Maurice Sendak on Hans Christian Andersen

I was reading "The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales," edited by Maria Tatar, and
in the article on Andersen at the end, Sendak is quoted as follows: " 'The Red
Shoes' is the worst of the lot. The arbitrary torments Andersen inflicts on
Karen are sadistic and distasteful in the extreme and the tale's Christian
sentiment rings false."

Funny thing is, 1) Sendak isn't exactly one to shy from violence, even if the
kids in his books never get maimed or die, IIRC, 2) sad/painful stories aren't
exactly uncommon in Northern Europe, and 3) "The Red Shoes" was selected by
Harold Bloom as one of the most-preferred stories for his book "Stories and
Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages." (Why he didn't change
that to something much more appealing like "Intelligent Stories for Children of
All Ages" is beyond me.)

Would anyone like to speculate as to why Sendak feels that " the tale's
Christian sentiment rings false"?

Lenona.

P.S. Walter Crane's version of "Cinderella" is also at the back of Tatar's
book, with a very amusing and (somewhat) original ending!