Presenting Hans Christian Andersen is in many ways a recurrent act--both in European and in world-wide measure. But in the context of Czech literature Helena Brezinova comes with the first monography about a classic author read in 160 languages. In the Czech language, too, of course, first time published in 1851, since then remaining a part of the cultural awareness and literature tradition. With the undertitle Brezinova signalizes that her study has been inspired by the most outstanding literary scientists of the last decades in Denmark and Germany. But in fact on her literature list there are also sociologists, such as Habermas, and philosophers such as Nietzsche and Adorno, not to speak about Soren Kierkegaard, the latter being functionally incorporated in the substance of Brezinova's analysis.