Product Description
Ranging from macabre fantasies to fairy tales and tales of crime, these stories from the author of The Nutcracker create a rich fictional world.Hoffman paints a complex vision of humanity, where people struggle to establish identities in a hostile, absurd world. ... Read more

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This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. Manners of the Age is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Horace Brown Fyfe is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Horace Brown Fyfe then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
Ten of Hoffmann’s greatest tales, enormously popular in Europe but rarely seen in the United States: "The Golden Flower Pot," "Automata," "Nutcracker and the King of Mice," "The Sand Man," and six others. Edited and corrected by E. F. Bleiler. 7 drawings by Hoffmann.
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Customer Reviews (5)

Fantasy meets Reality
Hoffman's imagination and grasp of the world is simply amazing. He truly knows how to warp any moment into the fantastic and he certainly does it extremely well. Like his music his stories are meant to captivate.

Deserves a larger audience.
I'm guessing by the meager amount of reviews that E.T.A. Hoffmann is a sadly neglected author in relation to his ability to write marvelously imaginative and entertaining stories. To say this man had a fertile imagination is a gross understatement. Though it might not be apparent on the first impression, all the the stories in this collection contain characters who do double duty as symbolic representations of psychological or sub-conscious forces; the action can be seen as the working out in a protagonist of spiritual or psychological issues; of finding one's true vocation in life, learning to discern reality from illusion, integration of opposing psychic fragments within oneself. But these are no mere simple allegories or one-to-one symbolic representations. They are powerful and grippingworks of literature in the form of fantasy and sophisticated fairy-tales. There is more than one way to interpret these tales, and the meaning you find in them will depend on your own personality and preconceptions. If you have ever read any of C.G. Jung's psychological writings, you may experience a distinct recognition of the Jungian concept of archetypes of the personal and collective unconscious. Hoffmann predated Jung by many decades, but was already weaving these concepts into his fantastic tales. Hoffmann not only had deep psychological insights and a fantastic imagination, but had also a talent for conjuring up scenes of delicate and exotic beauty, and in some tales showed a propensity for drollery and satire. In other words, he showed an astonishing range of versatility, even within the category of fantastic fiction. If he sometimes hints at earthiness, he never descends to vulgarity. He is very cultured, but never stilted or stuffy. Hoffmann was also a musical composer of some talent and had an appreciation for great painting as well as clever mechanical devices. All these elements figure into various of his stories and enliven and give them artistic depth. Mythology and the occult also make a prominent appearance there. You will not find fantasy stories being written today that will come close to rivaling the high cultural and literary level of these Tales of Hoffmann. The main weakness that I perceived in some of them was that the 19th century penchant for overblown sentimentality sometimes showed itself, but certainly not to an intolerable degree. I have literally never read anyone like him. If you like Poe, Hawthorne, Doestoevsky, Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", Washington Irving - that might be an indication you would like Hoffmann, but those are not necessarily prerequisites. As I said, I really don't know of anyone to compare him to. If you're wary of taking a chance, pick up one of the used offers on Amazon. I did. It's an unbelievable entertainment value for the money. There are 400 pages in the Dover copy I bought. Even though I read mine all the way through at once, these stories should really be savored individually, and that is what I intend to do when I reread them periodically. There is a lengthy introduction by E.F. Bleiler in this Dover edition, but I would strongly advise not reading it until you have finished the stories. That way, you can experience them fresh without any preformed ideas as to their meaning. If you get this book, you have an intriguing appointment with doppelgangers, witches, seven-headed mice-kings, ensorceled nutcrackers, elemental spirits, and men who cast no shadow or show no reflection in a mirror. And that by no means covers everything!

Fantasy, psychology or philosophical German fairy tales?
Hoffman is an undiscovered genius - mad perhaps - but definitely a genius. Of course, he was quite well known in the Nineteenth Century, garnering a well-deserved reputation as a writer of bizarre, macabre, gothic tales full of the unexpected and unexplainable. Originally written in German, these tales are mined from the same dark rich earth that gave birth to Goethe and Kafka, Jung and Freud, Hegel and Mesmer - something of a heavy burden to carry.

This volume, consisting as it does of the "best" tales of Hoffman, contains a wealth of eclectic stories peopled with fractured and tortured characters. It includes, of course, the well known story of the Nutcracker and the King of Mice, although your typical ballet lover might find the story a shade darker and more menacing than contemporary stagings of Tschaikovsky: Godpappa Drosselmeier is a somewhat sinister figure, for example. Still, the tale of the Nutcracker is light fare when compared to works such as the Mines of Falun in which a sailor turns miner at the urgings of a shadowy mentor and pledges his soul to the underworldly Queen of the Mine. This tale becomes more and more sinister with the black pit of the mine eventually swallowing the protagonist in a rock fall, exacting revenge on him for falling in love with human woman. The tale ends when his petrified body is recovered 50 years later.

