1housefulofpaper
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). Born in Konigsberg. Baptized Ernst Thedor Wilhelm, later substituted Amadeus for Wilhelm, out of admiration for Mozart. Short story writer and novelist. Also composer and musical theorist and critic, man of the theatre to an extent (learning about of stage design, lighting and special effects). Civil servant. I feel, as I tried to express in another thread, that I don't really "get" him. There may be several reasons for this. Firstly his prescence in the culture, in the English-speaking world anyway, is through the distorting mirror of art produced by others, drawing on his work and also on a Romanticised version of him - Tchaikovsky's ballet based on "Nutcracker and Mouse King", another ballet (Coppélia) very loosely drawing on the story "The Sandman", as does Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann and the Powell and Pressburger film of it.
Secondly the partial and distorted picture due to absent or inadequate translations into English (more detail on that later on).
Thirdly the ways Hoffmann is described, to me at any rate, through up dust rather than make things clear. I'll hopefully expand on that too, but my current thinking is to try to see Hoffmann as a man of his time and place instead of through claims of his influence on writers working decades or centuries later - horror writers, detective fiction writers, deeply psychological writers, post-modernist writers, etc.
I'm going to being this by looking at the books I've acquired, to date, by Hoffmann; or including works by Hoffmann, and maybe seeing what composite picture they create.
Somewhat perversely, but for completeness' sake, and because I imagine foe many people it's all they know of Hoffmann, The Nutcracker kicks this survey off.
This is not Hoffmann's tale "Nutcracker and Mouse King" but a children's retelling of the ballet, itself based on a French retelling of Hoffmann's story.
Jan Pienkowski had made pop-up books previously but this one has a 3-D tableau built into the back cover. I suppose it has less of a wow factor now than it did in 2008.
Next is a recent translation of Hoffmann's story, first published in 2007. There's an introduction by fairy tale expert Jack Zipes (what the German Romantics did with the fairy tale, it seems, is something I will have to find out about). It's coupled with the French version, which is by Alexandre Dumas. This adaptation straightens out some of Hoffmann's weird, even grotesque twists and turns in the story, and also goes some way to "prettifying" it.
Although written for children, Hoffmann included this story in one of his collections for adults, The Serapion Brethren.
Here's another recent translation, coupled with the the other story from The Serapion Brethren that is stated as being written for children. The book has an afterword that, like Jack Zipes' introduction in the Penguin, puts emphasis on Hoffmann's position in the history of writing for children.
And the blurb.
I wrote in a previous thread that Hoffmann's fairy tales (I was thinking of his fairy tales for adults, as much as of these) have the logic-defying twists of children's games. Peter Pan aside, perhaps, I don't think Anglophone children's writings are like that Alice in Wonderland was written by a mathematician, after all. Is Hoffmann unique in this, or is it a trait that continued in German (maybe not just German?) writing? Not to forget that these twists, that tend to oscillate between mundane reality and a higher, grander reality (but, as far as I can recall, never resolving into a simple (and literally dis-enchanting) real/fantasy dichotomy, are all through his work and, according to other commentaries, demand a psyhological reading or are playing with the suspension of disbelieve seem in the theatre, or form a kind of spiritual quest or initation the reader experiences through the act of reading...lots of opinions.
Secondly the partial and distorted picture due to absent or inadequate translations into English (more detail on that later on).
Thirdly the ways Hoffmann is described, to me at any rate, through up dust rather than make things clear. I'll hopefully expand on that too, but my current thinking is to try to see Hoffmann as a man of his time and place instead of through claims of his influence on writers working decades or centuries later - horror writers, detective fiction writers, deeply psychological writers, post-modernist writers, etc.
I'm going to being this by looking at the books I've acquired, to date, by Hoffmann; or including works by Hoffmann, and maybe seeing what composite picture they create.
Somewhat perversely, but for completeness' sake, and because I imagine foe many people it's all they know of Hoffmann, The Nutcracker kicks this survey off.
This is not Hoffmann's tale "Nutcracker and Mouse King" but a children's retelling of the ballet, itself based on a French retelling of Hoffmann's story.
Jan Pienkowski had made pop-up books previously but this one has a 3-D tableau built into the back cover. I suppose it has less of a wow factor now than it did in 2008.
Next is a recent translation of Hoffmann's story, first published in 2007. There's an introduction by fairy tale expert Jack Zipes (what the German Romantics did with the fairy tale, it seems, is something I will have to find out about). It's coupled with the French version, which is by Alexandre Dumas. This adaptation straightens out some of Hoffmann's weird, even grotesque twists and turns in the story, and also goes some way to "prettifying" it.
Although written for children, Hoffmann included this story in one of his collections for adults, The Serapion Brethren.
Here's another recent translation, coupled with the the other story from The Serapion Brethren that is stated as being written for children. The book has an afterword that, like Jack Zipes' introduction in the Penguin, puts emphasis on Hoffmann's position in the history of writing for children.
And the blurb.
I wrote in a previous thread that Hoffmann's fairy tales (I was thinking of his fairy tales for adults, as much as of these) have the logic-defying twists of children's games. Peter Pan aside, perhaps, I don't think Anglophone children's writings are like that Alice in Wonderland was written by a mathematician, after all. Is Hoffmann unique in this, or is it a trait that continued in German (maybe not just German?) writing? Not to forget that these twists, that tend to oscillate between mundane reality and a higher, grander reality (but, as far as I can recall, never resolving into a simple (and literally dis-enchanting) real/fantasy dichotomy, are all through his work and, according to other commentaries, demand a psyhological reading or are playing with the suspension of disbelieve seem in the theatre, or form a kind of spiritual quest or initation the reader experiences through the act of reading...lots of opinions.
2housefulofpaper
The introduction to E. T. A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings notes that a copy of Fantasiestucke in the British Library has annotations that have been identified as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's. From what I can remember, Coleridge is unusual among English writers in the depth of his study of German literature, music, and philosphy of the Romantic period.
3housefulofpaper
A Night With Mephistopheles was published in 1997 by Tartarus Press. It was edited by S. T. Joshi and it was believed that all the stories (which had been published in the
Dublin University Magazine in the middle of the nineteenth century where written by the rather obsure Henry Ferris.
It subsequently came to light that at least two of the stories were not by Ferris, and at best were translated by him. The story titled here "A Leaf from the Berlin Chronicles" is by Hoffmann. (The weird shape on the cover is only the reflection of my phone, by the way).
Tartarus Press seem to be rather sheepish about this volume, but it's a very attractive book and of course a perfectly genuine anthology of supernatural tales from the Dublin University Magazine.
And next there's this small paperback with six stories by three German writers (two stories each).
This is the first book in this survey that I have still to read. The translations are from 1985, so quite recent as these things go.
Dublin University Magazine in the middle of the nineteenth century where written by the rather obsure Henry Ferris.
It subsequently came to light that at least two of the stories were not by Ferris, and at best were translated by him. The story titled here "A Leaf from the Berlin Chronicles" is by Hoffmann. (The weird shape on the cover is only the reflection of my phone, by the way).
