A POET’S BAZAAR A Journey to Greece, Turkey & up the Danube <i> by Hans Christian Andersen translated with an introduction by Grace Thornton (Michael Kesend: $13.95, illustrated)</i>

In 1840, three years after the publication of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Hans Christian Andersen received a royal grant that enabled him to travel to the Mediterranean and the Balkans. The diary from that journey has the unassuming appeal of his better stories. Andersen had a sharp eye for the details of daily life in other countries, but his observations are restricted to a personal level. He attends a concert by Franz Liszt and notices a fat woman in the audience, lolling on a couch “like a walrus with a fan,” but never considers the significance of the composer’s music. The diary includes four stories that Andersen wrote during his travels: “The Pact of Friendship” and “A Rose From Homer’s Grave” seem a bit too self-consciously “adult,” but “The Bronze Boar” and “My Boots” are genuinely charming.