Of course, all is not as it seems in most of these tales. They can be read as fanciful fairy tales - albeit very dark, adult ones - or they can be seen as investigations of the dark areas of the human psyche, at the edge of madness, where vaguely unusual events suddenly become twisted into disturbing patterns. In the Sandman, for example, the bringer of sleep is given a menacing aspect since his arrival heralds a darkening mood in a little boy's parents. The boy eventually learns that his mother sends him off to bed whenever an alchemist visits his father to perform occult experiments, eventually causing the father's death. The little boy grows up, falls in love with an animated doll and eventually commits suicide in the presence of the "Sandman".

Not all of the tales in the book are unrelentingly dark. Some deal with obsession (The Golden Flower Pot),some are love stories (Tobias Martin, Master Cooper) while others are comic and vaguely satirical (The King's Betrothed). Signor Formica, which apparently was written to explain a painting by Salvator Rosa, has not a drop of the supernatural in it while Automata and A New Year's Adventure have it as their epicenters. Rath Krespel, a story about Hoffman's greatest love, music, leads the reader to think there is something otherworldly occurring but eventually all is explained naturally.

A word about the nature of this edition. It contains a lengthy introduction explaining the context of Hoffman's work and some of his themes and sources. Somewhat to my chagrin, the introduction reveals at it very end, that various writers are responsible for the translation of these tales. While this is not so bad, we are then informed that the author of the introduction has translated the translations into modern English, eliminating anachronistic thee's and thou's. So we are really reading a double translation. While this may make the book a bit easier to follow, it is a bit like looking at an airbrushedphoto, taken in dim light, of a reproduction painting. Another minor complaint I have is that the cover artwork of is pink and purple and leaves a distinctly cotton-candy feel to what is, in reality, a gathering of dark, angst-ridden, sturm und drang filled episodes.

Still, the stories are mesmerizing, wonderfully inventive, and full of unexpected twists and intellectual challenges. Their archetypes have inspired many operas and still resonate today in movies such as Bladerunner and Edward Scissorhands.

Timeless gems
E T A Hoffmann was no ordinary man.He started life as a composer and then moved to writing stories. There are several of his sketches reproduced in this book and these show flashes of great talent too (you can see one on the cover).Hoffmann's influence is enormous in the musical world (Tchiakovsky, Delibes, Offenbach, Wagner all drew inspiration from Hoffmann).And there is something timeless in these stories even into the 21st century - there are psychological puzzles, studies of behaviour and myth, stories of automata that Philip Dick, Cordwainer Smith or Isaac Asimov would have been proud of, there are links not surprisingly into the world of music (you mustn't miss 'Rath Krespel') and the world of art (see 'Tobias Martin, Master Cooper').Somehow Hoffmann makes ancient technologies and methods fresh and exciting - barrel making, sailing, alchemy, mining.Unfortunately the most famous of Hoffmann's stories (Nutcracker) is one of the weakest for me, and the one with the greatest reputation ('The Golden Flower Pot') suffers in this anthology by a translation that didn't engage me as well as those of other stories.My favourite stories are 'The Sand-Man', 'Rath Krespel' and 'Tobias Martin'. Here's a brief quote from 'Tobias Martin' that appealed to me especially:'It sometimes happens that the deepest sorrow, if it can find tears and words, dissolves into a mild melancholy, so that perhaps even a gentle shimmer of hope begins to beam faintly through the heart.' Hoffmann is often sentimental but this is more than offset by an unpredictable exoticness.

Fantasia with Automata and Vegetable King, etc.
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm - he changed his name in honour of Mozart, and music was his first and possibly greatest love. He was a brilliant critic, a talented painter and caricaturist and, by all accounts, a very serviceable composer. All these elements - music, the pictorial sense, and the critic's sharp probing intelligence as displayed in the present review - feed into the stories, which perhaps is why they turned out to be his most lasting achievement. The ten in this collection are tales of the fantastic (Hoffmann is also credited by some with inventing the detective story with "Madame de Scudery", not included here, which predates, and may have influenced, Edgar Allan Poe's pioneering efforts in the genre) and include the four which provided the basis for Offenbach's opera. The style, like Mozart's, is bright, energetic and often comic; the substance, as with caricature, mixes the bizarre with the mundane in a fashion quite unlike that of anyone else you've ever read, even among Hoffmann's batallions of readers, followers and imitators. The general effect is strikingly original, often disturbing, sometimes hilarious and, not infrequently, loony - not at all what one would expect from the last of the German Romantics. This volume also boasts several illustrations scrawled by the author, a helpful introduction by E F Bleiler, and Dover Books' usual robust construction and reasonable pricing. Like Lord Dunsany, Hoffmann has been prized more as an influence than a writer. His work has certainly had an incalculable influence on modern fantasy fiction, as well as the detective story, science fiction and the 19th-century "novel of ideas" (Dostoyevsky noted Hoffmann's psychological insight as an influence on his own). But his own best work falls into none of these categories, inventing them all in the service of the author's vision - the mark of a true original, and the best possible reason to read Hoffmann for himself. ... Read more