Tartarus Press seem to be rather sheepish about this volume, but it's a very attractive book and of course a perfectly genuine anthology of supernatural tales from the Dublin University Magazine.
And next there's this small paperback with six stories by three German writers (two stories each).
This is the first book in this survey that I have still to read. The translations are from 1985, so quite recent as these things go.
4housefulofpaper
Two more books that I haven't read.
Originally published by John Calder in 1963. Published in paperback by Oneworld soon after Calder sold his business to them (he was about 80 years old by then). The introduction says this was the first full translation of the novel in English.
And this, another fairy tale, was published by Calder in 1959.
Originally published by John Calder in 1963. Published in paperback by Oneworld soon after Calder sold his business to them (he was about 80 years old by then). The introduction says this was the first full translation of the novel in English.
And this, another fairy tale, was published by Calder in 1959.
5housefulofpaper
Yet another book from the "TBR" pile and so again not a lot for me to say about this yet. I've been intrigued to read it for ages but kept getting diverted away from it. Apologies for the blurry quality of the back cover blurb. This translation was published in 1999 and according to the Wikipedia entry for the translator Anthea Bell, it "has had a positive effect on Hoffman's profile".
6elenchus
Tomcat Murr is another on my TBR list, inspired by an LTer who adopted that account name.
I'm following this thread with interest, hope to learn something along the way and may be nudged to reading some Hoffman myself. I was introduced to him in my undergrad German Studies classes, both in the original German and in translation. It's been a long time.
I'm following this thread with interest, hope to learn something along the way and may be nudged to reading some Hoffman myself. I was introduced to him in my undergrad German Studies classes, both in the original German and in translation. It's been a long time.
7Bookmarque
I've only read The Devil's Elixirs, but maybe I'll give some other things a go. This is the opening line of my review -
This is one bizarre book. Krazy. Yeah, with a K. That’s how crazy it is. Maybe even Krazee. Said in your best Jerry Lewis voice.
This is one bizarre book. Krazy. Yeah, with a K. That’s how crazy it is. Maybe even Krazee. Said in your best Jerry Lewis voice.
8housefulofpaper
>6 elenchus:
Welcome! I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in this thread. I'm hoping to learn something too.
>7 Bookmarque:
And welcome! I appreciated the review. It's not something I'm very good at! As I wrote above , I haven't read The Devil's Elixirs yet, but that disorientating "Kraziness" is familiar from Hoffmann's stories that I have read. It's one of the things about him that I hope to understand better.
And finally, a book that I have read, but some time ago and as elenchus will be aware from my witterings over in The Weird Tradition group, I often find on re-reading a story that I have forgotten nearly everthing about it.
The back cover blurb SHOULD PERHAPS COME WITH A SPOILER WARNING!
I assume that this was a "selected tales" (with a title targeted at bookshop browsers with vague memories of Offenbach?). Was it also Hoffmann's sole appearance as a Penguin Classic until Tomcat Murr, I wonder?
This book was first published in 1982. I love the cover, a detail from Der Arme Poet by Carl Spitzweg. The latest edition has a different cover painting.
The back cover blurb, as you can see (if you decided to read it!) puts a lot of stress on "split personality" - not language that would be used so loosely now, I would imagine. But certainly the theme of the double is very strong in Hoffmann's work, but manifests in more ways than the evil doppelganger or dissociative identity disorder you would see in other horror and Gothic tales. The fairy tales often have characters seemingly inhabiting the mundane and fantasy worlds at one and the same time.
So, with a carefully curated selection of stories, and newly-commissioned translations, this ought to be a definitive volume, right?
Well, there's this:
So how much has been cut? Does it mean we're not getting the "real" Hoffmann (insofar as any translation can do that). Or is editor/translator R. J. Hollingdale right in thinking that his adjustments bring the experience closer to how Hoffmann's first readers experienced him? It's not a question I can answer, but with an English text I prefer to go with an unedited and original-spelling edition (but with notes!).
Here's the contents page:
One more source of confusion with this author is that one story can be translated under multiple titles. The original German titles of these stories are:
Mademoiselle de Scudery = Das Fraulein von Scuderi
The Sandman = Der Sandmann
The Artushof = Der Artushof
Councillor Krespel = Rath Krespel
The Entail = Das Majorat
Doge and Dogaressa = Doge und Dogaresse
The Mines at Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun
The Choosing of the Bride = Die Brautwahl
Hollingdale stuck closer to the original titles than many previous translator had (as will be seen later. I'll also give due credit to the volume providing details of all the variant titles).
Welcome! I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in this thread. I'm hoping to learn something too.
>7 Bookmarque:
And welcome! I appreciated the review. It's not something I'm very good at! As I wrote above , I haven't read The Devil's Elixirs yet, but that disorientating "Kraziness" is familiar from Hoffmann's stories that I have read. It's one of the things about him that I hope to understand better.
And finally, a book that I have read, but some time ago and as elenchus will be aware from my witterings over in The Weird Tradition group, I often find on re-reading a story that I have forgotten nearly everthing about it.
The back cover blurb SHOULD PERHAPS COME WITH A SPOILER WARNING!
I assume that this was a "selected tales" (with a title targeted at bookshop browsers with vague memories of Offenbach?). Was it also Hoffmann's sole appearance as a Penguin Classic until Tomcat Murr, I wonder?
This book was first published in 1982. I love the cover, a detail from Der Arme Poet by Carl Spitzweg. The latest edition has a different cover painting.
The back cover blurb, as you can see (if you decided to read it!) puts a lot of stress on "split personality" - not language that would be used so loosely now, I would imagine. But certainly the theme of the double is very strong in Hoffmann's work, but manifests in more ways than the evil doppelganger or dissociative identity disorder you would see in other horror and Gothic tales. The fairy tales often have characters seemingly inhabiting the mundane and fantasy worlds at one and the same time.
So, with a carefully curated selection of stories, and newly-commissioned translations, this ought to be a definitive volume, right?
Well, there's this:
So how much has been cut? Does it mean we're not getting the "real" Hoffmann (insofar as any translation can do that). Or is editor/translator R. J. Hollingdale right in thinking that his adjustments bring the experience closer to how Hoffmann's first readers experienced him? It's not a question I can answer, but with an English text I prefer to go with an unedited and original-spelling edition (but with notes!).
Here's the contents page:
One more source of confusion with this author is that one story can be translated under multiple titles. The original German titles of these stories are:
Mademoiselle de Scudery = Das Fraulein von Scuderi
The Sandman = Der Sandmann
The Artushof = Der Artushof
Councillor Krespel = Rath Krespel
The Entail = Das Majorat
Doge and Dogaressa = Doge und Dogaresse
The Mines at Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun
The Choosing of the Bride = Die Brautwahl
Hollingdale stuck closer to the original titles than many previous translator had (as will be seen later. I'll also give due credit to the volume providing details of all the variant titles).
