Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - biography, information, personal life. Hoffman: works, a complete list, analysis and analysis of books, a short biography of the writer and interesting life facts E Hoffman biography

Brief biography of Hoffmann outlined in this article.

Hoffmann biography briefly

Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus— German writer and composer.

Was born January 24, 1776 in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad). The son of an official. The parents separated when the boy was three years old; he was raised by his uncle, a lawyer by profession.

In 1800, Hoffmann completed his legal studies at the University of Königsberg and connected his life with public service. Until 1807 he worked in different ranks, in his free time doing music and drawing. After university, he received a position as an assessor in Poznań, where he was warmly received in society. In Poznan, the young man became so addicted to carousing that he was transferred to Polotsk with a demotion. There Hoffmann married a Polish woman from a respectable bourgeois family and settled down.

For several years the family was poor; Hoffmann periodically worked as a conductor, composer and decorator in theaters in Berlin, Bamberg, Leipzig and Dresden, and wrote articles about music for magazines.

After 1813, his affairs went better after receiving a small inheritance. The position of conductor in Dresden briefly satisfied his professional ambitions.

He was one of the founders of romantic aesthetics, representing music as an “unknown kingdom” that reveals to man the meaning of his feelings and passions.

He owns romantic opera“Ondine” (1813), symphonies, choirs, chamber works, etc.

During the Battle of Waterloo, the Hoffmanns ended up in Dresden, where they experienced all the hardships and horrors of the war. It was then that Hoffmann prepared for publication the collection “Fantasies in the Spirit of Callot” (in four volumes, 1815), which included the short stories “Cavalier G’luk”, “The Musical Suffering of Johann Kreisler, Kapellmeister”, “Don Juan”.

In 1816, Hoffmann received a position as a legal adviser in Berlin, which provided a solid income and allowed him to devote time to art. In his literary work he showed himself as a classic romantic.

In the short stories, the stories “The Golden Pot” (1814), “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819), the novel “The Devil’s Elixir” (1816), the world is presented as if visible in two planes: real and fantastic, and the fantastic constantly invades the real (fairies drink coffee, witches sell pies, etc.).

The writer was attracted to the realm of the mysterious, the transcendental: delirium, hallucinations, unaccountable fear - his favorite motives.

He graduated from the University of Königsberg, where he studied law.

After a short practice in the court of the city of Glogau (Glogow), Hoffmann successfully passed the exam for the rank of assessor in Berlin and was appointed to Poznan.

In 1802, after a scandal caused by his caricature of a representative of the upper class, Hoffmann was transferred to the Polish town of Plock, which in 1793 went to Prussia.

In 1804, Hoffmann moved to Warsaw, where he devoted all his leisure time to music; several of his musical and stage works were staged in the theater. Through the efforts of Hoffmann, a philharmonic society and a symphony orchestra were organized.

In 1808-1813 he served as conductor at the theater in Bamberg (Bavaria). During the same period, he earned extra money by teaching singing lessons to the daughters of the local nobility. Here he wrote the operas "Aurora" and "Duettini", which he dedicated to his student Julia Mark. In addition to operas, Hoffmann was the author of symphonies, choirs, and chamber works.

His first articles were published on the pages of the General Musical Newspaper, of which he had been an employee since 1809. Hoffmann imagined music as a special world, capable of revealing to a person the meaning of his feelings and passions, as well as comprehending the nature of everything mysterious and inexpressible. A clear expression of Hoffmann's musical and aesthetic views were his short stories "Cavalier Gluck" (1809), "The Musical Sufferings of Johann Kreisler, Kapellmeister" (1810), "Don Juan" (1813), and the dialogue "Poet and Composer" (1813). Hoffmann's stories were later collected in the collection "Fantasies in the Spirit of Callot" (1814-1815).

In 1816, Hoffmann returned to public service Counselor of the Berlin Court of Appeal, where he served until the end of his life.

In 1816, Hoffmann's most famous opera, Ondine, was staged, but a fire that destroyed all the scenery put an end to its great success.

After that, in addition to his service, he devoted himself to literary work. The collection "The Serapion Brothers" (1819-1821) and the novel "The Everyday Views of the Cat Murr" (1820-1822) earned Hoffmann worldwide fame. The fairy tale "The Golden Pot" (1814), the novel "The Devil's Elixir" (1815-1816), a story in the spirit of fairy tale"Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" (1819).

Hoffmann's novel The Lord of the Fleas (1822) led to conflict with the Prussian government; incriminating parts of the novel were removed and published only in 1906.

Since 1818, the writer developed a spinal cord disease, which over the course of several years led to paralysis.

On June 25, 1822, Hoffmann died. He was buried in the third cemetery of the Church of John of Jerusalem.

Hoffmann's works influenced German composers Carl Maria von Weber, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner. Hoffmann's poetic images were embodied in the works of composers Schumann ("Kreislerian"), Wagner (" Flying Dutchman"), Tchaikovsky ("The Nutcracker"), Adolphe Adam ("Giselle"), Leo Delibes ("Coppelia"), Ferruccio Busoni ("The Bride's Choice"), Paul Hindemith ("Cardillac") and others. The plots for the operas were works Hoffmann's "Master Martin and His Apprentices", "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober", "Princess Brambilla", etc. Hoffmann is the hero of Jacques Offenbach's operas "The Tales of Hoffmann".

Hoffmann was married to the daughter of a Poznan clerk, Michalina Rohrer. Their only daughter Cecilia died at the age of two.

In the German city of Bamberg, in the house where Hoffmann and his wife lived on the second floor, a museum of the writer has been opened. In Bamberg there is a monument to the writer holding the cat Murr in his arms.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

To the 240th anniversary of his birth

Standing at Hoffmann’s grave in the Jerusalem Cemetery in the center of Berlin, I marveled at the fact that on the modest monument he is presented first of all as an appellate court adviser, a lawyer, and only then as a poet, musician and artist. However, he himself admitted: “On weekdays I am a lawyer and perhaps a little musician, on Sunday afternoons I draw, and in the evenings until late at night I am a very witty writer.” All his life he has been a great collaborator.

