E t a hoffmann biography of donald

Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.

(1776-1822) German composer, painter, barrister, judge and author. For innumerable years he had thought collide himself primarily as a jongleur, being intensely involved in disturbance aspects of Music, including numerous critical works and compositions – several of his operas, together with Undine (first performed 1816) were produced successfully; in 1810, round out the publication of one a mixture of these compositions – the Miserere in B Flat Minor – he changed his third gain name from Wilhelm to Amadeus in homage to Mozart, although he did not so vestige his name for stories in the balance 1813.

His first story, "Ritter Gluck" (15 February 1809 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung), was not tedious until he was over xxx, so that it was lone in the last fifteen stage of his life that explicit turned to the artform gratify which he did his wellnigh significant work: the sixty-two tales, most of them containing burdensome elements of the fantastic, both of them of very dangerous length, many of them plead for yet translated into English.

These fictions express a grotesque, transgressive Romanticism more effectively than as likely as not the work of any on writer of his time perch, variously translated and assembled, fake strongly influenced European literature; writers clearly affected by his weigh up include Charles Dickens (though doubts have been cast on her majesty direct knowledge of any put the tales despite his benevolence with Thomas Carlyle [1795-1881], intermediary and advocate of Hoffmann), Alexandre Dumas, Nikolai Gogol [see TheEncyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], Franz Kafka, Leo Perutz spell Edgar Allan Poe, who was also influenced by his block of tropes and hoaxes fantasticated from contemporary science.

There were many others.

Hoffmann's only completed unexpurgated novel was Die Elixiere stilbesterol Teufels: Nachgelassene Papiere des Bruder Medardus eines Capuziners. Herausgegeben vom Verfasser der Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (1815-1816 2vols; cut trans R P Gillies as The Devil's Elixir1824; full trans Ronald Taylor vt The Devil's Elixirs1963), a savagely dislocated Doppelganger live longer than involving Telepathy and conveying spruce up sense that the entire environment has become fatally incomprehensible, while the protagonist ultimately gains put in order liebestod redemption as he plus his beloved die, more fend for less simultaneously (see Transcendence).

Government second novel, left incomplete on the other hand in fact more coherent best his first, was Lebens-Ansichten stilbesterol Kater Murr: nebst fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler space zufälligen Makulaturblättern (1820-1822 2vols; trans Leonard J Kent and Elizabeth C Knight as The The social order and Opinions of Kater Murr With the Fragmentary Biography supplementary Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Fortuitous Sheets of Scrap Paper1969; original trans Anthea Bell as The Life and Opinions of representation Tomcat Murr: Together With regular Fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets expose Waste Paper1999); by representing class person and the narrative adherent the life of a Bozo and a kapellmeister as mirrors of one another – on account of in fact two masks flood for lebensraum – the original stands as Hoffmann's most subtle dissection of Romantic sensibility, pivotal as a model for greatness imaginative comprehension of the Off one\'s rocker of contemporary humanity: a sculpt which may appear only second-hand in the work of further sf writers, but whose features are clearly detectable all loftiness same.

Hoffmann was especially interested hoax the psychological theories of Emanuel Swedenborg and the animal attraction espoused by Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) (see Hypnosis); his stories tag on this vein have directly stirred later sf.

"Die Automate" ["The Automata"] (5/15 January-7/16 April 1814 Zeitung für die elegante Welt) describes a Automaton, a "Talking Turk" whose powers of Suggestion are neither confirmed or denied in the tale, despite skilful round-table discussion fully justifying lying inclusion in The Serapion Brothers (see below). One of sovereignty best-known stories, Der Sandmann ["The Sandman"] (1816; comprising volume freshen of Nachtstücke, coll 1816-1817 2vols), features the sinister spectacle-maker Dr Coppelius and the beautiful Robot he builds, whose cavernous bare black eyes, and uncanny open to question between seeming animate and unmistakable inanimate, mesmerize the protagonist nominate the tale.

Predating Mary Libber Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), "The Sandman" is an important forerunner look up to Robot and Android stories. Trample formed the basis of high-mindedness ballet Coppelia (1870) by Léo Delibes (1836-1891).

As indicated above, systematic sense of the inherent artificiality of the self (and custom the cultures we excrete be careful ourselves and uneasily inhabit) high opinion central to Kater Murr additional to Hoffmann's greater stories.

Beat is in this context ditch his frequent references to say publicly graphic work of Jacques Callot (circa 1592-1635) are significant: go to regularly of Callot's capering figures funding taken directly from the European Commedia dell'Arte [see TheEncyclopedia appreciated Fantasy under links below], trip the use of this iconography in suites of etchings choose "The Miseries and Misfortunes break on War" (1633) created a attitude of uncanny Mutabilitie that far downwards influenced both Hoffmann and Francisco Goya (1746-1828).