9housefulofpaper
Mademoiselle de Scudery/Das Fraulein von Scuderi
Hollingdale says this is considered Hoffmann's masterpiece, which is why it's at the head of this selection of tales (the rest are in order of publication). This was written in 1818, had a magazine? publication in 1819 and was collected in the third volume of The Serapion Brethren. It is (says Hollingdale) a detective story that anticipates the innovations of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". It's set in Paris in 1680 and (to try to say less than the back cover blurb) is a story that has themes of obsession, a double life, and an artist (in this story, a jeweller).
The Sandman = Der Sandmann
This must have been the story I most wanted to read, after wondering how such disparate things as family-friendly ballets, a gruesome animated short, and Freud's essay on the uncanny could all draw from it. There's even more in the story - what could be interpreted as a fictionalsed reworking of childhood trauma, that casts a long shadow, and an ending one wouldn't expect from the adaptation for the first act of The Tales of Hoffmann, which is, apart from making Hoffmann the protagonist, quite faithful to the original story. Saying that though, there's no doubt that there's often a version of Hoffmann in his stories. And Offenbach's drink-inspired, lovelorn poet isn't entirely inaccurate.
The Artushof = Der Artushof
It's been too long since I read this one
Councillor Krespel = Rath Krespel
This was also adapted for The Tales of Hoffmann (the second or third act. depending on the production). I think the opera (the film, rather) has overwritten my memory of the story.
The Entail = Das Majorat
Again, the details are gone.
Doge and Dogaressa = Doge und Dogaresse
Likewise, I don't remember the details of this one. The introduction notes that it has a historical basis in the conspiracy of Marino Falieri (also turned in to a play by Lord Byron and an opera by Donizetti).
The Mines at Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun
I do recall more about this story, but I want to avoid spoilers if I can. It starts with a sailor unhappy with his life deciding to become a miner. It ends with the sort of sentimental "tear-jerking" ending one thinks of as typically Victorian (written a good couple of decades before she ascended to the throne). In between there's a love triangle, and a sinister sort of guru figure, and the mythological or spirit world of miners and beneath the Earth. The events of the story could, though (likewise "The Sandman") have an non-superatural explanation. However this doesn't leave the reader with a sense of "order restored", but rather that everything is off-kilter. I suppose the word I'm looking for is (of course!) unheimlich.
The initial inspiration was, apparently, a real-life example of the unheimlich: the discovery, in Sweden, of a miner's dead body, perfectly preserved after a mine collapse half a century earlier.
The Choosing of the Bride = Die Brautwahl
What I remember of this one is the incidental detail of a magical book, which if you take it out of your pocket will bear the exact text you wanted to read at that time - in other words Hoffmann invented the Kindle!
Hollingdale says this is considered Hoffmann's masterpiece, which is why it's at the head of this selection of tales (the rest are in order of publication). This was written in 1818, had a magazine? publication in 1819 and was collected in the third volume of The Serapion Brethren. It is (says Hollingdale) a detective story that anticipates the innovations of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". It's set in Paris in 1680 and (to try to say less than the back cover blurb) is a story that has themes of obsession, a double life, and an artist (in this story, a jeweller).
The Sandman = Der Sandmann
This must have been the story I most wanted to read, after wondering how such disparate things as family-friendly ballets, a gruesome animated short, and Freud's essay on the uncanny could all draw from it. There's even more in the story - what could be interpreted as a fictionalsed reworking of childhood trauma, that casts a long shadow, and an ending one wouldn't expect from the adaptation for the first act of The Tales of Hoffmann, which is, apart from making Hoffmann the protagonist, quite faithful to the original story. Saying that though, there's no doubt that there's often a version of Hoffmann in his stories. And Offenbach's drink-inspired, lovelorn poet isn't entirely inaccurate.
The Artushof = Der Artushof
It's been too long since I read this one
Councillor Krespel = Rath Krespel
This was also adapted for The Tales of Hoffmann (the second or third act. depending on the production). I think the opera (the film, rather) has overwritten my memory of the story.
The Entail = Das Majorat
Again, the details are gone.
Doge and Dogaressa = Doge und Dogaresse
Likewise, I don't remember the details of this one. The introduction notes that it has a historical basis in the conspiracy of Marino Falieri (also turned in to a play by Lord Byron and an opera by Donizetti).
The Mines at Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun
I do recall more about this story, but I want to avoid spoilers if I can. It starts with a sailor unhappy with his life deciding to become a miner. It ends with the sort of sentimental "tear-jerking" ending one thinks of as typically Victorian (written a good couple of decades before she ascended to the throne). In between there's a love triangle, and a sinister sort of guru figure, and the mythological or spirit world of miners and beneath the Earth. The events of the story could, though (likewise "The Sandman") have an non-superatural explanation. However this doesn't leave the reader with a sense of "order restored", but rather that everything is off-kilter. I suppose the word I'm looking for is (of course!) unheimlich.
The initial inspiration was, apparently, a real-life example of the unheimlich: the discovery, in Sweden, of a miner's dead body, perfectly preserved after a mine collapse half a century earlier.
The Choosing of the Bride = Die Brautwahl
What I remember of this one is the incidental detail of a magical book, which if you take it out of your pocket will bear the exact text you wanted to read at that time - in other words Hoffmann invented the Kindle!
10elenchus
>9 housefulofpaper: Hoffmann invented the Kindle!
And that suggests a story about the unanticipated downstream effects of such an invention is buried in there, somewhere.
And that suggests a story about the unanticipated downstream effects of such an invention is buried in there, somewhere.
11housefulofpaper
I borrowed rather too much from this blog when I wrote about the unheimlich effect of "The Mines of Falun"'s equivocating between the naturalistic and the supernatural:
https://theartofculturalvivisection.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-mines-of-falun-...
I had only gone looking for reminders of plots but the argument presented, for Hoffman as a horror/terror writer, was too persuasive for me to shake off (TV Tropes, of all places, also has entries on individual Hoffmann stories, but does not build them up into any kind of thesis).
Having been able to mull it over for a while, the argument doesn't seem to extend to Hoffmann's fairy tales, or his theories about Art (realised through music in the Kriesleriana*, and through other arts as well, in various of the stories).
I'm reading the Kriesleriana now, and the next book I'll write about should be another modern collection of short stories, one that I think places the focus on other aspects of Hoffmann's fictions than Hollingdale does.
* But, of course, that's in the fictional world of Kreisler's writings. In reality they are effects through the written word - Hoffmann's words (apart from the contribution by La Motte Foque. And both Hoffmann and Foque are adopting fictional alter egos, or are somewhere between that and creating fictional characters. And it's impossible to forget that Robert Schumann did turn the Kreisleriana into music. Which has to be played/interpreted by others...and it just seems that no statement about Hoffmann can be made without having to qualify it, or even declare its opposite equally true.
Edited: "equall" to "equally". And "opppsite" to "opposite". Atrocious typing. I do apologise.
https://theartofculturalvivisection.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-mines-of-falun-...
I had only gone looking for reminders of plots but the argument presented, for Hoffman as a horror/terror writer, was too persuasive for me to shake off (TV Tropes, of all places, also has entries on individual Hoffmann stories, but does not build them up into any kind of thesis).