The third name on the monument was the baptismal name Wilhelm. Meanwhile, he himself replaced it with the name of the idolized Mozart - Amadeus. I replaced it for a reason. After all, he divided humanity into two unequal parts: “One consists only of good people, but bad musicians or not musicians at all, the other is one of the true musicians.” This does not need to be taken literally: the absence musical ear- not the main sin. “Good people,” philistines, devote themselves to the interests of the purse, which leads to irreversible perversions of humanity. According to Thomas Mann, they cast a wide shadow. People become philistines, they are born musicians. The part to which Hoffmann belonged were people of the spirit, not the belly - musicians, poets, artists. “Good people” most often do not understand them, despise them, and laugh at them. Hoffmann realizes that his heroes have nowhere to run; living among the philistines is their cross. And he himself carried it to the grave. But his life was short by today’s standards (1776-1822)

Biography pages

Blows of fate accompanied Hoffmann from birth to death. He was born in Königsberg, where the “narrow-faced” Kant was a professor at that time. His parents quickly separated, and from the age of 4 until university, he lived in the house of his uncle, a successful lawyer, but a swaggering and pedantic man. An orphan with living parents! The boy grew up withdrawn, which was facilitated by his short stature and the appearance of a freak. Despite his outward laxity and buffoonery, his nature was extremely vulnerable. An exalted psyche will determine much in his work. Nature endowed him with a keen mind and powers of observation. The soul of a child, a teenager, vainly thirsting for love and affection, did not harden, but, wounded, suffered. The confession is indicative: “My youth is like a parched desert, without flowers and shadow.”

He considered university studies in jurisprudence as an annoying duty, because he truly loved only music. Official service in Glogau, Berlin, Poznan and especially in provincial Plock was burdensome. But still, in Poznan, happiness smiled: he got married to a charming Polish woman, Michalina. The bear, although alien to his creative quests and spiritual needs, will become his faithful friend and support to the end. He will fall in love more than once, but always without reciprocity. He captures the torment of unrequited love in many works.

At 28, Hoffmann is a government official in Prussian-occupied Warsaw. Here, the composer's abilities, the gift of singing, and the talent of the conductor were revealed. Two of his singspiels were successfully delivered. “The muses still guide me through life as patron saints and protectors; I devote myself entirely to them,” he writes to a friend. But he doesn’t neglect service either.

Napoleon's invasion of Prussia, the chaos and confusion of the war years put an end to the short-lived prosperity. A wandering, financially unsettled, sometimes hungry life began: Bamberg, Leipzig, Dresden... A two-year-old daughter died, his wife became seriously ill, and he himself fell ill with nervous fever. He took on any job: a home teacher of music and singing, a music dealer, a bandmaster, a decorative artist, a theater director, a reviewer for the General Musical Newspaper... And in the eyes of ordinary philistines, this small, homely, poor and powerless man is a beggar at the door burgher salons, the clown of a pea. Meanwhile, in Bamberg he showed himself as a man of the theater, anticipating the principles of both Stanislavsky and Meyerhold. Here he emerged as the universal artist that romantics dreamed of.

Hoffmann in Berlin

In the autumn of 1814, Hoffmann, with the help of a friend, obtained a seat in the criminal court in Berlin. For the first time in many years of wandering, he had hope of finding a permanent refuge. In Berlin he found himself in the center literary life. Here, acquaintances were made with Ludwig Tieck, Adalbert von Chamisso, Clemens Brentano, Friedrich Fouquet de la Motte, author of the story “Ondine,” and artist Philip Veith (son of Dorothea Mendelssohn). Once a week, friends who named their community after the hermit Serapion gathered in a coffee shop on Unter den Linden (Serapionsabende). We stayed up late. Hoffmann read them his newest works, they caused a lively reaction, I didn’t want to leave. Interests overlapped. Hoffmann began writing music for Fouquet's story, he agreed to become a librettist, and in August 1816, the romantic opera Ondine was staged at the Royal Berlin Theater. There were 14 performances, but a year later the theater burned down. The fire destroyed the wonderful decorations, which, based on Hoffmann’s sketches, were made by Karl Schinkel himself, the famous artist and court architect, who at the beginning of the 19th century. built almost half of Berlin. And since I studied at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute with Tamara Schinkel, a direct descendant of the great master, I also feel involved in Hoffmann’s Ondine.

Over time, music lessons faded into the background. Hoffmann, as it were, passed on his musical vocation to his beloved hero, his alter ego, Johann Kreisler, who from work to work carries with him a high musical theme. Hoffmann was an enthusiast of music, calling it “the proto-language of nature.”

Being in the highest degree Homo Ludens (a man who plays), Hoffmann, in Shakespearean style, perceived the whole world as a theater. His close friend was famous actor Ludwig Devrient, whom he met in the tavern of Lutter and Wegner, where they spent stormy evenings, indulging in both libations and inspired humorous improvisations. Both were sure that they had doubles and amazed the regulars with the art of transformation. These gatherings cemented his reputation as a half-crazed alcoholic. Alas, in the end he actually became a drunkard and behaved in an eccentric and mannered manner, but the further he went, the clearer it became that in June 1822 in Berlin, the greatest magician and sorcerer of German literature died from tabes spinal cord in agony and lack of money.

Hoffmann's literary legacy

Hoffmann himself saw his calling in music, but gained fame through writing. It all started with “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814-15), then followed by “Night Stories” (1817), a four-volume set of short stories “The Serapion Brothers” (1819-20), and a kind of romantic “Decameron”. Hoffmann wrote a number of great stories and two novels - the so-called “black” or Gothic novel “Elixirs of Satan” (1815-16) about the monk Medard, in whom sit two beings, one of them is an evil genius, and the unfinished “Worldly Views of a Cat” Murra" (1820-22). In addition, fairy tales were composed. The most famous Christmas one is “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. As the New Year approaches, the ballet “The Nutcracker” is shown in theaters and on television. Everyone knows Tchaikovsky's music, but only a few know that the ballet was written based on Hoffmann's fairy tale.

About the collection “Fantasies in the manner of Callot”

The 17th-century French artist Jacques Callot is known for his grotesque drawings and etchings, in which reality appears in a fantastic guise. The ugly figures on his graphic sheets, depicting carnival scenes or theatrical performances, frightened and attracted. Callot's style impressed Hoffmann and provided a certain artistic stimulus.

The central work of the collection was the short story “The Golden Pot,” whose subtitle is “A Tale from New Times.” Fairy tales happen in modern writer Dresden, where next to the everyday world there is a hidden world of sorcerers, wizards and evil witches. However, as it turns out, they lead a double existence, some of them perfectly combine magic and sorcery with service in archives and public places. Such is the grumpy archivist Lindhorst - the lord of the Salamanders, such is the evil old sorceress Rauer, trading at the city gates, the daughter of turnips and a dragon's feather. It was her basket of apples that the main character, student Anselm, accidentally knocked over, and all his misadventures began from this little thing.

