The Princess Pea, also known as The Princess on the Pea, is a famous one in Hans Christian Andersen's series of stories, whose classic tale is y rooted in people's hearts, while The Princess Pea tells a simple and well-known story about a prince's search for a real princess.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), the famous Danish 19th-century fairy tale writer, is one of the representative figures of the world literary fairy tale, as well as a devout Christian, known as "the sun of the world's children's literature". He was born in Odense into a poor shoemaker's family and had a poor childhood. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a servant. In his early years, he studied at a charity school and worked as an apprentice. Influenced by his father and folk oral literature, he grew up loving literature, and at the age of 11, his father died of illness and his mother remarried. At the age of 14, he came to Copenhagen alone to pursue his art. After 8 years of struggle, he finally showed his talent in the poetic drama "Alfisol". As a result, he was sent by the Royal Art Theater to the Slagelse Grammar School and the Helsing?e School for free. In 1828, he was admitted to the University of Copenhagen. After graduation, he was never employed, and lived mainly on manuscript fees. 1838, he received the Writers' Prize - a non-official allowance of $200 per year from the state.

Andersen's literary career began in 1822 with the writing of a play. After entering college, his writing became more sophisticated. He published travelogues and comedies of song and dance, collections of poems and verse dramas. 1833 saw the publication of the full-length novel The Improbable Poet, which won him international fame as the masterpiece of his adult literature. His most famous fairy tales include The Little Tin Soldier, The Daughter of the Sea, Thumbelina, The Little Girl Who Sold Matches, The Ugly Duckling, and The Emperor's New Clothes. During his lifetime, Hans Christian Andersen received a royal tribute and was highly praised for: bringing joy to a generation of children all over Europe. His work, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, has been translated into more than 150 languages, and thousands of fairy tale books have been distributed and published worldwide.

Originally:

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted a princess to marry, but she had to be a real princess. He traveled all over the world trying to find a real princess, but no matter where he went, he always ran into some obstacle. There were plenty of princesses, but the prince couldn't tell whether they were real princesses or not, because there was always something wrong with them, and as a result, he had to go home, unhappy in his heart, because of how much he longed for a real princess.

One night there was a terrible storm, and the sky was thundering and lightning, and it was raining very hard, and it was very frightful! Then there was a knock at the door, and the old king went and opened it.

Standing outside the city was a beautiful princess. But, boy! How ugly she looked after all the wind and rain! Water ran down her hair and clothes, into the tips of her shoes and out her heels. She said she was a real princess.

The old queen thought to herself, "Yes, that is something we will soon be able to test." But she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, moved all the bedding out of the way, and placed a pea on the bedstead So she took out twenty mattresses and pressed them against the pea. She then placed twenty duck down quilts on top of these mattresses.

This princess slept on these at night.

In the morning people asked her how she had slept last night.

"Ah, it was not at all comfortable!" The princess said." I didn't close my eyes nearly all night! God knows what was under the bed. There's a very hard thing choking me, and it's making me purple all over, and it's just horrible!"

Everyone could see that she was indeed a real princess. For pressing a pea underneath these twenty layers of mattresses and twenty duck down quilts, she could actually feel it. No one but a true princess would have such tender skin.

So the prince chose her as his wife, for he knew he had gained a true princess. This pea was thus sent to the museum. People could still see it there now, if no one had taken it away.