SOURCE: "A Grumble about the Christmas Books," in The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. and the Miscellaneous Papers Written between 1843 and 1847, edited by George Saintsbury, Oxford University Press, 1908, pp. 581-609.

The following was originally published by Thackeray under the name Michael Angelo Titmarsh and appeared in Fraser's Magazine in 1847. In the excerpt below, Thackeray praises Andersen for his wit and playfulness, calling him a "delicate and charming … genius. "

I have, I trust, been tolerably ill-humoured hitherto; but what man can go on grumbling in the presence of such an angelical spirit as Hans Christian Andersen? Seeing him praised in the Athenœum journal, I was straight put away from reading a word of Hans's other works: and it was only last night, when going to bed, perfectly bored with the beef-fed English fairies, their hob-nailed gambols, and elephantine friskiness, his Shoes of Fortune and his Wonderful Stories¹ came...