Each chapter of the tale is called by the author “vigilia”, which in Latin means night watch. Night motifs are generally characteristic of romantics, but here twilight lighting enhances the mystery. Student Anselm is a bungler, from the breed of those who, if a sandwich falls, it is certainly face down, but he also believes in miracles. He is the bearer of poetic feeling. At the same time, he hopes to take his rightful place in society, to become a gofrat (court councilor), especially since the daughter of Conrector Paulman, Veronica, whom he is caring for, has firmly decided in life: she will become the wife of a gofrat and will show off in the window in an elegant toilet in the morning to the surprise of passing dandies. But by chance, Anselm touched the world of the wonderful: suddenly, in the foliage of a tree, he saw three amazing golden-green snakes with sapphire eyes, he saw them and disappeared. “He felt how something unknown was stirring in the depths of his being and causing him that blissful and languid sorrow that promises a person another, higher existence.”

Hoffmann takes his hero through many trials before he ends up in the magical Atlantis, where he unites with the daughter of the powerful ruler of the Salamanders (aka archivist Lindhorst), the blue-eyed snake Serpentina. In the finale, everyone takes on a particular appearance. The matter ends with a double wedding, for Veronica finds her gofrat - this is Anselm's former rival Geerbrand.

Yu. K Olesha, in notes about Hoffmann, which arose while reading “The Golden Pot,” asks the question: “Who was he, this crazy man, the only writer of his kind in world literature, with raised eyebrows, a thin nose bent down, with hair , standing on end forever?” Perhaps acquaintance with his work will answer this question. I would dare to call him the last romantic and the founder of fantastic realism.

“Sandman” from the collection “Night Stories”

The name of the collection “Night Stories” is not accidental. By and large, all of Hoffmann’s works can be called “night”, for he is a poet of dark spheres, in which a person is still connected with secret forces, a poet of abysses, failures, from which either a double, or a ghost, or a vampire arises. He makes it clear to the reader that he has visited the kingdom of shadows, even when he puts his fantasies in a daring and cheerful form.

The Sandman, which he remade several times, is an undoubted masterpiece. In this story, the struggle between despair and hope, between darkness and light takes on particular tension. Hoffman is confident that the human personality is not something permanent, but fragile, capable of transformation and bifurcation. This is the main character of the story, student Nathanael, endowed with a poetic gift.

As a child, he was frightened by the sandman: if you don’t fall asleep, the sandman will come, throw sand in your eyes, and then take your eyes away. As an adult, Nathaniel cannot get rid of fear. It seems to him that puppet master Coppelius is the sandman, and the traveling salesman Coppola, who sells glasses and magnifying glasses, is the same Coppelius, i.e. the same sandman. Nathaniel is clearly on the verge of mental illness. In vain is Nathaniel's fiancée Clara, a simple and sensible girl, trying to heal him. She correctly says that the terrible and terrible thing that Nathanael constantly talks about happened in his soul, and the outside world had little to do with it. His poems with their gloomy mysticism are boring to her. The romantically exalted Nathanael does not listen to her; he is ready to see her as a wretched bourgeois. It is not surprising that the young man falls in love with a mechanical doll, which Professor Spalanzani, with the help of Coppelius, made for 20 years and, passing it off as his daughter Ottilie, introduced it into the high society of a provincial town. Nathaniel did not understand that the object of his sighs was an ingenious mechanism. But absolutely everyone was deceived. The clockwork doll attended social gatherings, sang and danced as if alive, and everyone admired her beauty and education, although other than “oh!” and “ah!” she didn't say anything. And in her Nathanael saw a “kindred soul.” What is this if not a mockery of the youthful quixoticism of the romantic hero?

Nathaniel goes to propose to Ottilie and finds a terrible scene: the quarreling professor and the puppet master are tearing Ottilie's doll into pieces before his eyes. The young man goes crazy and, having climbed the bell tower, rushes down from there.

Apparently, reality itself seemed to Hoffmann to be delirium, a nightmare. Wanting to say that people are soulless, he turns his heroes into automata, but the worst thing is that no one notices this. The incident with Ottilie and Nathaniel excited the townspeople. What should I do? How can you tell if your neighbor is a mannequin? How can you finally prove that you yourself are not a puppet? Everyone tried to behave as unusually as possible in order to avoid suspicion. The whole story took on the character of a nightmarish phantasmagoria.

“Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819) – one of Hoffmann's most grotesque works. This tale partly has something in common with “The Golden Pot”. Its plot is quite simple. Thanks to three wonderful golden hairs, the freak Tsakhes, the son of an unfortunate peasant woman, turns out to be wiser, more beautiful, and more worthy of everyone in the eyes of those around him. He becomes the first minister with lightning speed, receives the hand of the beautiful Candida, until the wizard exposes the vile monster.

“A crazy fairy tale,” “the most humorous of all those I have written,” this is what the author said about it. This is his style - to clothe the most serious things in a veil of humor. We are talking about a blinded, stupid society that takes “an icicle, a rag for an important person” and creates an idol out of him. By the way, this was also the case in Gogol’s “The Inspector General”. Hoffmann creates a magnificent satire on the “enlightened despotism” of Prince Paphnutius. “This is not only a purely romantic parable about the eternal philistine hostility of poetry (“Drive out all fairies!” - this is the first order of the authorities. - G.I.), but also the satirical quintessence of German squalor with its claims to great power and ineradicable small-scale habits, with its police education, with servility and depression of the subjects” (A. Karelsky).

In a dwarf state where “enlightenment has broken out,” the prince’s valet outlines its program. He proposes to “cut down the forests, make the river navigable, grow potatoes, improve rural schools, plant acacias and poplars, teach the youth to sing in two voices in the morning and evening prayers, build highways and inoculate smallpox.” Some of these "enlightenment actions" actually took place in the Prussia of Frederick II, who played the role of an enlightened monarch. Education here took place under the motto: “Drive out all dissenters!”

Among the dissidents is student Balthazar. He is from the breed of true musicians, and therefore suffers among philistines, i.e. "good people". “In the wonderful voices of the forest, Balthazar heard the inconsolable complaint of nature, and it seemed that he himself should dissolve in this complaint, and his entire existence was a feeling of deepest insurmountable pain.”