Having been able to mull it over for a while, the argument doesn't seem to extend to Hoffmann's fairy tales, or his theories about Art (realised through music in the Kriesleriana*, and through other arts as well, in various of the stories).
I'm reading the Kriesleriana now, and the next book I'll write about should be another modern collection of short stories, one that I think places the focus on other aspects of Hoffmann's fictions than Hollingdale does.
* But, of course, that's in the fictional world of Kreisler's writings. In reality they are effects through the written word - Hoffmann's words (apart from the contribution by La Motte Foque. And both Hoffmann and Foque are adopting fictional alter egos, or are somewhere between that and creating fictional characters. And it's impossible to forget that Robert Schumann did turn the Kreisleriana into music. Which has to be played/interpreted by others...and it just seems that no statement about Hoffmann can be made without having to qualify it, or even declare its opposite equally true.
Edited: "equall" to "equally". And "opppsite" to "opposite". Atrocious typing. I do apologise.
12elenchus
>11 housefulofpaper: it just seems that no statement about Hoffmann can be made without having to qualify it, or even declare its opppsite equall true..
An intriguing postulate and one I'd be quite proud of, were I an author.
An intriguing postulate and one I'd be quite proud of, were I an author.
13housefulofpaper
This is the Oxford World's Classics selection of Hoffmann's stories, translated by Ritchie Robertson and first published in 1992. The choice of a Tiepolo for the front cover is explained by the longest story in the book, "Princess Brambilla", which is set in Rome during the Carnival season.
According to the blurb on this book, "The Golden Pot" (and not "Mademoiselle de Scudery") is Hoffmann's masterpiece. But it's "The Sandman" that turns up in every collection.
Here's the contents page:
Edited to correct "Venice" to "Rome".
According to the blurb on this book, "The Golden Pot" (and not "Mademoiselle de Scudery") is Hoffmann's masterpiece. But it's "The Sandman" that turns up in every collection.
Here's the contents page:
Edited to correct "Venice" to "Rome".
14housefulofpaper
In his introduction Robertson says that the story selection, with the exception of The Sandman, is intebded to illustrate "a different side of Hoffmann's genius by concentrating on the fairy tales. With My Cousin's Corner Window, one of Hoffmann's last stories, as a sort of epilogue, non-supernatural but still all about the power of imagination.
The Golden Pot = Der Goldne Topf
This is set in contemporary (for Hoffmann) Dresden. The hero has to undergo a series of tests to win the girl - the influence of The Magic Flute can be discerned. The main requirement is to believe in supernatural reality (a fairy-tale, "Poetic" reality) against the mundane pull of the mundane world.
The Sandman
Princess Brambilla = Prinzessin Brambilla. Ein Capriccio nach Jakob Callot
This is set during the Roman Carnival at some time in the eighteenth century. Jacques Callot was a French artist born 1592, and Hoffmann had already paid tribute to him with his very first book Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, which consisted of a brief piece about Callot, two stories connected to the world of Opera, and the first set of Kreisleriana.
This is again a fairy tale with a (small "r") romantic theme and the most confusing mixing-up of mundane and fairy tale worlds, compounded by the hero's profession as an actor, and the setting amongst the masked Carnival celebrations. For example, it's not clear, at times, if there are two sets of hero and heroine, or whether they are in fact their own rivals.
Master Flea = Meister Floh. Ein Merchen in sieben Abenteuern zweier Freunde
Set in Frankfurt, and not published in unexpurgated form until 1908 (Hoffmann had lampooned a Prussian official who turned out to be rather too powerful) it's essentially another fairy tale like "The Golden Pot" and "Princess Brambilla", but the tone feels rather different. As the introduction notes, the story starts very like a lost Dickens Book, perhaps a lost Christmas story, with Peregrinus Tyst, a batchelor who has never got over the trauma of losing his parents, receiving Christmas presents and then playing with them as if he were a child. Then the narrative reveals he bought them all himself.
He is then seen distributing the presents to the poor, before becoming romantically involved with another young woman of confused or double (or triple) identity, a fairy-tale backstory, rival scientis or magicians recalling Coppelius and Spalanzani from "The Sandman", and the wise and helpful Master Flea of the title.
My Cousin's Corner Window = Des Vetters Eckfenster
Hoffmann was dying when he wrote this. The OUP lists liver disease, degeneration of the spinal marrow, and paralysis. Other sources give syphilis as the ultimate cause of his death.
In this story, the rather philistine narrator talks about his cousin, a writer confined to his rooms by paralysis, who looks down on Berlin's market-place and imagines the lives of the shoppers below from small details of dress, etc. (again, Robertson anticipates the reader by mentioning Sherlock Holmes. But of course this story long pre-dates Holmes, and is earlier than Poe's Dupin, as well).
I'm currently reading the Kriesleriana collected in E. T. A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings. the long introduction and Hoffmann's/Kreisler's own comments are helpful in understanding Hoffmann - in seeing the way the fiction works as paralllel to a piece of Romantic music - a Beethoven symphony for example - and drawing comparison with earlier German Romantics, especially Heinrich Heine and Novalis. Also, his experieces of the theatre and learning the trade of stage designer, including lighting and special effects. Poetry created with paint and coloured lights.
The Golden Pot = Der Goldne Topf
This is set in contemporary (for Hoffmann) Dresden. The hero has to undergo a series of tests to win the girl - the influence of The Magic Flute can be discerned. The main requirement is to believe in supernatural reality (a fairy-tale, "Poetic" reality) against the mundane pull of the mundane world.
The Sandman
Princess Brambilla = Prinzessin Brambilla. Ein Capriccio nach Jakob Callot
This is set during the Roman Carnival at some time in the eighteenth century. Jacques Callot was a French artist born 1592, and Hoffmann had already paid tribute to him with his very first book Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, which consisted of a brief piece about Callot, two stories connected to the world of Opera, and the first set of Kreisleriana.
This is again a fairy tale with a (small "r") romantic theme and the most confusing mixing-up of mundane and fairy tale worlds, compounded by the hero's profession as an actor, and the setting amongst the masked Carnival celebrations. For example, it's not clear, at times, if there are two sets of hero and heroine, or whether they are in fact their own rivals.
Master Flea = Meister Floh. Ein Merchen in sieben Abenteuern zweier Freunde
Set in Frankfurt, and not published in unexpurgated form until 1908 (Hoffmann had lampooned a Prussian official who turned out to be rather too powerful) it's essentially another fairy tale like "The Golden Pot" and "Princess Brambilla", but the tone feels rather different. As the introduction notes, the story starts very like a lost Dickens Book, perhaps a lost Christmas story, with Peregrinus Tyst, a batchelor who has never got over the trauma of losing his parents, receiving Christmas presents and then playing with them as if he were a child. Then the narrative reveals he bought them all himself.
He is then seen distributing the presents to the poor, before becoming romantically involved with another young woman of confused or double (or triple) identity, a fairy-tale backstory, rival scientis or magicians recalling Coppelius and Spalanzani from "The Sandman", and the wise and helpful Master Flea of the title.
