Andersen lived a kind of fairy tale life, the sort that starts off with the precocious son of a poor shoemaker and ends with a widely esteemed (albeit neurotic) writer of tales to entertain children and princes. In his stories, Andersen reworked older tales and themes from folk traditions and wove in autobiographical threads and personal concerns. 

The result is both familiar and idiosyncratic.

Andersen wrote this story about a learned man and his independent shadow for an adult audience. It doesn’t include any fairies, thinking toys, magical cloth, or other fantasy beings but there is plenty of mystery and Andersen’s signature humor. I really like the eerie, interior quality of this story.

MITM theme music by Travis Rosenberg. Thanks to Radio Free Joshua Tree for providing MITM a home on internet radio-- and thank you for listening!

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