According to the laws of the genre, the fairy tale ends with a happy ending. With the help of theatrical effects like fireworks, Hoffmann allows the student Balthasar, “gifted with inner music,” who is in love with Candida, to defeat Tsakhes. The savior-magician, who taught Balthazar to snatch three golden hairs from Tsakhes, after which the scales fell from everyone’s eyes, gives the newlyweds a wedding gift. This is a house with a plot where excellent cabbage grows, “the pots never boil over” in the kitchen, the china doesn’t break in the dining room, the carpets don’t get dirty in the living room, in other words, a completely bourgeois comfort reigns here. This is how romantic irony comes into play. We also met her in the fairy tale “The Golden Pot,” where lovers received a golden pot at the end of the curtain. This iconic vessel-symbol has replaced blue flower Novalis, in the light of this comparison, the mercilessness of Hoffmann’s irony became even more obvious.

About “Everyday views of Murr the cat”

The book was conceived as a summary; it intertwined all the themes and features of Hoffmann’s manner. Here tragedy is combined with the grotesque, although they are the opposite of each other. The composition itself contributed to this: the biographical notes of the learned cat are interspersed with pages from the diary genius composer Johann Kreisler, which Murr used instead of blotters. So the unlucky publisher printed the manuscript, marking the “inclusions” of the brilliant Kreisler as “Mac. l." (waste paper sheets). Who needs the suffering and sorrow of Hoffmann's favorite, his alter ego? What are they good for? Unless to dry out the graphomaniacal exercises of the learned cat!

Johann Kreisler, the child of poor and ignorant parents, who experienced poverty and all the vicissitudes of fate, is a traveling musician-enthusiast. This is Hoffmann's favorite; it appears in many of his works. Everything that has weight in society is alien to the enthusiast, so misunderstanding and tragic loneliness await him. In music and love, Kreisler is carried away far, far into bright worlds known to him alone. But the more insane for him is the return from this height to the ground, to vanity and dirt. small town, into a circle of base interests and petty passions. An unbalanced nature, constantly torn by doubts about people, about the world, about her own creativity. From enthusiastic ecstasy he easily moves to irritability or complete misanthropy over the most insignificant occasion. A false chord causes him to have an attack of despair. “The Chrysler is ridiculous, almost ridiculous, constantly shocking respectability. This lack of contact with the world reflects a complete rejection of the surrounding life, its stupidity, ignorance, thoughtlessness and vulgarity... Kreisler rebels alone against the whole world, and he is doomed. His rebellious spirit dies in mental illness” (I. Garin).

But it’s not him, but the scientist cat Murr claims to be the romantic “son of the century.” And the novel is written in his name. Before us is not just a two-tiered book: “Kreisleriana” and the animal epic “Murriana”. New here is the Murrah line. Murr is not just a philistine. He tries to appear as an enthusiast, a dreamer. A romantic genius in the form of a cat is a funny idea. Listen to his romantic tirades: “... I know for sure: my homeland is an attic! The climate of the motherland, its morals, customs - how inextinguishable these impressions are... Where do I get such a sublime way of thinking, such an irresistible desire for higher spheres? Where does such a rare gift of soaring upward in an instant come from, such envy-worthy, courageous, most brilliant leaps? Oh, sweet languor fills my chest! The longing for my home attic rises in me in a powerful wave! I dedicate these tears to you, O beautiful homeland...” What is this if not a murderous parody of the romantic empyreanism of the Jena romantics, but even more so of the Germanophilism of the Heidelbergers?!

The writer created a grandiose parody of the romantic worldview itself, recording the symptoms of the crisis of romanticism. It is the interweaving, the unity of two lines, the collision of parody with the high romantic style that gives birth to something new, unique.

“What truly mature humor, what strength of reality, what anger, what types and portraits and what a thirst for beauty, what a bright ideal!” Dostoevsky assessed Murr the Cat this way, but this is a worthy assessment of Hoffmann’s work as a whole.

Hoffmann's dual worlds: the riot of fantasy and the “vanity of life”

Every true artist embodies his time and the situation of a person in this time in the artistic language of the era. Artistic language Hoffmann's time - romanticism. The gap between dream and reality is the basis of the romantic worldview. “The darkness of low truths is dearer to me / The deception that elevates us” - these words of Pushkin can be used as an epigraph to his work German romantics. But if his predecessors, building their castles in the air, were carried away from the earthly into the idealized Middle Ages or into the romanticized Hellas, then Hoffmann bravely plunged into the modern reality of Germany. At the same time, like no one before him, he was able to express the anxiety, instability, and brokenness of the era and the man himself. According to Hoffmann, not only is society divided into parts, each person and his consciousness is divided, torn. The personality loses its definiteness and integrity, hence the motif of duality and madness, so characteristic of Hoffmann. The world is unstable and the human personality is disintegrating. The struggle between despair and hope, between darkness and light is waged in almost all of his works. Don't give dark forces places in his soul - that’s what worries the writer.

Upon careful reading, even in the most fantastic works of Hoffmann, such as “The Golden Pot”, “The Sandman”, one can find very deep observations about real life. He himself admitted: “I have too strong a sense of reality.” Expressing not so much the harmony of the world as the dissonance of life, Hoffmann conveyed it with the help of romantic irony and grotesquery. His works are full of all sorts of spirits and ghosts, incredible things happen: a cat composes poetry, a minister drowns in a chamber pot, the Dresden archivist has a brother who is a dragon, and his daughters are snakes, and so on and so forth, nevertheless, he wrote about modernity, about the consequences of the revolution, about the era of Napoleonic unrest, which upended much in the sleepy way of life of the three hundred German principalities.

He noticed that things began to dominate man, life is being mechanized, automata, soulless dolls are taking over man, the individual is drowning in the standard. He thought about the mysterious phenomenon of transforming all values ​​into exchange value, and saw the new power of money.

What allows the insignificant Tsakhes to turn into the powerful minister Zinnober? The three golden hairs that the compassionate fairy gave him have miraculous powers. This is by no means Balzac’s understanding of the merciless laws of modern times. Balzac was a doctor of social sciences, and Hoffmann was a seer, to whom science fiction helped reveal the prose of life and build brilliant guesses about the future. It is significant that the fairy tales where he gave free rein to his unbridled imagination have subtitles: “Tales from New Times.” He not only judged modern reality as a spiritless kingdom of “prose,” he made it the subject of depiction. “Intoxicated by fantasies, Hoffmann,” as the outstanding Germanist Albert Karelsky wrote about him, “is in fact disconcertingly sober.”