My Cousin's Corner Window = Des Vetters Eckfenster
Hoffmann was dying when he wrote this. The OUP lists liver disease, degeneration of the spinal marrow, and paralysis. Other sources give syphilis as the ultimate cause of his death.
In this story, the rather philistine narrator talks about his cousin, a writer confined to his rooms by paralysis, who looks down on Berlin's market-place and imagines the lives of the shoppers below from small details of dress, etc. (again, Robertson anticipates the reader by mentioning Sherlock Holmes. But of course this story long pre-dates Holmes, and is earlier than Poe's Dupin, as well).
I'm currently reading the Kriesleriana collected in E. T. A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings. the long introduction and Hoffmann's/Kreisler's own comments are helpful in understanding Hoffmann - in seeing the way the fiction works as paralllel to a piece of Romantic music - a Beethoven symphony for example - and drawing comparison with earlier German Romantics, especially Heinrich Heine and Novalis. Also, his experieces of the theatre and learning the trade of stage designer, including lighting and special effects. Poetry created with paint and coloured lights.
15housefulofpaper
Ritchie Robertson provides a very full introduction, Giving biographical details (for example, the mundane reaility of Dresden in The Golden Pot is in fact also a fantasy, as it had suffered due to the war with Napoleon), and detailed information about literary sources (e.g. of the mythology Hoffmann employed in the same story).
So far, it seems the most detailed, persuasive, and helpful writing I've found about Hoffmann, are the introductions in E.T.A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings and The Golden Pot and Other Tales.
So far, it seems the most detailed, persuasive, and helpful writing I've found about Hoffmann, are the introductions in E.T.A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings and The Golden Pot and Other Tales.
16housefulofpaper
The Sand-Man and other Night Pieces. This is a selection published by Tartarus Press in 2008. The dust jacket features a photograph, "Alive Or Just Breathing?" by Jaqueline Vanek, also reproduced in the book as a frontispiece.
Under the dust jacket.
Here's the blurb.
The contents page. As the blurb notes, these stories are have a number of different translators, the oldest being Thomas Carlyle's version of "The Golden Pot". Only "The Abandoned House" is newly translated for this volume.
The Serapion Brethren was a framing device for the stories Hoffmann published after the Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, a group of friends who meet to tell strange stories. Robertson discusses the origin of the name and the philosophy of "the Serapiontic principle" in his introduction to The Golden Pot
The addendum to this book, compiled by the editor, Jim Rockhill, is the source of my information about the stories' publication history and their translations variant titles.
Under the dust jacket.
Here's the blurb.
The contents page. As the blurb notes, these stories are have a number of different translators, the oldest being Thomas Carlyle's version of "The Golden Pot". Only "The Abandoned House" is newly translated for this volume.
The Serapion Brethren was a framing device for the stories Hoffmann published after the Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, a group of friends who meet to tell strange stories. Robertson discusses the origin of the name and the philosophy of "the Serapiontic principle" in his introduction to The Golden Pot
The addendum to this book, compiled by the editor, Jim Rockhill, is the source of my information about the stories' publication history and their translations variant titles.
17housefulofpaper
The Sand-Man
The Legacy = Das Majorat (translated as "The Entail" in the Penguin volume)
A Fragment of the Lives of Three Friends = Ein Fragment aus dem Leben drier Freunde
The Mines of Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun (and "The Mines at Falun" in the Penguin)
The Singer's Contest = Der Kampf der Sänger
Eine Spukgeschicte (translated elsewhere as "A Spook Story")
Automatons = Die Automate
The Life of a Well-Known Character = Aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes
Albertine's Wooers = Die Brautwahl ("The Choosing of the Bride" in the Penguin)
The Uncanny Guest = Der unhiemliche Gast
The Vampire = Der Vampyr
The Cremona Violin = Rath Krespel ("Councillor Krespel" in the Penguin)
The Golden Pot
A New Year's Eve Adventure = Die Abentheuer der Sylvester-Nacht
The Abandoned House = Das Öde Haus
The Legacy = Das Majorat (translated as "The Entail" in the Penguin volume)
A Fragment of the Lives of Three Friends = Ein Fragment aus dem Leben drier Freunde
The Mines of Falun = Die Bergwerke zu Falun (and "The Mines at Falun" in the Penguin)
The Singer's Contest = Der Kampf der Sänger
Eine Spukgeschicte (translated elsewhere as "A Spook Story")
Automatons = Die Automate
The Life of a Well-Known Character = Aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes
Albertine's Wooers = Die Brautwahl ("The Choosing of the Bride" in the Penguin)
The Uncanny Guest = Der unhiemliche Gast
The Vampire = Der Vampyr
The Cremona Violin = Rath Krespel ("Councillor Krespel" in the Penguin)
The Golden Pot
A New Year's Eve Adventure = Die Abentheuer der Sylvester-Nacht
The Abandoned House = Das Öde Haus
18housefulofpaper
>17 housefulofpaper:
I'm going to have to reread those stories before I can have anything meaningful to say about them. Perhaps in a different translation (hinting at further volumes to be added here...)
But what I'm currently reading is this,
E.T.A. Hoffmann's Musical Writing
Translated by Martyn Clarke, and edited, annotated, and with an introduction by David Charlton. Cambridge University Press 1989.
The cover is a reproduction of the engraving by Jacques Callot that Hoffmann references in the introductory essay of Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, and which is reproduced in the book. It feels somehow apt that in trying to talk about Hoffmann's musical writing I have to talk about another artist, working in a differerent medium instead. Although my real purpose is, if I can, to get a greater understanding and appreciation of Hoffmann's fiction. If he saw a parallel between Callot's engravings and his writing, maybe it will help me.
I confess I did not expect Callot's work to be so dark. This one may be atypical - it looks like Hieronymus Bosch's demons inhabiting one of Pirenasi's Carceri - but a quick Google search calls up a whole series of "Miseries of War", as well as the street performers I'd been expecting, as "Princess Brambilla" is subtitled "Ein Capriccio nach Jakob Callot".
What does Hoffmann say about this picture? I should say first of all its subject is The Tempation of St Anthony.
I'm going to have to reread those stories before I can have anything meaningful to say about them. Perhaps in a different translation (hinting at further volumes to be added here...)
But what I'm currently reading is this,
E.T.A. Hoffmann's Musical Writing
Translated by Martyn Clarke, and edited, annotated, and with an introduction by David Charlton. Cambridge University Press 1989.
The cover is a reproduction of the engraving by Jacques Callot that Hoffmann references in the introductory essay of Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner, and which is reproduced in the book. It feels somehow apt that in trying to talk about Hoffmann's musical writing I have to talk about another artist, working in a differerent medium instead. Although my real purpose is, if I can, to get a greater understanding and appreciation of Hoffmann's fiction. If he saw a parallel between Callot's engravings and his writing, maybe it will help me.
