The Emperor's New Clothes: Composition, Publication, and Circulation

On April 7, 1837, C. A. Reitzel published the third booklet of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children in Copenhagen, printed by Bianco Luno & Schneider. It opened with “The Little Mermaid” and closed with the short tale “The Emperor's New Clothes” (Keiserens nye Klæder). The year 1837 therefore marks its first publication, rather than an independently established date when writing began.

At the time, Andersen was still exploring the readership and standing of his fairy tales. His 1837 preface “To the Older Readers” explained that some regarded them as his most valuable work, while others thought them trivial and urged him to stop. The silence of public criticism had dampened his enthusiasm. The preface acknowledged the Spanish source of “The Emperor's New Clothes” and linked his willingness to continue writing such works to readers' response to the collection.

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Writing to Henriette Hanck from Copenhagen on March 9, 1837, Andersen described his illness and the food and books sent by friends. He also announced that new fairy tales would appear in about eight days, specifically “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor's New Clothes.” A marginal note states that the letter was not sent until March 11. It reveals the everyday setting in which he shared news of his work with friends and shows that his initial estimate of its release preceded the actual date.

Publication was delayed for an unknown reason, leaving an opportunity to revise the ending. Drawing on a letter to Edvard Collin dated March 25, the scholarly commentary records Andersen's request to replace the original conclusion. In the earlier ending, the emperor was pleased with his new clothes and intended to wear them again for processions and public gatherings, while the whole town continued to talk about them. In the revision, a child broke the cycle of praise. The celebrated turn in the surviving text resulted from a deliberate rewrite before publication.

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Andersen explicitly acknowledged his inspiration in a story by Don Juan Manuel. The scholarly commentary links the immediate literary background to a translated tale in Eduard von Bülow's 1836 German Novellenbuch, with the medieval Spanish collection El Conde Lucanor as the earlier source. This was an old narrative transmitted through translation and adaptation; its plot should not be treated as a court incident Andersen personally witnessed.

The original story used the ability to see the cloth to test supposed true paternal descent, raising an implicit concern about succession to the throne. Andersen changed the condition to invisibility to anyone stupid or unfit for office, and reduced the three swindlers to two. When ordering the clothes, the emperor also hoped to use them to assess his subjects' abilities. Faced with an empty loom himself, he found that a device for testing others now threatened his own standing.

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The story first shows the emperor spending his time and money on clothes. Two swindlers then demand silk, gold, and payment, but pocket the materials. An old minister, another official, and finally the emperor with his attendants come in succession to inspect the cloth. Each sees nothing, yet fears that admitting this will expose stupidity or unfitness for office. Repeated visits turn the lie, step by step, into a claim jointly upheld by the court.

The old minister memorizes the swindlers' descriptions of patterns and colors and repeats them in his report. Once the emperor praises the cloth, his attendants echo his words. The swindlers even receive decorations and titles. Readers know throughout that the looms are empty, so the suspense concerns not whether the cloth is magical but who will state the fact everyone refuses to admit. Money, office, honor, and verbal agreement together sustain the fraud.

During the procession, a child points out that the emperor has nothing on. His father repeats the remark, people whisper it, and finally everyone shouts the truth. Yet the emperor decides to finish the procession, and the attendants continue carrying a train that does not exist. The ending announces neither the emperor's overthrow nor punishment for the swindlers. It places exposure beside a continuing performance, leaving a more complicated aftertaste than the idea that honesty immediately changes everything.

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Hans Holmberg's study compared early Swedish texts. A translation appeared in Skånska Mercurius in February 1840, and a Christmas story collection included the tale later that year. It also appeared in Lekkamraten in 1841 and Barnvännen in 1842. Newspapers and children's books provided concrete routes of circulation; the tale's later familiarity cannot stand in for these publication records.

Translation also altered the reading experience. The 1840 newspaper version quoted by Holmberg added a rebuke of the emperor and his attendants at the end, and described the nonexistent train as “invisible.” That wording could sustain the idea of a genuinely magical object, whereas the original repeatedly stresses that nothing is there. When a work crosses languages, the focus of its satire does not automatically remain unchanged.

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In the text itself, the child makes a simple observation rather than delivering a lengthy moral lecture. The real joke lies in the adults' willingness to contradict their own eyes for fear of judgment. Readers can follow clear actions and dialogue while recognizing relationships between power, respectability, and conformity. This allows children to read the tale and adults to use it to reflect on their own situations.

Such interpretation must nevertheless be distinguished from historical evidence. The 1837 preface and letters show Andersen's concern with the reception of his fairy tales, while early translations demonstrate their circulation across languages. They do not establish that a particular political movement immediately followed the first edition. Respecting what the original leaves unstated and checking additions and omissions in translations help explain how this short work moved from specific publications into a story continually read anew.

References: [1] [3] [4]