Leaving life in last story“Corner Window” Hoffman shared his secret: “What the hell, do you think that I’m already getting better? Not at all... But this window is a consolation for me: here life again appeared to me in all its diversity, and I feel how close its never-ending bustle is to me.”

Hoffmann's Berlin house with a corner window and his grave in the Jerusalem cemetery were “gifted” to me by Mina Polyanskaya and Boris Antipov, from the breed of enthusiasts so revered by our hero of the day.

Hoffmann in Russia

The shadow of Hoffmann beneficially overshadowed Russian culture in the 19th century, as philologists A. B. Botnikova and my graduate student Juliet Chavchanidze spoke about in detail and convincingly, who traced the relationship between Gogol and Hoffmann. Belinsky also wondered why Europe does not place the “brilliant” Hoffmann next to Shakespeare and Goethe. Prince Odoevsky was called the “Russian Hoffmann”. Herzen admired him. A passionate admirer of Hoffmann, Dostoevsky wrote about “Murrah the Cat”: “What truly mature humor, what strength of reality, what anger, what types and portraits and next to it - what a thirst for beauty, what a bright ideal!” This is a worthy assessment of Hoffmann's work as a whole.

In the twentieth century, Kuzmin, Kharms, Remizov, Nabokov, and Bulgakov experienced the influence of Hoffmann. Mayakovsky did not remember his name in vain. It was not by chance that Akhmatova chose him as her guide: “In the evening/ The darkness thickens,/ Let Hoffmann with me/ Reach the corner.”

In 1921, in Petrograd, at the House of Arts, a community of writers formed who named themselves in honor of Hoffmann - the Serapion Brothers. It included Zoshchenko, Vs. Ivanov, Kaverin, Lunts, Fedin, Tikhonov. They also met weekly to read and discuss their works. They soon drew reproaches from proletarian writers for formalism, which “came back” in 1946 in the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the magazines “Neva” and “Leningrad”. Zoshchenko and Akhmatova were defamed and ostracized, doomed to civil death, but Hoffman also came under attack: he was called “the founder of salon decadence and mysticism.” For Hoffmann's fate Soviet Russia the ignorant judgment of Zhdanov’s “parteigenosse” had sad consequences: they stopped publishing and studying. A three-volume set of selected works of his was published only in 1962 by the publishing house " Fiction"with a circulation of one hundred thousand and immediately became a rarity. Hoffman remained under suspicion for a long time, and only in 2000 a 6-volume collection of his works was published.

A wonderful monument to the eccentric genius could be the film Andrei Tarkovsky intended to make. Didn't have time. All that remains is his marvelous script - “Hoffmaniad”.

In June 2016, the International Literary Festival-Competition “Russian Hoffmann” started in Kaliningrad, in which representatives of 13 countries participate. Within its framework, an exhibition is envisaged in Moscow at the Library of Foreign Literature named after. Rudomino “Meetings with Hoffmann. Russian circle". In September, the full-length puppet film “Hoffmaniada” will be released on the big screen. The Temptation of Young Anselm”, in which the plots of the fairy tales “The Golden Pot”, “Little Tsakhes”, “The Sandman” and pages of the author’s biography are masterfully intertwined. This is the most ambitious project of Soyuzmultfilm, 100 puppets are involved, director Stanislav Sokolov filmed it for 15 years. Main artist paintings by Mikhail Shemyakin. Two parts of the film were shown at the festival in Kaliningrad. We are waiting and anticipating a meeting with the revived Hoffmann.

Greta Ionkis

Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (German: Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann). Born January 24, 1776, Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia - died June 25, 1822, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia. German romantic writer, composer, artist and lawyer.

Out of respect for Amadeus Mozart, in 1805 he changed his name from “Wilhelm” to “Amadeus”. He published notes about music under the name Johannes Kreisler.

Hoffmann was born into the family of a baptized Jew, Prussian lawyer Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann (1736-1797).

When the boy was three years old, his parents separated, and he was brought up in the house of his maternal grandmother under the influence of his uncle, a lawyer, an intelligent and talented man with a penchant for fantasy and mysticism. Hoffmann showed early talent for music and drawing. But, not without the influence of his uncle, Hoffmann chose the path of jurisprudence, from which he tried to escape throughout his subsequent life and make a living through art.

1799 - Hoffmann writes the music and text of the three-act singspiel "The Mask".

1800 - in January, Hoffmann unsuccessfully tried to stage his singspiel at the Royal National Theater. On March 27, he passed the third jurisprudence exam and in May was appointed to the position of assessor at the Poznań District Court. At the beginning of summer, Hoffmann travels with Hippel to Potsdam, Leipzig and Dresden, and then arrives in Poznan.

Until 1807, he worked in various ranks, studying music and drawing in his free time.

In 1801, Hoffmann wrote the singspiel “Joke, Cunning and Revenge” based on the lyrics, which was staged in Poznań. Jean Paul sends the score with his recommendation to Goethe.

In 1802, Hoffmann created caricatures of some Poznan people high society. As a result of the ensuing scandal, Hoffmann was transferred as punishment to Plock. At the beginning of March, Hoffmann breaks off his engagement to Minna Dörfer and marries a Polish woman, Michalina Rohrer-Trzczyńska (he affectionately calls her Misha). In the summer, the young couple move to Plock. Here Hoffmann acutely experiences his forced isolation; he leads a secluded life, writes church music and works for piano, and studies the theory of composition.

In 1803 - Hoffmann's first literary publication: the essay “Letter from a Monk to his Capital Friend” was published on September 9 in “Pravodushny”. Unsuccessful attempt to enter the Kotzebue competition best comedy(“Prize”). Hoffmann is trying to be transferred to one of the western provinces of Prussia.

In 1805, Hoffmann wrote music for Zechariah Werner's play “The Cross in the Baltic.” The Merry Musicians is being staged in Warsaw. On May 31, the “Musical Society” appeared, and Hoffmann became one of its leaders.

In 1806, Hoffmann was engaged in the decoration of the Mnischkov Palace, acquired by the Musical Society, and he himself painted many of its rooms. At the grand opening of the palace, Hoffmann conducts his Symphony in E-flat major. On November 28, Warsaw is occupied by the French - Prussian institutions are closed, and Hoffmann loses his position.