I confess I did not expect Callot's work to be so dark. This one may be atypical - it looks like Hieronymus Bosch's demons inhabiting one of Pirenasi's Carceri - but a quick Google search calls up a whole series of "Miseries of War", as well as the street performers I'd been expecting, as "Princess Brambilla" is subtitled "Ein Capriccio nach Jakob Callot".
What does Hoffmann say about this picture? I should say first of all its subject is The Tempation of St Anthony.
No master has known so well as Callot how to assemble together in a small space such an abundance of motifs, emerging beside each other, even within each other, yet without confusing the eye, so that individual elements are seen as such, but stillblend with the whole...
Callot's grotesque forms, created out of animal and man, reveal to the serious, deeper-seeing observer all the hidden meanings that lie beneath the cloak of absurdity...
May a poet or writer, in whom the figures of everyday life are reflected in his inner romantic spirit-realm, and who then portrays them in the glow by which they are there enveloped, as if in weird and wonderful apparel, may he not justify himself at leasr by reference to this master and say: He wished to work in the manner of Callot?
19housefulofpaper
Reading Hoffmann's books (in translation of course) in the original order of publication would have made it easier to get an idea of where he's coming from. Perhaps I don't, after all, have to immerse myself in German Romanticism.
The first book of Kriesleriana - which in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner comes after the brief essay on Callot and a story entitled "Ritter Gluck" - are the compulsive jottings of Kappelmeister Kreiser, made on the backs of musical manuscripts. In this first book at least Kriesler offers contradictory opinions, sometimes, as you'd expect, the pure Art for Art's Sake artist, sometimes offering deflating, bourgeois "common sense" opinions on the uses of music, or the staging of operas, etc. No doubt Hoffmann means these satirically but is Kreisler a divided sort of personality?
There's a line from these essays (to give an idea, the one about staging an opera evokes any number of farcial TV sitcom situations, as well as Bottom's prologue in A Midsummer Night's Dream to the blending of the quotidian and the wildest fantasy in some of the fairy tales.
I'm still chewing over how to understand these stories. It probably doesn't help that there's been so much fiction and drama since Hoffmann's time that has played on just this line between fantasy and reality, and almost always come down firmly on the side of reality and holds up its protagonist as a fool, or in need of medical intervention.
The first book of Kriesleriana - which in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner comes after the brief essay on Callot and a story entitled "Ritter Gluck" - are the compulsive jottings of Kappelmeister Kreiser, made on the backs of musical manuscripts. In this first book at least Kriesler offers contradictory opinions, sometimes, as you'd expect, the pure Art for Art's Sake artist, sometimes offering deflating, bourgeois "common sense" opinions on the uses of music, or the staging of operas, etc. No doubt Hoffmann means these satirically but is Kreisler a divided sort of personality?
There's a line from these essays (to give an idea, the one about staging an opera evokes any number of farcial TV sitcom situations, as well as Bottom's prologue in A Midsummer Night's Dream to the blending of the quotidian and the wildest fantasy in some of the fairy tales.
I'm still chewing over how to understand these stories. It probably doesn't help that there's been so much fiction and drama since Hoffmann's time that has played on just this line between fantasy and reality, and almost always come down firmly on the side of reality and holds up its protagonist as a fool, or in need of medical intervention.
20housefulofpaper
I acquired this about a month ago, pretty much by chance. I searched for books published by the Limited Editions Club from UK booksellers - and there it was in the listings.
It actually arrived smelling very musty but there were, thankfully, no signs of mould and after two weeks fanned open in front of a dehumidifier it smelt a lot better.
So yes, the LEC Tales of Hoffmann from 1943. Here's the slipcase and the book itself:
As it says, lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag (there's his version of Hoffmann opposite the title page) and an introductory story by Steiner-Prag, serving as a prologue.
Steiner-Prag's illustration to his own story.
And the contents page:
It actually arrived smelling very musty but there were, thankfully, no signs of mould and after two weeks fanned open in front of a dehumidifier it smelt a lot better.
So yes, the LEC Tales of Hoffmann from 1943. Here's the slipcase and the book itself:
As it says, lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag (there's his version of Hoffmann opposite the title page) and an introductory story by Steiner-Prag, serving as a prologue.
Steiner-Prag's illustration to his own story.
And the contents page:
21housefulofpaper
Original titles:
Der Sandmann
Die Bergwerke zu Falun
Rath Krespel
Don Juan
Das Öde House
Das Gelübde
Das Fraulein von Scuderi
Das Majorat
Der Unhiemliche Gast
Spieler-Glück
I think that's a grand total of...two...stories that I didn't already have in other editions.
Der Sandmann
Die Bergwerke zu Falun
Rath Krespel
Don Juan
Das Öde House
Das Gelübde
Das Fraulein von Scuderi
Das Majorat
Der Unhiemliche Gast
Spieler-Glück
I think that's a grand total of...two...stories that I didn't already have in other editions.
23housefulofpaper
>22 elenchus:
Indeed. I'm very happy with this find. I saw in the George Macy Devotees Group that there was a Heritage Press edition of this book. I suppose that means there was a - or several - Easton Press editions as well?
Anyway, I'd caught the surfing-for -Hoffmann books bug by this point and made an arguably stupid purchase - since I can't read German. However it was surprisingly cheap and I can say I have the original texts rather than just translations of arguable quality.
This is part of a series of collected classic authors - all in the German language but not all Germans: there are editions of Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe in the same series.
I could, if I had the stamina, read the stories by transcribing them into Google Translate!
Here is the contents page (it's a "selected" rather than a "collected" edition, despite what Google tells me "gesammelte" means.)
"Quellenverzeichnis" by the way, isn't a story but the "source index": the list of sources for the chosen tales.
Indeed. I'm very happy with this find. I saw in the George Macy Devotees Group that there was a Heritage Press edition of this book. I suppose that means there was a - or several - Easton Press editions as well?
Anyway, I'd caught the surfing-for -Hoffmann books bug by this point and made an arguably stupid purchase - since I can't read German. However it was surprisingly cheap and I can say I have the original texts rather than just translations of arguable quality.
This is part of a series of collected classic authors - all in the German language but not all Germans: there are editions of Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe in the same series.
I could, if I had the stamina, read the stories by transcribing them into Google Translate!
Here is the contents page (it's a "selected" rather than a "collected" edition, despite what Google tells me "gesammelte" means.)
"Quellenverzeichnis" by the way, isn't a story but the "source index": the list of sources for the chosen tales.
24housefulofpaper
And then I saw this on eBay:
Slip-case:
The two volumes out of the case:
One of the full-colour interior illustrations and the contents page for the first volume, a selection of short stories.
The covers bear a facsimile of Hoffmann's signature
Here's volume 2, Kater Murr (just billed as "the novel" on the slip-case etc., curiously).
Published 1969 (as if you couldn't tell from the illustrations!). A paperback edition of just the first volume is apparently still in print (it's listed on Amazon).
The only fly in the ointment is the editors/translators low opinion of previous translations - the very translations in the Tartarus and LEC editions...