Product Description
Hoffmann, among the greatest and most popular of the German Romantics, is renowned for his humorous and sometimes horrifying tales of supernatural beings. This selection, while stressing the variety of his work, focuses on those stories in which the real and the supernatural are brought into contact and conflict. This new translation includes The Golden Pot, The Sandman, Princess Brambilla, Master Flea, and My Cousin's Corner Window. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Harry Potter in the Goethe Age
E.T.A. Hoffmann was an enormously popular writer -- a 'best seller' internationally, though he never reaped the sort of profits JK Rowling has, nor did he live long enough to bask in his own fame -- throughout the century after his death in 1822. I have the impression that he isn't "read" so widely these days by anglophones, which has been my reason for searching out an effective translation to recommend. Ritchie Robertson has produced exactly what I hoped to find, a translation that captures both the surreal and the sardonic in Hoffmann's prose. This edition includes his most evocative fantasy, The Golden Pot, and four of his most intellectually intriguing satirical/hallucinatory romances.

I was lured into re-reading Hoffmann by way of music, specifically by becoming involved in the opera "Tales of Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach. ETA Hoffmann was himself a composer, though not a very good one, and a conductor. His stories have inspired two other enduringly popular musical masterworks, the ballets "The Nutcracker" and "Coppelia". His influence in literature has been equally enduring. Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were both 'disciples' of Hoffmann; Poe in particular mimicked Hoffmann both in style and in content. Critics have suggested that Hoffmann was a major influence on the works of Baudelaire, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Kafka. I have no doubt at all that Bruno Schulz used Hoffmann as a model for his two 'surreal' masterpieces; I've already noted some parallel passages in my reviews of Schulz. The filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock explicitly attributed some of his own artistry to the influence of Hoffmann. Whether JK Rowling had in fact read or even heard of Hoffmann, I have no direct evidence. But her Harry Potter books are unimaginable without the tradition of macabre 'Gothic' romanticism that began with Hoffmann. Yes, of course there were tales of magic and fantasy before ETA Hoffmann, but they were innocent and unambiguous in comparison to the subtleties of The Golden Pot and Master Flea. The essence of Hoffmann's 'surreality' is the flabbergasting incongruity he evokes in juxtaposing ostentatiously gorgeous fantasies with an absurdly grungy everyday world. His supernatural beings are so phantasmagorical that the reader is almost compelled to believe they represent an evanescent surface over a truly present realm of supernaturalism, a mask of illusion covering a real face of mystery. Maks, by the way, are constant symbols in Hoffmann's tales. His quotidian is a Roman carnival. "Imagination" is the solidest mode of epistemology.

Though twenty-seven years younger, Hoffmann was effectively a 'contemporary of Goethe, and his role in the eruption of "romanticism" in European-American culture paired with Goethe's, for better or worse. One can argue, I think, that Goethe both rejected and extended the Enlightenment. Hoffmann plainly rejected. While Goethe was as much a scientist as a poet, Hoffmann dreaded and despised scientific rationalism. The villains in several of his tales carry the names of famous scientists and rational philosophers: the unsavory figures of Pepusch and von Leuwenhoek, in the story "Master Flea" turn out to be reincarnations of their historical namesakes. In that story and in others, Hoffmann pointedly declares that Reason is the enemy of Imagination: ""Thought destroyed intuition, but from the prism of the crystal, formed by the fiery flood in its nuptial conflict with the malevolent poison, intuition will radiate forth new-born, itself the foetus of thought!""

I have to confess that the anti-scientific, anti-rational aspects of 19th C Romanticism, still current in the reactionary first decade of the 21st C, dismay and daunt me. In other words, Hoffmann's influence, however seminal it really was, was pernicious. One can, at some risk of being ranted at, trace a line from Hoffmann's fantasies to Hitler's, from his anti-rational fairy tales to Wagner's nationalist mythologies to the irrational mythos of Nazism. But don't get upset! I'm not blaming Hoffmann for Hitler! I'm only suggesting that 'irrationalism' and the Gothic-Romantic imagination point down some rather dark pathways.

Hoffmann's tales are delightfully fanciful and funny. "The Golden Pot" is usually acknowledged as his best and most entertaining, and I suspect that readers will be entertained by it long after Harry Potter is forgotten, simply because Hoffmann was a better writer, with a more universal wit. Did Hoffmann himself truly trust the anti-rational, anti-Enlightenment notions expressed by his fantastical characters? Was Master Flea his sincere spokesman? One quality of Hoffmann's writing that you'll need to discover for yourself is his self-satirical ambivalence. In Hoffmann, everything -- ideas as well as incidents -- is only temporarily what it seems. Reality is what happens when you don't wake up in time.

"The Golden Pot" is one of the brightest masterpieces of Western literature
In 1814, E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote the best novella I have had the good fortune to get my hands on. Regrettably, I neither speak nor understand German, and I only read "The Golden Pot" in translation, but it still managed to enchant me, of course.