In April 1808, Hoffmann took the position of conductor at the newly opened theater in Bamberg. At the beginning of May, Hoffmann conceived the idea of ​​“Gluck's Chevalier.” At this time he is in dire need. On June 9, Hoffmann leaves Berlin, visits Hampe in Glogau and takes Misha from Poznan. On September 1 he arrives in Bamberg, and on October 21 he makes an unsuccessful debut as a conductor at the Bamberg Theater. Having retained the title of conductor, Hoffmann resigns from his duties as conductor. He earns his living by giving private lessons and occasional musical compositions for the theater.

In 1810, Hoffmann acted as a composer, decorator, playwright, director and assistant director of the Bamberg Theater, which was experiencing its heyday. The creation of the image of Johannes Kreisler - Hoffmann's alter ego (“The Musical Sufferings of Kapellmeister Kreisler”).

In 1812, Hoffmann conceived the opera Ondine and began writing Don Giovanni.

In 1814, Hoffmann completed The Golden Pot. At the beginning of May, the first two volumes of “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” are published. On August 5, Hoffmann completes the opera Ondine. In September, the Prussian Ministry of Justice offers Hoffmann a position as a government official, initially without salary, and he agrees. On September 26, Hoffmann arrives in Berlin, where he meets Fouquet, Chamisso, Tieck, Franz Horn, and Philipp Veit.

All of Hoffmann's attempts to make a living through art led to poverty and disaster. Only after 1813 did his affairs improve after receiving a small inheritance. The place of bandmaster in Dresden briefly satisfied his professional ambitions, but after 1815 he lost this place and was forced to enter the hated service again, this time in Berlin. However, the new place provided income and left a lot of time for creativity.

In 1818, Hoffmann conceived the book “Masters of Singing - a novel for friends musical art"(not written). The idea arises for a collection of stories “The Serapion Brothers” (originally “The Seraphim Brothers”) and an opera “The Lover After Death” based on the work of Calderon, the libretto for which Contessa writes.

In the spring of 1818, Hoffmann became seriously ill, and he came up with the idea of ​​“Little Tsakhes.” On November 14, a circle of “Serapion Brothers” was established, which included, in addition to Hoffmann himself, Hitzig, Contessa and Coref.

Feeling disgusted by the bourgeois "tea" societies, Hoffmann spent most of the evenings, and sometimes part of the night, in the wine cellar. Having upset his nerves with wine and insomnia, Hoffmann came home and sat down to write. The horrors created by his imagination sometimes terrified him. And at the appointed hour, Hoffmann was already sitting at work and working hard.

At one time, German criticism did not have a very high opinion of Hoffmann; they preferred thoughtful and serious romanticism, without an admixture of sarcasm and satire. Hoffmann was much more popular in other European countries and in North America. In Russia he called him “one of the greatest German poets, painter inner world”, and re-read all of Hoffmann in Russian and in the original language.

In 1822, Hoffmann became seriously ill. On January 23, by order of the Prussian government, the manuscript and already printed sheets of “The Lord of the Fleas,” as well as the writer’s correspondence with the publisher, were confiscated. Charges have been brought against Hoffman regarding ridicule of officials and violation of official secrets.

On February 23, the ill Hoffmann dictates a speech in his defense. On February 28, he dictates the ending of The Lord of the Fleas. On March 26, Hoffmann made a will, after which he suffered from paralysis.

At the age of 46, Hoffmann was completely exhausted by his lifestyle, but even on his deathbed he retained the power of imagination and wit.

In April, the writer dictates the short story “Corner Window”. “Lord of the Fleas” (in a stripped-down version) is published. Around June 10, Hoffmann dictates the story “The Enemy” (which remained unfinished) and the joke “Naivety.”

On June 24, paralysis reaches the neck. On June 25 at 11 a.m. Hoffmann dies in Berlin and is buried in the Jerusalem Cemetery of Berlin in the Kreuzberg district.

The circumstances of Hoffmann's biography are played out in Jacques Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann" and M. Bazhan's poem "Hoffmann's Night".

Personal life of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann:

1798 - Hoffmann's engagement to his cousin Minna Dörfer.

In July 1805, daughter Cecilia was born - Hoffmann's first and only child.

In January 1807, Minna and Cecilia left for Poznan to visit relatives. Hoffmann settles in the attic of the Mnischkov Palace, which became Daru’s residence, and becomes seriously ill. His move to Vienna is disrupted, and Hoffmann goes to Berlin, to Hitzig, on whose help he really counts. In mid-August, his daughter Cecilia dies in Poznan.

In 1811, Hoffmann gave singing lessons to Julia Mark and fell in love with his student. She has no idea about the teacher's feelings. Relatives arrange Julia's engagement and Hoffman is on the verge of madness and is contemplating double suicide.

Bibliography of Hoffmann:

Collection of short stories “Fantasies in the manner of Callot” (German: Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier) (1814);
"Jacques Callot" (German: Jaques Callot);
"Cavalier Glück" (German: Ritter Glück);
"Kreisleriana (I)" (German: Kreisleriana);
"Don Juan" (German: Don Juan);
"News about future destinies Berganza's dogs" (German: Nachricht von den neuesten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza);
“Magnetizer” (German: Der Magnetiseur);
“The Golden Pot” (German: Der goldene Topf);
"Adventure in the Night Under" New Year"(German: Die Abenteuer der Silvesternacht);
"Kreisleriana (II)" (German: Kreisleriana);
Fairy tale play “Princess Blandina” (German: Prinzessin Blandina) (1814);
The novel “The Elixirs of Satan” (German: Die Elixiere des Teufels) (1815);
Fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (German: Nußknacker und Mausekönig) (1816);
Collection of short stories “Night Studies” (German: Nachtstücke) (1817);
"The Sandman" (German: Der Sandmann);
"Vow" (German: Das Gelübde);
"Ignaz Denner" (German: Ignaz Denner);
"Jesuit Church in G." (German: Die Jesuiterkirche in G.);
“Majorat” (German: Das Majorat);
“The Empty House” (German: Das öde Haus);
"Sanctus" (German: Das Sanctus);
“Heart of Stone” (German: Das steinerne Herz);
Essay “The Extraordinary Sufferings of a Theater Director” (German: Seltsame Leiden eines Theater-Direktors) (1818);
The story-fairy tale “Little Zaches, nicknamed Zinnober” (German: Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober) (1819);
The story-tale “Princess Brambilla” (German: Prinzessin Brambilla) (1820);
Collection of short stories “The Serapion Brothers” (German: Die Serapionsbrüder) (1819-21);
“The Hermit Serapion” (German: Der Einsiedler Serapion);
“Counselor Krespel” (German: Rat Krespel);
“Fermata” (German: Die Fermate);
“Poet and Composer” (German: Der Dichter und der Komponist);
“An Episode from the Life of Three Friends” (German: Ein Fragment aus dem Leben dreier Freunde);
“Arthur's Hall” (German: Der Artushof);
“Falun Mines” (German: Die Bergwerke zu Falun);
“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (German: Nußknacker und Mausekönig);
“Singing Competition” (German: Der Kampf der Sänger);
“Ghost Story” (German: Eine Spukgeschichte);
“Automatic machines” (German: Die Automate);
“Doge and Dogaresse” (German: Doge und Dogaresse);
“Old and new sacred music” (German: Alte und neue Kirchenmusik);
“Meister Martin the cooper and his apprentices” (German: Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen);
“The Unknown Child” (German: Das fremde Kind);
“Information from the life of a famous person” (German: Nachricht aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes);
"The Bride's Choice" (German: Die Brautwahl);
“The Sinister Guest” (German: Der unheimliche Gast);
“Mademoiselle de Scudéry” (German: Das Fräulein von Scudéry);
"Gambler's Happiness" (German: Spielerglück);
"Baron von B." (German: Der Baron von B.);
"Signor Formica" (German: Signor Formica);
"Zacharias Werner" (German: Zacharias Werner);
“Visions” (German: Erscheinungen);
“Interdependence of Events” (German: Der Zusammenhang der Dinge);
“Vampirism” (German: Vampirismus);
“Aesthetic tea party” (German: Die ästhetische Teegesellschaft);
"The Royal Bride" (German: Die Königsbraut);
The novel “The Worldly Views of the Cat Murr” (German: Lebensansichten des Katers Murr) (1819-21);
The novel “Lord of the Fleas” (German: Meister Floh) (1822);
Late short stories (1819-1822): “Haimatochare” (German: Haimatochare);
“Marquise de la Pivardiere” (German: Die Marquise de la Pivardiere);
“Doubles” (German: Die Doppeltgänger);
"The Robbers" (German: Die Räuber);
"Errors" (German: Die Irrungen);
"Secrets" (German: Die Geheimnisse);
“Fiery Spirit” (German: Der Elementargeist);
"Datura fastuosa" (German: Datura fastuosa);
“Master Johannes Wacht” (German: Meister Johannes Wacht);
"Enemy" (German: Der Feind (Fragment));
“Recovery” (German: Die Genesung);
“Corner window” (German: Des Vetters Eckfenster)

Film adaptations of Hoffmann's works:

The Nutcracker (animated film, 1973);
Nut Krakatuk, 1977 - film by Leonid Kvinikhidze;
The Old Wizard's Mistake (film), 1983;
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (cartoon), 1999;
The Nutcracker (cartoon, 2004);
"Hoffmaniad";
The Nutcracker and the Rat King (3D film), 2010

Musical works of Hoffmann:

Singspiel "The Merry Musicians" (German: Die lustigen Musikanten) (libretto: Clemens Brentano) (1804);
music for the tragedy of Zacharias Werner “The Cross on the Baltic Sea” (German: Bühnenmusik zu Zacharias Werners Trauerspiel Das Kreuz an der Ostsee) (1805);
piano sonatas: A-Dur, f-moll, F-Dur, f-moll, cis-moll (1805-1808);
ballet “Harlequin” (German: Arlequin) (1808);
Miserere b minor (1809);
“Grand Trio for piano, violin and cello” (German: Grand Trio E-Dur) (1809);
melodrama “Dirna. Indian melodrama in 3 acts" (German: Dirna) (libretto: Julius von Soden) (1809);
opera "Aurora" (German: Aurora) (libretto: Franz von Holbein) (1812);
opera “Ondine” (German: Undine) (libretto: Friedrich de la Motte Fouquet) (1816)

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born in 1776. His place of birth is Koenigsberg. At first, Wilhelm was present in his name, but he himself changed the name because he loved Mozart very much. His parents divorced when he was only 3 years old, and he was raised by his grandmother - his mother's mother. His uncle was a lawyer and very smart person. Their relationship was quite complicated, but the uncle influenced his nephew and the development of his various talents.

Early years

When Hoffman grew up, he also decided that he would become a lawyer. He entered the university in Königsberg, after studying he served in different cities, his profession is judicial officer. But such a life was not for him, so he began to draw and play music, which is how he tried to make a living.

Soon he met his first love Dora. At that time she was only 25, but she was married and had already given birth to 5 children. They entered into a relationship, but gossip began in the city, and relatives decided that they needed to send Hoffmann to Glogau to another uncle.

The beginning of a creative journey

In the late 1790s, Hoffmann became a composer and took the pseudonym Johann Kreisler. There are several works that are quite famous, for example, the opera he wrote in 1812 called “Aurora”. Hoffmann also worked in the Bamberg theater and served as bandmaster and was also a conductor.

As fate would have it, Hoffman returned to civil service. When he passed the exam in 1800, he began working as an assessor in Supreme Court Poznan. In this city he met Michaelina, with whom he married.

Literary creativity

THIS. Hoffmann began writing his works in 1809. The first short story was called “Cavalier Gluck”, it was published by the Leipzig newspaper. When he returned to law in 1814, he simultaneously wrote fairy tales, including “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” At the time when Hoffmann was creating, German romanticism flourished. If you read the works carefully, you can see the main trends of the school of romanticism. For example, irony, the ideal artist, the value of art. The writer demonstrated the conflict that occurred between reality and utopia. He constantly makes fun of his characters who are trying to find some kind of freedom in art.

Researchers of Hoffman's work are unanimous in their opinion that it is impossible to separate his biography, his work from his music. Especially if you watch short stories - for example, “Kreysleriana”.

The thing is that the main character in it is Johannes Kreisler (as we remember, this is the author’s pseudonym). The work is an essay, their topics are different, but the hero is the same. It has long been recognized that it is Johann who is considered Hoffmann's double.

In general, the writer is a rather bright person, he is not afraid of difficulties, he is ready to fight the blows of fate in order to achieve a certain goal. And in this case it is art.

