Hoffmann's Strange Stories

by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Table of contents

Life of Hoffmann
The Cooper of Nuremberg
The Lost Reflection
Antonia's Song
The Walled-up Door
Berthold, the Madman
Coppelius, the Sandman
Salvator Rosa
Cardillac, the Jeweller
The Pharo Bank
Fascination
The Agate Heart
The Mystery of the Deserted House

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1855

About the author

Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, better known by his pen name E. T. A. Hoffmann (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann), was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbach's famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann, in which Hoffman appears (heavily fictionalized) as the hero. He is also the author of the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which the famous ballet The Nutcracker is based. The ballet Coppélia is based on two other stories that Hoffmann wrote, while Schumann's Kreisleriana is based on Hoffmann's character Johannes Kreisler.

Hoffmann's stories were very influential during the 19th century, and he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement.

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is rather boring at times, but one does get a glimpse of an interesting brain through the unique flashes of creativity displayed by the author.
His fantastic ideas may not be considered soooooo very brilliant from today's perspective, the structure of the stories may not be seemingly soooooo perfectly tailored, but we should bare in mind that he lived more than 200 years ago after all, instead of 21st century.
Assuming that I lived in the same era as him, it would be a great blessing already, to be able to play a role like Xiangling in Dream of the Red Chamber. How could I expect to have the same imagination as what ETA Hoffmann demonstrated in his writing?

[Kai Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this collection of Hoffmann stories is misleading: For sure Hoffmann wrote some strange stories (The Golden Pot, Little Zaches Called Cinnabar, The Nutcracker, ...) but those are left out from this volume. There's one of the classical and strange Hoffmann stories that did get included, though: Coppelius, the Sandman. Most of the rest is rather plain stuff, often a bit dull, at times even boring. And most of these other stories are quite certainly not among Hoffmann's major works, with another exception being "Mademoiselle de Scuderi", here entitled "Cardillac, the Jeweller", which works rather well as a classical crime story most of the time, even though the happy ending is a bit strained.

I think this is not the best introduction to Hoffmann's work, but with the Sandman and the Scuderi it at least contains two major works and therefore is not all bad either.