It is a fairytale, actually subtitled "A Fairytale for the Modern Times", and attempting to adequately summarize the story would be pointless, which its true for every masterpiece. At a very basic level, the story pits the world of reality against the world of imagination/magic/wonder/poetry. It would be more accurate to say that the latter is active within the former, unbeknownst to the well-to-do inhabitants of early 19th century Dresden. Reading the "Golden Pot" will make you feel it is a great pity that you are not a citizen of Dresden, or at least Germany, at the beginning of the 19th century. Being a modern fairytale, it would have been a much more fulfilling read for a reader of the time, as he would recognize the aspects of the mundane world that Hoffmann describes, and would be thus derive greater pleasure from the descriptions of the fantastical that he masterfully weaves hidden in plain sight within it. Hoffmann has chosen an ingenious approach to the relationship between the reader and the writer, best showcased in the seventh vigil (chapter).

This magical novella is required reading by everyone, alongside the works of Shakespeare and Goethe.

An author worth reading.
I would like to take a moment to correct a very common misconception about E.T.A. Hoffmann...in all fairness to him, Hoffmann should not be known for writing The Nutcracker on which the ballet is based. The ballet is based on the version of the story written by Alexandre Dumas NOT Hoffmann! Hoffmann's version (the original, and the version Tchaikovsky thought he was writing the music for, until Petipa, the choreographer, decided it was too dark and strange to be made into a ballet and went with the sweet and fluffy Dumas version), is far superior and definiately worth reading even though it is one of his lighter tales. It's more fantasically strange and wonderful than dark and scary. It's also not as thought-provoking as some of his other works. If you're planning to read it I recommend the copy with Maurice Sendak's illustrations, as they set off the tone and mood of the story perfectly.

In regards to this particular book (The Golden Pot and others), I have found that everything Herr Hoffmann wrote is worth reading...it's just unfortunate that there aren't more collections of his works available. I've had a devil of a time trying to find a good hardbound copy myself!

A beautiful, transcendent, and incredible book
E.T.A. Hoffmann is, in my opinion, one of the best and, sadly, unknown authors ever. I came across his name in a study of German Romanticism and even now whenever I want to escape this mundane reality I turn to histales. Although known for the Nutcracker, his other tales are far morebeautiful, moving and fantastic.The Golden Pot is perhaps the best storyI have ever read.For anyone wishing so submerge him/herself in anotherworld for a little while, a world of magic, beauty and horror, this is thebest book one could choose.Each of his tales is unique, fantastic andexquisite. ... Read more

Product Description
Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) is an opera by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T.A. Hoffmann. E.T. A. Hoffmann himself is a character in the opera just as he often is in his stories. The stories upon which the opera is based are Der Sandmann, Rath Krespel, and Das Verlorene Spiegelbild. It was first performed in Paris, at the Opera-Comique, on February 10, 1881. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

It's Worth a Second Read
E.T.A. Hoffmann was in his own way a singular artist of the early nineteenth century. He was a musician, he painted set designs for plays, he wrote novels, stories and novellas. He also had an influence on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I read this collection years ago. I bought it recently because I wanted to read the tales once again, enjoy them and learn from them. Hoffmann is one of the masters of his times and it's a pleasure to reread his works. He is great with atmosphere, his tales are compelling and they linger in the imagination. I love the German novella format he incorporates - longer than a story, shorter than a novel but with the richness of both worlds.

If you love German literature, this and Kleist's collection of stories are great reads.

Is Hoffmann insane?Decide for yourself.
If you are looking for a stylized page turner, ala the Da Vinci Code, then don't waste your time on this book.These tales require a little bit more effort.Hoffmann wrote them almost 200 years ago for a primarily female audience.Many were overwhelmed by his fertile imagination (Goethe thought that Hoffmann was insane).Today's reader, of course, will find them quite tame.

A weird logic reigns in all of these tales.In reading them, you'll gain an insight into that strange train wreck of natural philosophy, occultism and aesthetics known as German Romanticism.

The translations, though uninspired, are adequate.My favorite tale is The Sandman.Stepford Wives?

19th Century German Horror And Fantasy
Although the previous review was negative calling this collection of E.T.A. Hoffman's stories uninspiring and meaningless, it's worth taking a better look. E.T.A. Hoffman's genius and the Germany he was familiar with. In the mid 19th century, Germany, not yet the German Empire, was a vast and varied society. Intellectuals were educated in the brand name universities (such as Heidelberg) and new waves of thought and politics were emerging such as Karl Marx's Communism. Germany had been the home of great existential philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, the freedom-loving Friderich Von Schiller and later the atheist Friedrich Nietzche. It was the home of many Romantic Era composers and writers - Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, writer Henrich Heine and our own E.T.A. Hoffman. He represented, like many other fiction writers his age, the Romanticism of the 19th century that flowered all over Europe. Germany was mostly famous for its symbolic fantasy and fairy-tales, after all this was also the home of the Grimm Brothers.

