achieved and deserved a European recognition.  Within ten years the book was translated into six languages.  It bears the mark of its date in its romantic sentiments.  There is indeed no firm character-drawing, here or in any of his novels; but the book still claims attention for its exquisite descriptions of Italian life and scenery.

The year 1835 saw also Andersen’s first essay in the ‘Wonder Stories’ which were to give him his lasting title to grateful remembrance.  He did not think highly of this work at the time, though his little volume contained the now-classic ‘Tinderbox,’ and ‘Big Claus and Little Claus.’  Indeed, he always chafed a little at the modest fame of a writer for children; but he continued for thirty-seven years to publish those graceful fancies, which in their little domain still hold the first rank, and certainly gave the freest scope to Andersen’s qualities, while they masked his faults and limitations.

He turned again from this “sleight of hand with Fancy’s golden apples,” to the novel, in the ‘O.T.’ (1836), which marks no advance on the ‘Improvisatore’; and in the next year he published his best romance, ‘Only a Fiddler,’ which is still charming for its autobiographical touches, its genuine humor, and its deep pathos.  At the time, this book assured his European reputation; though it has less interest for us to-day than the ‘Tales,’ or the ‘Picture Book without Pictures’ (1840), where, perhaps more than anywhere else in his work, the child speaks with all the naivete of his nature.

A journey to the East was reflected in ‘A Poet’s Bazaar’ (1842); and these years contain also his last unsuccessful dramatic efforts, ’The King Dreams’ and ‘The New Lying-in Room.’  In 1843 he was in Paris, in 1844 in Germany, and in the next year he extended his wanderings to Italy and England, where Mary Howitt’s translations had assured him a welcome.  Ten years later he revisited England as the guest of Dickens at Gadshill.

The failure of an epic, ‘Ahasuerus’ (1847), and of a novel, ’The Two Baronesses’ (1849), made him turn with more interest to wonder tales and fairy dramas, which won a considerable success; and when the political troubles of 1848 directed his wanderings toward Sweden, he made from them ‘I Sverrig’ (In Sweden:  1849), his most exquisite book of travels.  As Europe grew peaceful again he resumed his indefatigable wanderings, visiting Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Bohemia, and England; printing between 1852 and 1862 nine little volumes of stories, the mediocre but successful ‘In Spain’ (1860), and his last novel, ’To Be or Not To Be’ (1857), which reflects the religious speculations of his later years.

He was now in comparatively easy circumstances, and passed the last fifteen years of his life unharassed by criticism, and surrounded with the ‘honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,’ that should accompany old age.  It was not until 1866 that he made himself a home; and even at sixty-one he said the idea ’positively frightened him—­he knew he should run away from it as soon as ever the first warm sunbeam struck him, like any other bird of passage.’