Slip-case:
The two volumes out of the case:
One of the full-colour interior illustrations and the contents page for the first volume, a selection of short stories.
The covers bear a facsimile of Hoffmann's signature
Here's volume 2, Kater Murr (just billed as "the novel" on the slip-case etc., curiously).
Published 1969 (as if you couldn't tell from the illustrations!). A paperback edition of just the first volume is apparently still in print (it's listed on Amazon).
The only fly in the ointment is the editors/translators low opinion of previous translations - the very translations in the Tartarus and LEC editions...
25housefulofpaper
The first and last stories are new (in translation).
- Ritter Gluck
- Die Doppeltgänger
- Ritter Gluck
- Die Doppeltgänger
26guido47
Hi, #25
Thanks for your very interesting thread. When I was a teen, my Dad mentioned Hoffmann when I was showing interest in SF.
He probably had copies written in German, with much other German Literature, all of which which I later donated to Melbourne Uni. (German Dept.)
Thus I own no Hoffmann. Are there any specific works (in English) you would suggest as a good overview/entry point. I am rather fond of short stories
as an overview.
Thanks, Guido.
Thanks for your very interesting thread. When I was a teen, my Dad mentioned Hoffmann when I was showing interest in SF.
He probably had copies written in German, with much other German Literature, all of which which I later donated to Melbourne Uni. (German Dept.)
Thus I own no Hoffmann. Are there any specific works (in English) you would suggest as a good overview/entry point. I am rather fond of short stories
as an overview.
Thanks, Guido.
27housefulofpaper
>26 guido47:
This is tricky. One of the reasons for starting this thread was to examine why Hoffmann seemed so difficult to get a handle on. I don't think there's a single work/collection that brought him into focus for me.
Another consideration is the quality of the translations. Most of the collections I've feaured here use older translations that Leonard J. Kent and Elizabeth C. Knight (in their University of Chicago edition) make a point of rubbishing.
The most generous selection of stories that's easily available, looks to be the The Best Weird Tales and Fantasies of E. T. A. Hoffmann, print on demand from Oldstyle Tales Press via Amazon. But this does use those old translations.
Hollingdale's Penguin edition has a good selection of stories in modern translations. On the debit side, he made cuts to improve the pace of the storytelling for a modern audience (as he explains in >8 housefulofpaper:).
The University of Chicago selection of short stories - available, it seems, as a standalone paperback on Amazon (but not a cheap one) - includes the rival stories listed above (on different books' back covers) as Hoffmann's masterpiece: "Mademoiselle de Scudery" and "The Golden Pot"; plus "The Sand Man". And given the editors' bullishness, their modern translations ought to be good.
The Oxford World's Classics edition probably rules itself out as it only has five stories and focuses on the fairy tales (aside from the obligatory inclusion of "The Sand Man"). But it does have very full introduction and notes, and new translations.
This is tricky. One of the reasons for starting this thread was to examine why Hoffmann seemed so difficult to get a handle on. I don't think there's a single work/collection that brought him into focus for me.
Another consideration is the quality of the translations. Most of the collections I've feaured here use older translations that Leonard J. Kent and Elizabeth C. Knight (in their University of Chicago edition) make a point of rubbishing.
The most generous selection of stories that's easily available, looks to be the The Best Weird Tales and Fantasies of E. T. A. Hoffmann, print on demand from Oldstyle Tales Press via Amazon. But this does use those old translations.
Hollingdale's Penguin edition has a good selection of stories in modern translations. On the debit side, he made cuts to improve the pace of the storytelling for a modern audience (as he explains in >8 housefulofpaper:).
The University of Chicago selection of short stories - available, it seems, as a standalone paperback on Amazon (but not a cheap one) - includes the rival stories listed above (on different books' back covers) as Hoffmann's masterpiece: "Mademoiselle de Scudery" and "The Golden Pot"; plus "The Sand Man". And given the editors' bullishness, their modern translations ought to be good.
The Oxford World's Classics edition probably rules itself out as it only has five stories and focuses on the fairy tales (aside from the obligatory inclusion of "The Sand Man"). But it does have very full introduction and notes, and new translations.
28housefulofpaper
This is my latest Hoffmann edition, and it's one of the books I bought in Hay-on-Wye.
It was published by the Franklin Library in 1983. It doesn't look like a used book, but has some marks on the cover that it was stored as part of a stack, somewhere, for some time (for decades? It's possible I suppose. I know that occasionally paperback Doctor Who novelisations of a similar vintage are unearthed from the back of some warehouse or other. Also, despite Franklin Library books being intended only for subscribers in the States, they sometimes made their way to discount bookshops in the UK - before Amazon did away with the very concept of discount bookshops.
The book has illustrations by Ruth Knorr. They are reproduced from a 1969 German edition. This frontispiece portrait of the author, and the mask image on the title page, however, are by Dagmar Frinta.
There is no introduction in the book itself, but rather this separate booklet of "notes from the editors". This was "loosely laid in" as the booksellers say, and at 24 pages (including covers) seems too thick to be inserted into the book without the risk of weakening the binding. On the other hand it may have already been there for nearly 40 years with no ill effects.
And here is the contents page:
Only one new story, "Signor Formica" (alternatively translated elsewhere as "Salvator Rosa").
It was published by the Franklin Library in 1983. It doesn't look like a used book, but has some marks on the cover that it was stored as part of a stack, somewhere, for some time (for decades? It's possible I suppose. I know that occasionally paperback Doctor Who novelisations of a similar vintage are unearthed from the back of some warehouse or other. Also, despite Franklin Library books being intended only for subscribers in the States, they sometimes made their way to discount bookshops in the UK - before Amazon did away with the very concept of discount bookshops.
The book has illustrations by Ruth Knorr. They are reproduced from a 1969 German edition. This frontispiece portrait of the author, and the mask image on the title page, however, are by Dagmar Frinta.
There is no introduction in the book itself, but rather this separate booklet of "notes from the editors". This was "loosely laid in" as the booksellers say, and at 24 pages (including covers) seems too thick to be inserted into the book without the risk of weakening the binding. On the other hand it may have already been there for nearly 40 years with no ill effects.
And here is the contents page:
Only one new story, "Signor Formica" (alternatively translated elsewhere as "Salvator Rosa").
29elenchus
>23 housefulofpaper:
I think I'll look and see how "surprisingly cheap" I can find that edition. I have gotten away from my goal of annually reading at least one book auf Deutsch. Still aspire to it, and that could be suitably tempting. Part of the difficulty is I know my grasp of the language is rudimentary, so I'll miss a lot: not just nuance, but even the gist of a story. If I really want to read something, it's hard to accept I will be expending effort and then not really getting the basics!
ETA Well, under $20 for a new hardbound edition is certainly cheap, so it's on its way to my home.
I think I'll look and see how "surprisingly cheap" I can find that edition. I have gotten away from my goal of annually reading at least one book auf Deutsch. Still aspire to it, and that could be suitably tempting. Part of the difficulty is I know my grasp of the language is rudimentary, so I'll miss a lot: not just nuance, but even the gist of a story. If I really want to read something, it's hard to accept I will be expending effort and then not really getting the basics!