Hoffman's short stories were the German equivalent for Gothic fantasy and horror, in a slightly similar style that Edgar Allan Poe wrote in America. There is even a resemblance to early science fiction novellas, though nothing like Jules Verne or H.G. Wells."The Sandman" and "Councillor Crespel" were feautured and altered in the Jacques Offenbach French opera "Les Contes D'Hoffman" of The Tales Of Hoffman. These supernatural tales dealt with death and romantic despair. In one story, a soprano suffering of consumption is forced to sing to her death by a villainous doctor. Although the stories appear to be strange and foreign to us, it was highly regarded as great literature of science fiction or horror. For its historic value
and for any interested fans of Romantic Era obscure novelists, this is perfect to read. Also, if you want to read the source of inspiration for Offenbach's opera The Tales Of Hoffman.

Uninspiring
I fear that I will be vilified for not recommending this book, but honesty requires that I say I found it remarkably unenjoyable. I was given the book as a gift, and was not previously familiar with Hoffmann. Let me say also, that I am not a complete Philistine, and I thought that if this indeed considered a "classic" then there was no reason I shouldn't like it. But the first story, "Mademoiselle de Scudery", described by the translator as Hoffmann's masterpiece, is a total train wreck. The characters are ridiculously artificial and overwrought, though this is I suppose expected in this genre of literature. But worst of all, the story is completely unable to generate any kind of tension. It was infuriating to read a banal account of these events which obviously could have been suspensful.

Some of the other stories are better: I enjoyed "The Sandman" and "The Mines at Falun", but often the other stories are filled with mystical symbols and bizarre events that appear to bear no relationship between with the rest of the story. I'm all for unusual ideas and out of the ordinary happenings, but there is a penchant in these stories for meaninglessness and triviality. Maybe I'm not seeing the 900 pound gorilla in the room, I don't know. But as it stands now, I would not want to pass the gift of these stories on to anyone.

A Treasury of Wonderful Stories...
E. T. A. Hoffmann is perhaps best known to American audiences as the creator of "The Nutcracker"; a story most are familar with due to the numerous stage productions each Christmas season. Hoffmann's contribution to fantasy and literature extends far beyond the Nutcracker though. He posessed an amazing imagination and true talent for spinning a story, exciting a sense of wonder and creating eccentric, memorable characters. This book, "The Tales of Hoffman", offers the reader some of Hoffmann's best, and at the same time, lesser known works. The stories included are:

"Mademoiselle de Scudery", "The Sandman", "The Artushof", "Councillor Krespel", "The Entail", "Doge and Dogaressa" "The Mines at Falun", "The Choosing of the Bride"

I wish I was a Hoffmann scholar, so that I could do justice in this review to these great tales. Suffice it to say, that anyone interested in superbly crafted fantasy, the supernatural interwoven with the romantic, and wonderfully crafted characters - anyone who reads and admires to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, and Bram Stoker to name just a few, should read the works of Herr Hoffmann. He is truly one of the finest, and under appreciated, authors of the fantastic. ... Read more

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Product Description
The original stories behind everyone's favorite Christmas ballet

It wasn't until the 1950s that seeing The Nutcracker at Christmastime became an American tradition. But the story itself is much older and its original intent more complex. This eye-opening new volume presents two of the tale's earliest versions, both in new translations: E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King (1816), in which a young girl is whisked away to the Land of Toys to help her animated nutcracker defeat the Mouse King, and Alexandre Dumas's 1845 adaptation, The Tale of the Nutcracker, based on Hoffmann's popular work. Irresistible tales of magic, mystery, and childhood adventure, these timeless delights and fresh interpretations about the importance of imagination will captivate readers of all ages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Nutcracker
Penguin was able to turn the short classic `Nutcracker and Mouse King` (1816) into a standalone volume by adding a scholarly Introduction, and a later re-telling of the story `The Tale of the Nutcracker` by Dumas (of Three Musketeers fame) which composes half the book. Most importantly the translations are new, although that doesn't always mean better, but it seems OK to me.

The most important insight from the Introduction is that Hoffmann wrote the story as a critique of the middle-class in Germany in the early 19th century - serious, ridged, strict and conformist (not only German, the same could be said for 19th century Victorian culture). Children are stifled and kept in emotional check, expected to act like mini adults. For Hoffmann, freedom from this condition can be obtained by means of the imagination. In the story, time and again we see reality and fantasy merge as the children escape from the ridged confines imposed by their parents and strict social convention by way of make believe. Once the perspective of Hoffmann's critique is seen, the story takes on a new dimension, certain passages make more sense and the story seems less "weird" or dark. It is more than just a fairy-tale about toys that come to life, but a serious work of art about people.

As for the Alexandre Dumas' version in the second half of the book, I found it to be inferior to Hoffmann; I didn't want alter my memory with the retelling, so I quit it early on. I may return another time as I understand it was influential in the ballet adaptation. Thus the four stars.

