The Improvisatore (Improvisatoren) was published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen in 1835, the same year as Andersen’s first fairy tales — though the novel, not the tales, was what Andersen expected to make his reputation. The book draws on Andersen’s own Italian journey of 1833–1834 and tells the story of Antonio, a poor boy born in the catacombs of Rome who discovers a gift for improvised poetry and rises through talent and patronage to fame and love.
The novel is a Bildungsroman in the Romantic tradition — the story of an artist’s development from poverty and obscurity to recognition and fulfillment. Antonio’s progress through Italian society (from the streets of Rome through the salons of Naples to the stages of the great theaters) gives Andersen the opportunity to display his own observations of Italian life: the landscapes, the art, the music, the social hierarchies, and the passionate temperament that he found so different from the restrained culture of Denmark.
The autobiographical parallels are obvious: Andersen, like Antonio, was a poor boy who rose through talent; like Antonio, he depended on patronage; like Antonio, his art was spontaneous, emotional, and rooted in personal experience rather than formal training. The novel was enormously successful in Scandinavia and in German translation, establishing Andersen’s reputation as a serious novelist — a reputation that the fairy tales would eventually overshadow but never entirely replace.
Collecting The Improvisatore
First edition (C.A. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 1835): Two volumes, Danish text. Andersen’s first novel.
Market values:
- First Danish edition: $500–$2,000
- First English translation (Mary Howitt, 1845): $100–$300
- Later editions: $15–$40