On Christmas Eve, the children of Doctor Stahlbaum were not allowed into the family room, let alone the adjoining living room. Evening had come, and Fritz and Marie Stahlbaum sat huddled in a corner. As was usual on Christmas Eve, no-one had brought in a light, and so they sat in an eerie darkness.

A world of magic awakens when the clock strikes midnight. E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a timeless holiday classic—an enchanting story of fantasy, courage, and the boundless power of imagination. On Christmas Eve, young Marie Stahlbaum receives a mysterious wooden nutcracker as a gift. When the clock chimes twelve, the toy comes to life, leading her into a dazzling adventure where toys battle mice, and dreams transform into reality. Guided by her bravery an...

The Classic that Started it All! Millions have seen the beloved Nutcracker ballet, and millions more are enjoying Disney's new take on this classic story in the 2018 film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Here is your chance to read the original 1816 story by E.T.A. Hoffman which inspired those wonderful works of art.

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 brilliant...

The Sand-man and Other Stories brings together some of E.T.A. Hoffmann's most influential tales, where the fantastic and the uncanny intersect with psychological depth. The central story, The Sandman, follows Nathanael, a young man haunted since childhood by a terrifying figure associated with the legend of the Sandman. As an adult, he becomes obsessed with the mysterious Coppola, a lens-seller whom he believes to be the same menacing figure. His ...

This selection of Hoffmann's finest short stories vividly demonstrates 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 de Scudery, in which an apprentice goldsmith and a female novelist find themselves caught up in a series of jewel thefts and murders. In the sinister Sandman, a young man's sanity is tormented by fears about a mysterious chemist, while...

As Paris is shaken by a spate of murderous robberies, the aristocratic Mademoiselle de Scudéri pens a poem to poke fun at the cowardly lovers who now fear to go out at night to see their mistresses. But when she receives an unexpected visit from a young man, who gives her a box of jewels with a note thanking her for supporting the robbers’ cause, the elderly writer is plunged into a dangerous web of passion, intrigue and murder. First published in 1819 to great acclaim, and displaying all ...

'The Serapion Brethren' is the name of a literary and social circle created in Berlin in 1818 by the German romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann and his friends. 'The Serapion Brethren' is also the name of a four-volume collection of Hoffmann's novellas and fairy tales that appeared in 1819, 1820, and 1821.Volume 1 includes the stories: 'The Story of Serapion', 'An Interrupted Cadence', 'The Poet and the Composer', 'A Fragment of the Lives of Three Friends', 'The Mines of Falun', 'Nut...

E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'The Devil's Elixir' is a gothic, horror-fantasy novel inspired by Matthew Gregory Lewis's novel 'The Monk'.Medardus is the son of a sinner and is raised in a monastery to atone for his father's past. When Medardus succumbs to temptation, he is dragged into a deadly mystery that sees him travel to Rome, pursued by his murderous lookalike.At the Vatican in Rome, the monk's only hope for salvation is the beautiful Aurelie but in order to finally discover the...

'The Serapion Brethren' is the name of a literary and social circle created in Berlin in 1818 by the German romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann and his friends.'The Serapion Brethren' is also the name of a four-volume collection of Hoffmann's novellas and fairy tales that appeared in 1819, 1820, and 1821.Volume 2 includes the stories: 'The Life of a Well-known Character', 'Albertine's wooers', 'The Uncanny Guest', 'Mademoiselle Scuderi', 'Gamblers', 'Fortune', 'Signor Formica...

This is a collection of the 7 best short stories of one of the most innovative and influential fantasy and horror authors ever to have been published, E.T.A. Hoffmann. This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories: The Golden PotThe SandmanCouncillor KrespelaAutomataThe Elementary SpiritThe Jesuits' Church in G--The Story of the Hard NutHoffmann short stories have inspired great writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and...

'Weird Tales Volume 2' (1885) was written by famous German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann. Included in this second and final volume of short stories are: 'The Doge and Dogess', 'Master Martin the Cooper,' 'Mademoiselle de Scudéri,' 'Gambler's Luck,' 'Master Johannes Wacht,' and a bibliographic essay from the translator entitled, 'Biographical Notes.' These classic short stories are perfect for fans of horror and fantasy fiction and the authors H. P. Lovecraft and Neil Gaiman.