Explanations for the" versions" of the Ballet
This book seems rather scholarly, maybe a thesis?It gives you the original story , plus the Dumas version used in many ballets.I own several different "Nutcracker Ballet DVDs, I watch them all each Christmas. They all vary and now I know where the differences come from! I didnt realize the Godfather Drosselmeyer really had a nephew--I thought it was just added as a job for Macaulay Culkin! The Mouse King varies tremedously, too . If you the love this ballet---you have to have this book!

My Nutcracker Prince
Like many Americans, I have grown up watching the Nutcracker ballet. It was really nice to read the story that inspired the ballet. Both versions of this story are really great reads.

Holiday Classic
For weeks, I debated whether or not I should buy this particular version when there are others much cheaper. In the end, this was a fantastic find!

This version of "Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is the original work written by E.T.A. Hoffman. The beginning comes with a brief introduction examining both the story and the ballet. Mr. Dumas, who wrote the alternate version, is also briefly described in the introduction. The differences among the stories are quickly apparent, though, also described for you in the introduction.

As a much loved holiday classic, I was astounded at the differences between the original work and the ballet. Both are structured to be absolutely beautiful works that speak for themselves and each contains meanings beyond words. If you are looking for a lovely holiday book for yourself, a friend, or young one, this is the perfect gift.

Best version.
I wanted the FULL story, not the ballet, of the Nutcracker. This one not only has it, but an alternate version as a bonus. ... Read more

Product Description
In Nutcracker, the premier children's book illustrator of our time adds his own magic to a story that has long enchanted children and grown-ups alike. Maurice Sendak created this illustrated version of Hoffmann's wonderful tale, basing his illustrations on the sets and costumes he designed for a dance production staged by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

One of my favorite books of all time.
My mother bought this book for me when I was 7 and it's been in my top five favorite books ever since. The illustrations, the language and the story are all beautiful. I've been a ballet dancer since I was 3 and growing up, I was in many productions of The Nutcracker. I adore the ballet but the whole story is so much more fascinating and complicated. It makes you look at the ballet and the more famous and shortened story in a different light. I think this book would be great for kids, it will teach them more vocabulary, the pictures will stimulate their imaginations and the story is darker, but not too dark or scary, so that will show kids that not everything is black and white and that things can be complicated. Kids past a certain age should begin to learn and understand that not everything in life is beautiful and good... and this book is a very soft and easy way to introduce that concept to a sheltered little kid. E.T.A. Hoffmann was incredibly creative and a great storyteller and Maurice Sendak is just brilliant.

Exceptional Christmas Story
E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Nutcracker" tells the classic story of a young girl's transformation from youth to adulthood.Maurice Sendak created the beautiful characters and artwork throughout this book, and he also designed the costumes and theatrical sets for the Pacific Ballet Company's version (available on VHS).

I highly recommend this book to young and old alike.It is a truly exceptional treasure to enjoy with friends and loved ones at this special time of year.

My childhood favorite
When I was about five, my father would read to me from this book every night at bedtime and it is one of my fondest memories of my childhood.One year he took me to see the Nutcracker Ballet and I remembered the whole story from this book.Now that I am a mother, I looked for this book for my own daughter and immediately recognized the cover even though it has been over 20 years!I was so pleasantly surprised to realize it was Maurice Sendak who had illustrated it.He is also the author of my other favorite book from my youth, Outside Over There, of which I have a signed first edition that I will pass on to my daughter.I was sad to have lost track of this book, but delighted to have tracked it down again.I hope my daughter cherishes it as much as I did, and I look forward to reading it to her when she is a bit older.

Wonderful memories
When I was young, about eight or nine years old, I desperately wanted to be a ballerina and dance in the Nutcracker.My family had gone to see a production the year before and when we went that year, I begged for a Nutcracker all my own.My mom said no, but if I asked "Santa" for one, maybe there would be one at Christmas.Well, I did, and there was none under the tree on Christmas morning.Little did I know that my aunt had was about to give me a signed copy of this book, and a Nutcracker to go with it.I will never forget curling up on the couch Christmas night, Nutcracker under one arm, and was transported to a distant land as I read and was lost in the wonderful illustrations.To this day, many years later, I still enjoy getting this book out at Christmas time and curling up on the couch.The drawings are wonderful and to this day they draw me in.It is a beautiful book, one I have cherished for many years, and one that I hope to share with my children some day.