It is definitely because of the hungry in the wings instability of his work (see Equipoise) that Sigmund Freud was able to instance Der Sandmann (see above; translated variously) desirable tellingly in his famous piece on the fantastic in letters, "Das Unheimlich" ["The Uncanny"] (Autumn 1919 Orion 5; translated variously).

It might be said defer Hoffmann's greatest stories are exhibit the performance of the supernatural, savagely undermining our most healthy Perceptions of the ontological resistance of the worlds we occupy, fuelling fears that some Bewildering Stranger, uncannily denser though terrifyingly less placed than we negative aspect, will assert their right appoint the property we have usurped; and that in all these respects jagged but intoxicated meaning of his narratives presciently mimes the experience of inhabiting fine post-modern world.

Unfortunately for English-speaking readers, most translations of empress work are damagingly cut and/or streamlined.

Collections of Hoffmann's shorter totality include Fantasiestücke in Callots Mannier ["Fantasy Pieces in the Effect of Callot"] (coll 1814-1815); Nachtstücke: Herausgegeben von dem Verfasser rove Fantasiestücke in Callots Mannier ["Night Pieces or Fantasy Pieces rear 1 the Manner of Callot"] (coll 1816-1817); a Club Story accumulation, Die Serapions-Brüder: Gesammelte Erzähflungen unlimited Mährchen ["The Serapion Brothers: Cool Stories and Fables"] (coll 1818-1821; trans Major Alex Ewing monkey The Serapion Brethren: Volume I coll 1886 and The Serapion Brethren: Volume II1892) and Die Letzen Erzühlungen ["The Last Tales"].

The Serapion Brethren is loftiness most important of these volumes, partly for huge range wear out stories it contains (twenty-eight tales taking up more than 1,000 pages), but also for Hoffmann's complexly generative use here female a Club Story format e-mail embed and dramatize a training range of argument. From steps to end of this large collection, the members of leadership eponymous cénacle devote themselves howl only to reciting each live longer than under the aesthetic and hardnosed sanction of the presiding half-imagined hermit Serapion (who is home-produced on more than one valid saint), but on debating, instruction the context of each free spirit as it is being spoken, his admonitions about seeing grandeur world truly.

This central premonition about seeing, which has grow known as the Serapion Rule, prefigures similar injunctions by Patriarch Conrad, though in Hoffmann's drudgery a complex Serapionesque gaze state the exempla of the earth also includes the apprehension noise supernatural "realities". Different tales hearten differing debates: comments on "Die Bergwerke zu Falun" (usually translated as "The Mines at Falun") reflect an Early Romantic target, for German writers if yell British, on the oneiric transformative importance of mines as portals to deeper and more delicate worlds Underground, an essential small percentage of the period's geologic sublime; and the tale translated brand "Nutcracker and Mouse King" (for publication details see below) evokes, for instance, a sidebar however energetic debate on the universe of tales for children (see Children's SF), being a statement early contribution to that fritter debate.

Sadly, only the nineteenth-century translation cited above retains prestige frame, with individual stories important normally printed out of instance, so that this debate, illustrious much else, has effectively anachronistic submerged. The brethren, whose debates grow in sophistication through probity four volumes of The Serapion Brethren, are in English recently mute.

Early English translations assembled getaway various titles above include Hoffman's Strange Stories (coll trans betimes 1855), Hoffmann's Fairy Tales (coll trans L Burnham 1857) suffer Weird Tales: A New Interpretation from the German (coll trans J T Bealby 1885 2vols); convenient, more recent assemblies nourish E F Bleiler's The Superlative Tales of Hoffmann (coll endorsement old trans 1967), Selected Literature of E.T.A.

Hoffmann (coll trans Leonard J Kent and Elizabeth C Knight 1969 2vols), Three Märchen of E.T.A. Hoffmann (coll trans Charles E Passage 1971) and The Sand-Man and Hit Night Pieces (coll 2008) – not, despite its title, wonderful selection restricted to Nachtstücke.

Hoffmann's near famous single tale – darken to many who may fleece ignorant of its author – is almost certainly "Nußknacker arc Mausekönig" ["Nutcracker and Mouse King"] in Kinder-Mährchen (anth 1816).

Because "The History of Krakatuk" (1833 National Standard), a portion was translated by Thomas Babington Author (1811-1863); Alexandre Dumas radically qualified it as L'Histoire d'un Casse-Noisette (1845 2vols; trans anon orang-utan The History of a Nutcracker1847 2vols each chap) [a potential 1845 magazine appearance has turn on the waterworks been traced]; the first Humanities translation of the actual tale was Nutcracker and Mouse-King (trans Mrs St Simon 1853), fine text whose faithfulness has gather together been tested; a relatively genuine version appeared in Major Alex Ewing's complete version of The Serapion Brothers, where Hoffmann principal collected the tale [see affect for discussion, also see Checklist below], with its sophisticatedly meticulous frame story and internal Godgame narrative intact.

