E.T.A. Hoffmann - The Nutcracker and Tales of Fantasy (14 books)

E. T. A. HOFFMANN (1776-1822) was a German author of fantasy and Gothic horror. One of the best known representatives of Romanticism, his taste for the macabre combined with realism strongly influenced such authors as Poe, Gogol, Dickens, Baudelaire, Dostoevsky and Kafka. His stories later formed the basis of Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1881) and Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" (1892).

Tremendously complex and literary, Hoffman's gothic stories, dark fairy tales, and diabolical parables are some of the most unusual examples of German Romanticism's dark passions. His finest stories vividly demonstrate his intense imagination and preoccupation with the supernatural, placing him at the forefront of both surrealism and the modern horror genre. Suspense dominates tales such as "Mademoiselle Scudéry" (1809), in which an apprentice goldsmith and a female novelist find themselves caught up in a series of jewel thefts and murders. In the sinister "The Sandman" (1816), famously used by Freud to illustrate both his concept of the "uncanny" and of Oedipal guilt, a young man's sanity is tormented by fears about a mysterious chemist; while in "The Choosing of a Bride" (1819) a greedy father preys on the weaknesses of his daughter's suitors. The author himself regarded "The Golden Pot" (1814) as his best story and there is wide agreement among literary scholars that it is a masterpiece of romantic literature. Master of the bizarre, Hoffman creates a sinister and unsettling world combining love and madness, black humour and bewildering illusion.

THE NUTCRACKER AND MOUSE KING (1816) was written for his children, nephews, and nieces. In the story, young Marie's favourite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls.

Hoffmann's final novel, THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TOMCAT MURR (1819-21), is considered a satirical masterpiece. It reflected his concepts of aesthetics, and predated post-modern literary techniques in its unusual structure. Critic Alex Ross wrote of the novel, "If [Murr] were published tomorrow as the work of a young Brooklyn hipster, it might be hailed as a tour de force of postmodern fiction."


The following books are in ePUB and/or PDF format as indicated:

* Best Tales of Hoffmann (Dover, 1967). E. F. Bleiler, ed. -- ePUB + PDF
* Devils Elixir, The (Duke Classics, 2012). Unidentified trans. -- ePUB
* Golden Pot and Other Tales, The (Oxford, 1992). Ritchie Robertson, trans. -- PDF
* Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (Penguin Classics, 1999). Anthea Bell, trans. -- ePUB
* Nutcracker, The (Penguin, 2014). Joachim Neugroschel, trans. -- ePUB
* Nutcracker and Mouse King (Penguin, 2007). Joachim Neugroschel, trans. -- ePUB
* Sandman, The (Penguin Classics, 2016). Peter Wortsman, trans. -- ePUB
* Sandman and Other Tales, The (Sovereign, 2015). Unidentified trans. -- ePUB
* Selected Writings, Vol. 1: The Tales (Chicago, 1969). L. Kent and E. Knight, trans. -- PDF^
* Selected Writings, Vol. 2: The Novel (Chicago, 1969). L. Kent and E. Knight, trans. -- PDF^
* Story of the Nutcracker (Dover, 1996). Bob Blaissell, adap. -- ePUB
* Tales (Continuum, 1982). Victor Lange, ed. -- PDF
* Tales of Hoffmann (Penguin Classics, 2004). R. J. Hollingdale, trans. -- ePUB
* Weird Tales (Duke Classics, 2012). J. T. Bealby, trans. -- ePUB

PDF^ by Mohamed5438

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