Great for ALL ages!
When I was a child I had this book , as well as two audio tape versions of the story. ( one read by Claire Bloom, the other by Christopher Plummer, both are great!) If you go to see the ballet without knowing the backstory it doesn't makemuch sense.
I also totally disagree that the book ( and the audio versions for that matter) are only good for older children and adults. While the language may be more complex than some story books there is no reason why a young child can't understand it. If parents expose their children to more sophisticated language then they learn it. Toomany books, cds, tv shows etc... talk down to children! If a child is never exposed to language then they can't learn it. My mother and father never talked down or baby talked to me, and exposed me to a wide variety of books, when I was 2 I said "I presume...." in answer to a question my mother asked me. LOL :-)
Just a though. ... Read more

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From Content:

"This was the title that distinguished in the art-catalogue of the works exhibited by the Berlin Academy of Arts in September, 1816, a picture which came from the brush of the skilful clever Associate of the Academy, C. Kolbe.² There was such a peculiar charm in the piece that it attracted all observers. A Doge, richly and magnificently dressed, and a Dogess at his side, as richly adorned with jewellery, are stepping out on to a balustered balcony; he is an old man, with a grey beard and rusty red face, his features indicating a peculiar blending of expressions, now revealing strength, now weakness, again pride and arrogance, and again pure good-nature; she is a young woman, with a far-away look of yearning sadness and dreamy aspiration not only in her eyes but also in her general bearing. Behind them is an elderly lady and a man holding an open sun-shade. At one end of the balcony is a young man blowing a conch-shaped horn, whilst in front of it a richly decorated gondola, bearing the Venetian flag and having two gondoliers, is rocking on the sea. In the background stretches the sea itself studded with hundreds and hundreds of sails, whilst the towers and palaces of magnificent Venice are seen rising out of its waves. To the left is Saint Mark's, to the right, more in the front, San Giorgio Maggiore. The following words were cut in the golden frame of the picture.

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Customer Reviews (6)

Great story, so-so translation
It's great that this novel (only one of two by Hoffmann) is again available to readers of English.The story -- the adventures of an utterly bonkers, casually homicidal monk with a mysterious and somewhat sinister pedigree -- itself is great macabre fun with a hint of satire.

Unfortunately, the translation is not particularly good.At times the prose comes across as clunky and ill-thought-out.In fact, it often reads as if the translator simply typed each sentence into a translation program, e.g. "Karl der Grosse" is translated at one point as "Karl of Grossen" rather than the more accurate name of "Charlemagne."

The Best Translation of Hoffmann in English
It's a shame that only a handful of Hoffmann's work is available in English, and much of what we do have consists of 19th century renderings mired in the mannered, stilted phrasings and irritatingly turgid sentence structure which, in Victorian times proved that an author was "good." Ian Sumter has produced the best book-length edition of Hoffmann in English. His prose is clear, concise, and never muddled, so that the author's oftentimes ambiguous and deceptive scenarios are not confusing, as other translators have made them.

The Devil's Elixirs is some of Hoffmann's best writing. It is a swift-moving , engaging story that boasts many complex psychological themes, and, of course, countless overlapping motifs, double identities, and confusions between reality and the interpretation of reality. It is at once witty and nightmarishly frightening, and easily overshadows the tame and shapeless Tomcat Muir in both style and substance.

A great novel that has been out of print in English for nearly a century. Grab it while it's available.

The Monk with a happier ending
I give this only three stars because as far as Hoffmann goes The Golden Pot and Master Flea were better and tighter novels, in my opinion. However, The Devil's Elixirs makes for a fascinating read.

Highly entertaining gothic / mystery fiction
I had been a great fan of Hoffmann for many years but had never found this book in English - seems to have been out of print for ages.

The story has a real air of mystery and suspense as you have to try and work out what is happening to Medardus and who is committing the crimes.

There are some good comedy moments too - particularly with an insane hairdresser and a drunken Irishman!

Well worth the wait!

An absolute must have in your home library
It is a shame that the book is out of print and extremely hard to find. I read it long time ago in Russian, and cannot wait to find a copy in English. A mindblowing outlook on human excistance and moral dillemas. ... Read more

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E.T.A. Hoffmann's classic work
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This book contains the first complete translation in English of E. T. A. Hoffmann's major musical writings, complementing the well-known Tales. It offers, therefore, a long-awaited opportunity to assess the thought and influence of one of the most famous of all writers on music and the musical links with his fiction. Containing the first complete appearance in English of Kreisleriana, it reveals a masterpiece of imaginative writing whose title is familiar to musicians (from Robert Schumann's piano cycle) and whose profound humour and irony can now be fully appreciated. This volume offers translations aiming at the greatest fidelity to Hoffmann, as well as musical accuracy in the reviews. David Charlton's three introductory essays provide extensive information on the background to Romantic music criticism; on the origins and internal structure of Kreisleriana; and on Hoffmann and opera. A concluding essay by the late Friedrich Schnapp lists Hoffmann's planned reviews and those mistakenly attributed to him. ... Read more

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Over a dozen classic works in one collection with an active table of contents.