"Nutcracker"

This tale was published in a collection in 1716. When Hoffmann created this work, he was impressed by the children of his friend. The children's names were Marie and Fritz; Hoffmann gave their names to his characters. If we read Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", an analysis of the work will show us moral principles which the author tried to convey to children.

Briefly the story is this: Marie and Fritz are preparing for Christmas. The godfather always makes a toy for Marie. But after Christmas this toy is usually taken away as it is very skillfully made.

The children come to the Christmas tree and see that there is a whole bunch of gifts there, the girl finds the Nutcracker. This toy is used to crack nuts. Once Marie started playing with dolls, and at midnight mice appeared, led by their king. It was a huge mouse with seven heads.

Then the toys, led by the Nutcracker, come to life and enter into battle with the mice.

Brief Analysis

If you analyze Hoffmann's work "The Nutcracker", it is noticeable that the writer tried to show how important goodness, courage, mercy are, that you cannot leave anyone in trouble, you must help, show courage. Marie was able to see his light in the unsightly Nutcracker. She liked his good nature, and she tried with all her might to protect her pet from her nasty brother Fritz, who was always hurting the toy.

Despite everything, she tries to help the Nutcracker, giving sweets to the impudent Mouse King, so long as he does not harm the soldier. Courage and courage are demonstrated here. Marie and her brother, toys and the Nutcracker unite to achieve a goal - victory over Mouse King.

This work is also quite famous, and Hoffmann created it when, in 1814, French troops led by Napoleon approached Dresden. At the same time, the city in the descriptions is quite real. The author talks about the life of people, how they rode on a boat, visited each other, held folk festivals and much more.

The events of the fairy tale take place in two worlds, this is the real Dresden, as well as Atlantis. If you analyze the work “The Golden Pot” by Hoffmann, you can see that the author describes a harmony that you cannot find in ordinary life during the day with fire. The main character is the student Anselm.

The writer tried to beautifully tell about the valley, where beautiful flowers grow, amazing birds fly, where all the landscapes are simply magnificent. Once upon a time, the spirit of the Salamanders lived there, he fell in love with the Fire Lily and inadvertently caused the destruction of the garden of Prince Phosphorus. Then the prince drove this spirit into the world of people and told him what Salamander’s future would be: people would forget about miracles, he would meet his beloved again, they would have three daughters. Salamander will be able to return home when his daughters find lovers who are ready to believe that a miracle is possible. In the story, Salamander can also see the future and predict it.

Works of Hoffmann

I must say that although the author had very interesting musical works However, he is known as a storyteller. Hoffmann's works for children are quite popular, some of them can be read by a small child, some by a teenager. For example, if you take the fairy tale about the Nutcracker, then it will be suitable for both.

"The Golden Pot" is a rather interesting fairy tale, but filled with allegories and double meaning, which demonstrates the basics of morality that are relevant in our difficult times, for example, the ability to make friends and help, protect, and show courage.

Suffice it to recall "The Royal Bride" - a work that was based on real events. We are talking about an estate where a scientist lives with his daughter.

The underground king rules the vegetables; he and his retinue come to Anna’s garden and occupy it. They dream that one day only human vegetables will live on the entire Earth. It all started with Anna finding an unusual ring...

Tsakhes

In addition to the fairy tales described above, there are other works of this kind by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober.” Once upon a time there lived a little freak. The fairy took pity on him.

She decided to give him three hairs that have magical properties. As soon as something happens in the place where Tsakhes is located, significant or talented, or someone says something similar, then everyone thinks that he did it. And if the dwarf does something dirty, then everyone thinks about others. Possessing such a gift, the little one becomes a genius among the people, and he is soon appointed minister.

"New Year's Eve Adventure"

One night just before the New Year, a traveling comrade ended up in Berlin, where a completely magical story happened to him. He meets Julia, his beloved, in Berlin.

Such a girl actually existed. Hoffman taught her music and was in love, but her family engaged Julia to someone else.

"The Story of the Missing Reflection"

An interesting fact is that in general, in the author’s works, the mystical appears somewhere every now and then, and it’s not worth talking about the unusual. Skillfully mixing humor and moral principles, feelings and emotions, real and unreal world, Hoffmann achieves his reader's full attention.

This fact can be seen in the interesting work “The Story of the Missing Reflection.” Erasmus Speaker really wanted to visit Italy, which he was able to achieve, but there he met a beautiful girl, Juliet. He committed a bad act, as a result of which he had to go home. Telling everything to Juliet, he says that he would like to stay with her forever. In response, she asks him to give his reflection.

Other works

I must say that famous works Hoffman of different genres and for different ages. For example, the mystical "Ghost Story".

Hoffmann is very drawn to mysticism, which can be seen in stories about vampires, about a fatal nun, about a sandman, as well as in a series of books called “Night Studies.”

An interesting fairy tale about the lord of fleas, where we are talking about the son of a rich merchant. He doesn't like what his father is doing, and he doesn't intend to go down the same path. This life is not for him, and he is trying to escape from reality. However, he is unexpectedly arrested, although he does not understand why. The Privy Councilor wants to find a criminal, but he is not interested in whether the criminal is guilty or not. He knows for sure that every person can have some kind of sin.

Most of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's works contain a lot of symbolism, myths and legends. Fairy tales are generally difficult to divide by age. For example, take “The Nutcracker”, this story is so intriguing, filled with adventures and love, events that happen to Mary, that it will be quite interesting for children and teenagers, and even adults will re-read it with pleasure.

By this work Cartoons are filmed, plays, ballets, etc. are repeatedly staged.

The photo shows the first performance of "The Nutcracker" at the Mariinsky Theater.

But other works by Ernst Hoffmann may be a little difficult for a child to understand. Some people come to these works quite consciously to enjoy Hoffmann's extraordinary style, his bizarre mixture.

Hoffman is attracted by the theme when a person suffers from insanity, commits some kind of crime, he has " dark side"If a person has imagination and feelings, then he can fall into madness and commit suicide. In order to write the story “The Sandman,” Hoffmann studied scientific works on diseases and clinical components. The novel attracted the attention of researchers, among them was and Sigmund Freud, who even dedicated his essay to this work.

Everyone decides for themselves at what age they should read Hoffmann’s books. Some people don't quite understand his overly surreal language. However, as soon as you start reading the work, you are inevitably drawn into this mixed mystical and crazy world, where a gnome lives in a real city, where spirits walk the streets, and lovely snakes are looking for their handsome princes.