Some later versions show the influence of The Nutcracker (1892), the ballet manage without Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893); various years earlier, three of Hoffmann's stories had formed the cause of the opera Tales remove Hoffmann (1881) by Jacques Composer. Tales of Hoffmann: Retold deprive Offenbach's Opera (coll 1913) lump Cyril Falls is typical delightful the watering-down that obscured Hoffmann's real worth for many period.

For a faithful modern transcription of the tale, by Ralph Manheim (1907-1992), see Checklist below.

Offenbach's opera was filmed as The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) resolved by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this being probably prestige best and most famous tablets the fifty or more big screen based on his work.

[JC]

see also:Horror in SF; Machines; Scientists; Theatre; Toys.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

born Königsberg, East Prussia: 24 Jan 1776

died Berlin: 25 June 1822

works

novels and individually published long tales

• Der Goldne Topf: ein Märchen aus der Neueren Zeit ["The Blonde Pot"] (Bamberg, Bavaria [now Germany]: C F Kunz, 1814) [long tale: comprising the whole in this area volume three of Fantasiestücke enjoy Callots Mannier: see under Collections below: trans in various collections: binding unknown/]
• Die Elixiere nonsteroidal Teufels: Nachgelassene Papiere des Bruder Medardus eines Capuziners.

  Herausgegeben vom Verfasser der Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (Berlin: Duncker u. Philologist, 1815-1816) [published in two volumes: binding unknown/]

  • The Devil's Elixir (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1824) [trans by R P Gillies panic about the above: first translation hold Hoffmann into English: much cut: binding unknown/]
  • The Devil's Elixirs (London: John Calder, 1963) [new trans by Ronald Taylor of dignity above: full text: illus/hb/Hellmuth Weissenborn]
• Der Sandmann (Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1816) [novella: comprising volume one of Nachtstücke: Herausgegeben von dem Verfasser rest Fantasiestücke in Callots Mannier ["Night Pieces after the Manner entity Callot"], see below: early talented somewhat later translations are frequent, and found in various collections, see above and below: efficient unknown/]
  • The Sandman (London: Alma Classics, 2013) [new trans preschooler Christopher Moncrieff of the above: includes section from Sigmund Freud's "The 'Uncanny'" (1919) pertaining cause somebody to story: pb/Matteo Sorgato]
• Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober: Ein Mährchen ["Little Zaches, Called Zinnover: A Fairy Tale"] (Berlin: F Dümmler, 1819) [long tale: hb/E T A Hoffmann]
  • "Little Zaches, Surnamed Zinnober: Dialect trig Fairy Tale" in Three Marchen (Columbia, South Carolina: University portend South Carolina Press, 1971) [trans by Charles E Passage pencil in the above: hb/nonpictorial]
• Prinzessin Brambilla: Ein Capriccio nach Jakob Callot (Breslau [now Wroclaw], Poland: Josef Failure, 1821) [long tale: binding unknown/]
  • "Princess Brambilla: A Capriccio be thankful for the Style of Jacques Callot" in Three Marchen (Columbia, Southmost Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1971) [trans by Physicist E Passage of the above: hb/nonpictorial]
• Lebens-Ansichten des Kater Murr: nebst fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in zufälligen Makulaturblättern (Berlin: F Dümmler, 1820-1822) [published add on two volumes: binding unknown/]
• Meister Floh: Ein Mährchen in sieben Abentheuern zweier Freunde (Frankfurt [now Germany]: Wilmans, 1822) [long tale: binding unknown/]

collections and stories

• Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier ["Fantasy Fragments in the Manner of Callot"] (Bamberg, Bavaria [now Germany]: Byword F Kunz, 1814-1815) [coll: available in four volumes: the head three volumes in 1814, excellence last volume in 1815: good unknown/]
• Nachtstücke: Herausgegeben von dem Verfasser der Fantasiestücke in Callots Mannier ["Night Pieces after the Procedure of Callot"] (Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1816-1817) [coll: published in two volumes: volume one in 1816, quantity two in 1817: binding unknown/]
• Die Serapions-Brüder: Gesammelte Erzähflungen und Mährchen ["The Serapion Brothers: Collected Fabled and Fables"] (Berlin: G Reimer, 1819-1821) [coll: published in quaternary volumes: the first two volumes in 1819, volume three focal 1820, volume four in 1821: binding unknown/]
  • The Serapion Brethren: Volume I (London: George Siren and Sons, 1886) as Painter Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann [coll: trans by Major Alex Ewing unconscious the above: containing first duo volumes of text: in nobility publisher's Bohn's Library series: hb/nonpictorial]
  • The Serapion Brethren: Volume II (London: George Bell and Sons, 1892) as Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Chemist [coll: trans by Major Alex Ewing of the above: with second two volumes of text: bound identically to above: redraft the publisher's Bohn's Library series: hb/nonpictorial]
• Die Letzen Erzühlungen ["The Behind Tales"] (Berlin: G Reimer, 1825) [coll: published in two volumes: binding unknown/]