Works include:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
Autobiography
Egmont
Erotica Romana
Faust
Hermann and Dorothea
Iphigenia in Tauris

E.T.A. Hoffmann:
The Deserted House
The Sand-Man

Immanuel Kant:
The Critique of Practical Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason
Fundamental Principals of the Metaphysic of Morals
The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics

Philip Melanchthon:
Apology of the Augsburg Confession

Theodore W. Storm:
Immensee
The Rider on the White Horse

Ludwig Tieck:
The Old Man of the Mountain ... Read more

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Tomcat Murr is a loveable, self-taught animal who has written his own autobiography. But a printer's error causes his story to be accidentally mixed and spliced with a book about the composer Johannes Kreisler. As the two versions break off and alternate at dramatic moments, two wildly different characters emerge from the confusion - Murr, the confident scholar, lover, carouser and brawler, and the moody, hypochondriac genius Kreisler. In his exuberant and bizarre novel, Hoffmann brilliantly evokes the fantastic, the ridiculous and the sublime within the humdrum bustle of daily life, making "The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr" (1820-22) one of the funniest and strangest novels of the nineteenth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Gem of German Romanticism
Brahms loved this book, as did Schumann.So, what more do you need to know?Buy it!If you're a music-lover or a cat-lover, buy this book.If you like fantasy mixed with art, if you like writing from and about the human heart, buy it.Who and what is this book really about? The joy of language and literature, the joy of living. Buy it.

'A supreme example of literary bravado'
The introduction claims this is an extraordinary book and it surely is. It does bare some resemblance to 'The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy' but is markedly more inventive, more engaging. Partly it is because it is two stories entwined but also disengaged. And each is of great complexity - the one being a truly captivating mystery but one that progresses ever so slowly, almost catching me unawares and making me wonder - for a while - if this wasn't the first detective story, and the other being the musings of the character of the title - Tomcat Murr. Yes, a cat actually writes the story! By the end of the novel - and it was a long and slow read for me - every character was someone I felt totally at sympathy with (which is not something I could say for the characters in Tristam Shandy). ...

I found this novel a long, hard read - the ideas and interrelationships are dense. But by the end of it I loved all the characters, they are part of my family. It is no wonder that Hoffmann had such a great impact in the world of music - his writing can get right under your skin - well, it certainly got under mine. I will read this novel again. It is simply so good, so captivating...

A Masterpiece
A remarkable example of the simply astoundig gifts of Hoffmann's writing, one of the few unquestionable genius in literature's history. E.T.A Hoffmann manages to blend, with overpowering skill and boldness, fantasy, wittiness, irony, sharp political criticism and lyricism, giving to the cultivated reader an endless cornucopia of sophisticated, intelligent gladness.

The first Post-Modern novel?
Hoffmann was one of the most influential writers of the early 19th cventury.A composer and critic as well as writer of often bizarre fiction, Hoffmann set the tone for much of Romantic literature (especially the combination of the bourgeois and the supernatural), and provided the plots for operas and ballets (including Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker).This novel, which intersperses the memoirs of a cat (appropriately named Murr) with the "random pieces of wastepaper" the cat shredded out of a biography of the composer Kreisler (Hoffmann's alter ego?).In the late 20th century, we came to take the idea of intercutting two unrelated narratives for granted as a Post-modern breakdown of narrative authority.Yet here is the same device, in 1820! Just when you're emotionally invested in one story, it abruptly shifts back to the other.Moreover, Murr's "cat's eye view" of human interaction turns the entire book into a sly critique of the declining aristocrats and rising bourgeois of Europe at the time.A brilliant, compelling, often hilarious read.You'll understand why Schumann, Brahms, and so many others thought of Hoffmann as their favorite writer.

Great, weird book by German romantic master
I learned about ETA Hoffman by reading some articles he had written on Mozart and Beethoven (the A in is name is for Amadeus, he idolized Mozart). Little did I know that he he was a brilliant and captivating writer of fiction as well. Although markedly less frightening than many of his short stories (such as the Sandman), this book is nevertheless exciting as well as thought provoking (Hoffman makes about 400 references to the literature and music of the his time and before). Additionally, it an example of literary bravado I have not seen elsewhere, namely, the writing of two books in one. In it, a bourgeois 'genius' of a tomcat (murr), creates a wonderful palimpset by writing on shreds of the biography of brooding romantic composer Johannes Kriesler. As such, interspersed betwee the cat's opinions are excepts of the rather odd story of Krieler and his friends, such as the magician Master Abraham. Each time either of the two stories begins building to a climax, Hoffman pulls the rug out from under you and changes narratives. The only fault I find with the book is that it is unfinished (Hoffman wanted to publish a third volume which would tie up loose ends), it even ends mid-sentence. Regardless, this is a wonderful book, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hoffmann in English
Many people resort to reading Hoffmann in German. Many other Writers used Hoffmann's outlines to make their own novels.
This book is a translation of
"Little Zaches, Surnamed Zinnober"
Pure entertainment, and of a high order.
"Princess Brambilla"
A complex and controversial work.
"Master Flea"
Not published until 1908 eighty-six years after composition.

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After hearing how her toy nutcracker got his ugly face, a little girl helps break the spell he is under and watches him change into a handsome prince. ... Read more