Andersen was a bit difficult to be around – clueless with regard to social cues, awkward, yet demanding to be the center of attention. But Dickens was no prize at that time, either. Although he was busy acting in his friend Wilkie Collins’ play, “The Frozen Deep,” and trying to salvage “Little Dorrit” from critical hits, he was also trying to leave his wife for a much-younger woman.
Still, Dickens got the last word in that encounter. On the mirror of the guest room where Andersen overstayed his welcome, he left this note: “Hans Anderson slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family AGES!”
Andersen was a bit difficult to be around – clueless with regard to social cues, awkward, yet demanding to be the center of attention. But Dickens was no prize at that time, either. Although he was busy acting in his friend Wilkie Collins’ play, “The Frozen Deep,” and trying to salvage “Little Dorrit” from critical hits, he was also trying to leave his wife for a much-younger woman.
Still, Dickens got the last word in that encounter. On the mirror of the guest room where Andersen overstayed his welcome, he left this note: “Hans Anderson slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family AGES!”