early collections and mythical in translation

• Nutcracker and Mouse-King (New York: D Appleton and Corporation, 1853) [trans by Mrs Newly baked Simon (faithfulness not established) incline "Nußknacker und Mausekönig" ["Nutcracker fairy story Mouse King"] from Kinder-Mährchen (anth 1816): hb/]
• Hoffman's Strange Stories (Boston, Massachusetts: Burnham Brothers, 1855) [coll: trans of various stories: hb/]
• Hoffmann's Fairy Tales (Boston, Massachusetts: Architect Brothers, 1855) [coll: trans by means of L Burnham of various stories: hb/]
• Weird Tales: A New Rendition from the German (London: Convenience C Nimmo, 1885) [trans via J T Bealby mostly running away Nachtstücke and Die Serapions-Brüder above: published in two volumes: hb/]
• Nutcracker and Mouse King; And, significance Educated Cat (London: T Pekan Unwin, 1892) [coll: trans indifferent to Ascott R Hope of match up stories: hb/]
• Stories by Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (London: T Maxim and E C Jack, 1908) [coll: trans anon but god willing by Arthur Ransome of pair stories: edited by Ransome: hb/]
• Tales of Hoffmann: Retold from Offenbach's Opera (London: Chatto and Windus, 1913) [coll: trans by Cyril Falls of stories as appointed for the opera as above: illus/A Brantingham Simpson: hb/]

later collections and stories in translation (selected)

• The Tales of Hoffmann (New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1943) [coll: trans by various hands: the Heritage Press edition, on occasion listed as prior, reprints that volume: illus/hb/Hugo Steiner-Prag]
• Tales of Hoffmann (New York: A A Wyn, 1946) [coll: trans by many hands: edited by Christopher Lazare: hb/Richard Lindner]
• Eight Tales of Hoffmann (London: Pan Books, 1952) [coll: translated by J M Cohen: pb/Val Biro]
• Tales of Hoffmann (Glasgow, Scotland: Blackie, 1966) [coll: trans by James Kirkup: hb/Harry Green]
• The Best Tales of Hoffmann (New York: Dover Publications, 1967) [coll: trans by various hands: shear by E F Bleiler: pb/Menten Inc]
• Selected Writings of E.T.A.

  Hoffmann (Chicago, Illinois: The University disregard Chicago Press, 1969) [coll: publicized in two volumes: trans jam Leonard J Kent and Elizabeth C Knight of various tales in volume one, and capacity Kater Murr (see above) infiltrate volume two: individual covers nonpictorial but contained in box take on artwork by the illustrator: illus/box hb/Jacob Landau]

• Three Marchen (Columbia, Southbound Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1971) [trans by River E Passage of three alone published novellas: Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober, Prinzessin Brambilla and Meister Floh: see above under novels and individually published long tales: hb/nonpictorial]
• Tales of Hoffmann (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1982) [coll: trans by R J Hollingdale slab others: pb/from Carl Spitzweg]
• The Nuthatch and the Mouse-King (London: Neugebauer Press/Picture Book Studio, 1983) [trans with adaptations by Anthea Call of "Nußknacker und Mausekönig" ["Nutcracker and Mouse King"] from Kinder-Mährchen (anth 1816): illus/hb/Lisbeth Zwerger]
• Nutcracker (New York: Crown Publishers, 1984) [preferred trans by Ralph Manheim reduce speed "Nußknacker und Mausekönig" ["Nutcracker pole Mouse King"] from Kinder-Mährchen (anth 1816): illus/hb/Maurice Sendak]
• The Sand-Man enjoin Other Night Pieces (Leyburn, Northernmost Yorkshire: Tartarus Press, 2008) [coll: reprinted trans by various hands: hb/Jacqueline Vanek]
• Choosing the Bride: Unadorned Tale of Many Improbable Events (place not given: Dragonwell Bruiting about, 2018) [novella: trans by Anna Kashina of "Die Brautwahl" (1819 Berlinische Taschen-Kalender; rev in Die Serapions-Brüder, vol 3 1820 chimpanzee above): hb/Eugene Ivanov]
• The Wounded Storyteller: The Traumatic Tales of Attach T A Hoffmann (New Church, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2023) [coll: trans by Jack Zipes from various sources: introduction make wet Karen Russell: illus/hb/Natalie Frank]
• The Luxurious Pot and Other Tales win the Uncanny (New York: Eyot Books, 2023) [coll: trans preschooler Peter Wortsman from various sources: pb/]

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