The original stories behind everyone's favorite Christmas balletIt wasn't until the 1950s that seeing The Nutcracker at Christmastime became an American tradition. But the story itself is much older and its original intent more complex. This eye-opening new volume presents two of the tale's earliest versions, both in new translations: E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King (1816), in which a young girl is whisked away to the Land of Toys to h...

On Christmas Eve, Marie finds a Nutcracker doll among the family’s gifts and is charged by her parents to take special care of it. Under the cover of darkness, the Nutcracker comes to life, along with an evil Mouse King with seven heads, introducing Marie to the magical world of toys, and the brave Nutcracker who will change her life forever.E. T. A. Hoffman’s timeless and whimsical tale has become a Christmas classic since it was first published in 1816. It has been adapted numero...

One of five beloved Christmas classicsWritten in 1816 by one of the leaders of German Romanticism for his children, nephews, and nieces, The Nutcracker captures better than any other story a child’s wonder at Christmas. The gift of a handsomely decorated nutcracker from a mysterious uncle sets the stage for a Christmas Eve like no other for the little girl Marie. That night, Marie’s extraordinary present comes to life, defends her from the taunting Mouse K...

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 Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive. After defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, her handsome Nutcracker whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls.

A children's Christmas story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King" is the magical adventure of Marie Stahlbaum’s favourite toy, the Nutcracker, who battles the nefarious Mouse-King in battle and takes the reader on a wonderful adventure, into a magical land of dolls. Probably Hoffman's most well-known story, produced in 1816, due to the fact that - some seventy-six years later - it inspired Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker". A true Christmas classic, perfect for fes...

A chance encounter, a tangle of coincidences, and a lesson that everything under the sun is connected – The Mutual Interdependence of Things shows E. T. A. Hoffmann in wry, comic humour.Published in 1820 as part of The Serapion Brethren, this light-hearted tale follows a young man whose fortunes in love and life turn on the most improbable web of accidents, told with sly wit and warmth. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822), born in Königsb...

The story follows the adventures of Nathanael, a young student who becomes embroiled in a series of bizarre and supernatural events. Central to the narrative is the character of Coppelius, a sinister figure who appears to wield dark powers and who Nathanael believes to be responsible for a traumatic incident from his childhood. As Nathanael delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Coppelius, he finds himself drawn into a world of madness, obsession, and fantastical creatures.At the hea...

A painter's genius curdles into obsession in this shadowed tale of art, longing, and possible damnation, one of the darkest jewels from a master of the German uncanny.First collected in Hoffmann's Night Pieces, The Jesuits' Church in G---- follows a traveller who befriends a gifted artist tormented by an unreachable ideal and the woman who haunts his canvases. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822), the Konigsberg-born jurist, composer, and ...

On the ramparts of the Wartburg, the greatest minstrels of the age duel in song – and one gambles his soul on dark sorcery. The Contest of the Singers conjures the legendary world of medieval Germany.First published in 1818 within The Serapion Brethren, this stirring tale reimagines the fabled song-contest of the thirteenth century, where poets such as Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Wolfram von Eschenbach compete and a pact with a sinister sorcerer ...

A stern and upright master builder, his devoted daughters, and the young men who love them stand at the heart of Master Johannes Wacht, E. T. A. Hoffmann's tender final tale of craft, conscience, and family.Written in 1822, in the last year of the author's life, this is one of Hoffmann's quieter works – a warm, closely observed portrait of an artisan household in old Bamberg, where pride, faith, and the rivalry of two apprentices shape a family's fortunes....

Chance meetings, a veiled beauty, and the small mysteries of city living come together in this warm, wistful sketch of youth from a great teller of Romantic stories.Drawn from The Serapion Brethren and first published in 1818, A Fragment from the Life of Three Friends follows a set of young companions in Berlin whose paths cross around a mysterious woman and a string of curious coincidences. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822), the German...