Writing at the dawn of the 19th century, E.T.A. Hoffmann was, in many ways, the father of modern horror. This collection of some of his best work offers tales of vampirism, ghosts, sorcery, extrasensory perception, and a deadly family dispute over inheritance money. Settings include a cemetery, a haunted castle, and a seemingly abandoned old house. Hoffmann's work often even foresaw the age of weird fiction. In this collection, lost primordial worlds dangerously reveal themselves in the fo...

A Christmas Carol por Charles DickensThe Little Prince por Antoine De Saint-ExupéryThe Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe por Daniel DefoeThe Secret Garden por Frances Hodgson BurnettThe Ice-Maiden and Other Tales por Hans Christian AndersenFive Children and It por Edith NesbitThe Adventures of Pinocchio por C. CollodiThe Nursery Al...

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...

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 ...

"Strange man, how can you have eyes for sale? Eyes? Eyes?" 'The disturbing tale of a young man's obsession with the Sandman, stealer of eyes, which has inspired writers from Sigmund Freud to Neil Gaiman.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - i...

In E.T.A. Hoffmann's extraordinary novel, Opinions of the Cat Murr, the reader embarks on a fantastic journey through the routine activities of daily life in 19th century Germany. The confident and eclectic talents of Murr, a creature inspired by Hoffmann's own beloved cat, make him a true feline of the Renaissance, while Kriesler, Hoffmann's alter ego, is a character saturated with romantic sensibility. **E.T.A. Hoffmann'**s strange tale evokes the supernatural, ...

The classic Christmas story comes to new life in this vibrant graphic novel adaptation of the beloved E.T.A. Hoffmann classic, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.**Of all the gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve, only one captures Marie Stahlbaum’s heart: a humble nutcracker.He’s a curious little man, with kind eyes, sweet red cheeks, and a friendly appearance.And as midnight nears, he comes to life, revealing a fairy-tale world of magic an...

The Devil's Elixirs is a macabre masterpiece of German literature, and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Romantic movement, or the genres of fantasy and horror which it spawned. The son of a heinous sinner, Medardus is brought up in a monastery to atone for his father's wicked ways. However, after succumbing to temptation, Medardus himself is lured into a life of sin. A labyrinthine plot sees him embarking on a fantastical journey into the world, meeting his doppelg...

In his 1919 essay The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud investigated the roots of horror with specific reference to motifs of blinding and mutilation in two classic German fairy-tales Hoffmanns The Sandman, in particular, and also Hauffs The Severed Hand, both written in 1816. As in the most horrific tales of the Brothers Grimm, both stories reveal mechanisms of atavistic dread and corporeal destruction beneath their elegant surfaces. This special ebook edition of The Sandman and The Severed Hand also...

E. T. A. Hoffmann’s 1816 fairytale masterpiece The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King, which served as the basis for the famous and beloved holiday-season ballet The Nutcracker, now available in a masterfully made digital layout with cover and inside illustration by artist Artuš Scheiner.

The original story that inspired the Tchaikovsky ballet, The Nutcracker is a magical story of one little girl's decent into a dream-like world where the diabolical Mouse King rules… Best known as the inspiration for Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker is a charming book in its own right. Full of magic and childish wonder, this coming-of-age novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann has something for everyone: beautiful dolls, ferocious battles and dark undertones. It truly has all the elements of a fair...