Editing Hans Christian Andersen (section)

===Meetings with Charles Dickens===
In June 1847, Andersen visited England for the first time, enjoying triumphant social success. The [[Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington|Countess of Blessington]] invited him to her parties where many intellectuals would meet, and at one such party he met [[Charles Dickens]] for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda, which Andersen noted in his diary: "We were on the veranda, and I was so happy to see and speak to England's now-living writer whom I do love the most."<ref name="dickens">{{cite web |date=31 March 2012 |title=H.C. Andersen og Charles Dickens 1857 |url=https://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/?page_id=3683 |access-date=17 November 2023 |publisher=H.C. Andersen Information}}</ref>

The two authors respected each other's work and each other as writers, and had in common their depictions of the [[underclass]], who often led difficult lives affected both by the [[Industrial Revolution]] and by abject poverty.

In 1857, Andersen visited England again, primarily to meet Dickens. Andersen extended the planned brief visit to Dickens' home at [[Gads Hill Place]] into a five-week stay, much to the distress of Dickens' family. After Andersen was told to leave, Dickens gradually stopped all correspondence between them, to Andersen's great disappointment and confusion; he had enjoyed the visit and never understood why his letters went unanswered.<ref name="dickens"/>

It is suspected that Dickens modelled the physical appearance and mannerisms of [[Uriah Heep (character)|Uriah Heep]] from ''[[David Copperfield]]'' after Andersen.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Doris |url=http://archive.org/details/creatingcharacte0000alex |title=Creating characters with Charles Dickens |date=1991 |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-271-00725-0 |location=University Park |pages=78–81}}</ref>