A German author of fantasy and Gothic horror, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote original and spine-chilling tales that highly influenced nineteenth-century literature, confirming his status as one of the major authors of the Romantic movement. His story ‘Das Fräulein von Scuder’ is often cited as the first detective story and his novella ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ went on to inspire Tchaikovsky's celebrated ballet. Hoffmann was a pioneer of the fantasy genre, with a taste for the macabre combined with realism that influenced such authors as Poe, Gogol, Dickens, Baudelaire, Dostoevsky and Kafka. This eBook presents Hoffmann’s collected works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material.
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.