ETA Well, under $20 for a new hardbound edition is certainly cheap, so it's on its way to my home.
30housefulofpaper
>29 elenchus:
I've been trying to learn French with Duolingo for three years now, and still a long way from attempting to read anything apart from short sentences in the present tense. I intend to work through the speech balloons in Horrifikland with the assistance of Google Translate, though. Got to start somewhere.
I've been trying to learn French with Duolingo for three years now, and still a long way from attempting to read anything apart from short sentences in the present tense. I intend to work through the speech balloons in Horrifikland with the assistance of Google Translate, though. Got to start somewhere.
31housefulofpaper
Pressure of work has kept me from my Hoffman books for a couple of months now. I also missed the 200th anniversary of his death (25th June).
Just today I saw that there was an edition of Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3 dedicated to him.
I'm never clear how easy, or otherwise, it is for people to access this material, especially outside the UK, but here's the link to the programme's website (you may have to register in order to hear it via BBC Sounds).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00188r7
Edited to add that the programme can alternatively be downloaded as a podcast.
Just today I saw that there was an edition of Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3 dedicated to him.
I'm never clear how easy, or otherwise, it is for people to access this material, especially outside the UK, but here's the link to the programme's website (you may have to register in order to hear it via BBC Sounds).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00188r7
Edited to add that the programme can alternatively be downloaded as a podcast.
32JEatHHP
Update? Have you read Devil's Elixirs yet? Very curious to know how it is.
Hoffman was mentioned in Freud's treatise on the Uncanny; I ordered the short stories that include Sandman, but haven't gotten to it yet. High on the to-read list.
Hoffman was mentioned in Freud's treatise on the Uncanny; I ordered the short stories that include Sandman, but haven't gotten to it yet. High on the to-read list.
34housefulofpaper
Progress has been a lot a lot slower that anticipated and hoped for.
However I have reread "Rath Krespel", as "Councillor Krespel", translated by Barrows Mussey, in the LEC edition of The Tales of Hoffmann. This is the story adapted as the "Antonia" section of Offenbach's opera and it was hard at times to prevent memories of, in particular, the Powell and Pressburger film version from colouring the mental images produced while reading (I see upthread that I commented the film version had entirely effaced the story from my memory).
The story begins as a kind of "club" story - not told in a Gentleman's club like many a Victorian ghost story, but as one the the tales told at a meeting of the Serapion Brethren, a fictional literary and social circle that are the ostensible authors of most of Hoffmann's later stories. It mirrored a real grouping of the same name that Hoffmann created. The between-stories literary discussion and debate between the members is excised from the English translations that I have seen.
Serapion member Theodore tells the story as something that happened to him: his making the acquaintance of the eccentric Councillor Krespel: larger than life, volatile, kind to children but seemingly a stern and cruel father to Antonia, a musician as well as a lawyer and diplomat, but with a sad romantic secret revealed at the end of the story. He is clearly Hoffmann's alter-ego in this story and not the antagonist as he is in the Opera (where Hoffmann himself takes the Theodore role).
Trying to be spoiler free whilst still finding something to say about the story, the first half, I think, feels quite fairy-tale like but Theodore leaves the scene about halfway through. We then pick up events about two years later and finally the full story comes out, and now the structure of the story feels more like those Sherlock Holmes tales that end with a long confession that is virtually a separate tale in itself and provides an explanation for Krespel's behaviour. Not that there aren't hints of supernaturalism - a correspondence between Antonia and a particularly beautifully-toned violin for instance, and of positively Wagnerian passions suppressed until they perhaps erupt in a ghostly (and musical) liebstod. I said Hoffmann takes the Theodore role in the Opera, but in fact Theodore is not the romantic hero he perhaps believes himself to be, and in the end is little more than a bystander in Krespel's and Antonia's lives.
Apologies if this is annoyingly cryptic but, to be honest, I haven't got to grips with howto write about fiction without spoilers.
The German-language selection in >23 housefulofpaper: (where the story is entitled "Rat Krespel" (not "Rath-") due to spelling reforms?) has about half a dozen pages of discussion amongst the Serapion Brethren at the end of the story, all omitted from Mussey's translation.
However I have reread "Rath Krespel", as "Councillor Krespel", translated by Barrows Mussey, in the LEC edition of The Tales of Hoffmann. This is the story adapted as the "Antonia" section of Offenbach's opera and it was hard at times to prevent memories of, in particular, the Powell and Pressburger film version from colouring the mental images produced while reading (I see upthread that I commented the film version had entirely effaced the story from my memory).
The story begins as a kind of "club" story - not told in a Gentleman's club like many a Victorian ghost story, but as one the the tales told at a meeting of the Serapion Brethren, a fictional literary and social circle that are the ostensible authors of most of Hoffmann's later stories. It mirrored a real grouping of the same name that Hoffmann created. The between-stories literary discussion and debate between the members is excised from the English translations that I have seen.
Serapion member Theodore tells the story as something that happened to him: his making the acquaintance of the eccentric Councillor Krespel: larger than life, volatile, kind to children but seemingly a stern and cruel father to Antonia, a musician as well as a lawyer and diplomat, but with a sad romantic secret revealed at the end of the story. He is clearly Hoffmann's alter-ego in this story and not the antagonist as he is in the Opera (where Hoffmann himself takes the Theodore role).
Trying to be spoiler free whilst still finding something to say about the story, the first half, I think, feels quite fairy-tale like but Theodore leaves the scene about halfway through. We then pick up events about two years later and finally the full story comes out, and now the structure of the story feels more like those Sherlock Holmes tales that end with a long confession that is virtually a separate tale in itself and provides an explanation for Krespel's behaviour. Not that there aren't hints of supernaturalism - a correspondence between Antonia and a particularly beautifully-toned violin for instance, and of positively Wagnerian passions suppressed until they perhaps erupt in a ghostly (and musical) liebstod. I said Hoffmann takes the Theodore role in the Opera, but in fact Theodore is not the romantic hero he perhaps believes himself to be, and in the end is little more than a bystander in Krespel's and Antonia's lives.
Apologies if this is annoyingly cryptic but, to be honest, I haven't got to grips with howto write about fiction without spoilers.
The German-language selection in >23 housefulofpaper: (where the story is entitled "Rat Krespel" (not "Rath-") due to spelling reforms?) has about half a dozen pages of discussion amongst the Serapion Brethren at the end of the story, all omitted from Mussey's translation.
35housefulofpaper
Since starting this thread I have found out about what I believe is a full translation of The Serapion Brethren by Alexander Ewing, who seems to have been one of those astonishingly busy and multi-talented Victorians - he has his own Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ewing_(composer)
However the choices seem to be trying to get hold of the edition from the 1880s or taking a chance on a POD paperback. Or finally biting the bullet and getting into e-books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ewing_(composer)
However the choices seem to be trying to get hold of the edition from the 1880s or taking a chance on a POD paperback. Or finally biting the bullet and getting into e-books.
