4.0
The Golden Pot
ByPublisher Description
Macabre and fantastical, Hoffmann’s wildly imaginative tales offer an unflinching view of human nature and sing clearer than ever in a masterful new translation
Whether a surrealist exploration of the anxieties surrounding automation, or a mystery concerning a goldsmith, missing jewels, and a spate of murders, each tale in this collection reveals the complexities of human desire and fear.
Hoffman, whose most famous work is “The Nutcracker,” is often compared to Edgar Allan Poe. Hoffman’s massive influence qualifies him as the godfather of the German Romantic Movement which led to the horror genre.
The macabre, fantastical nature of his subject matter inspired a broad swath of culture, with two of the longer stories in this collection “The Sandman” and “The Automaton” influencing Philip K. Dick’s original inspiration for Blade Runner. The murder mystery “Mademoiselle de Scudéry” is perhaps one of the earliest prototypes of the detective genre story.
Music and madness flow through E.T.A. Hoffmann’s phantasmagoric stories. The ringing of crystal bells heralds the arrival of a beguiling snake, and a student’s descent into lunacy; a young man abandons his betrothed for a woman who plays the piano skillfully but seems worryingly wooden; a counselor’s daughter must choose between singing and her life.
Peter Wortsman’s masterful new translation allows Hoffmann’s distinct and influential style to shine, while breathing new life into stories that seem both familiar and uncanny.
Whether a surrealist exploration of the anxieties surrounding automation, or a mystery concerning a goldsmith, missing jewels, and a spate of murders, each tale in this collection reveals the complexities of human desire and fear.
Hoffman, whose most famous work is “The Nutcracker,” is often compared to Edgar Allan Poe. Hoffman’s massive influence qualifies him as the godfather of the German Romantic Movement which led to the horror genre.
The macabre, fantastical nature of his subject matter inspired a broad swath of culture, with two of the longer stories in this collection “The Sandman” and “The Automaton” influencing Philip K. Dick’s original inspiration for Blade Runner. The murder mystery “Mademoiselle de Scudéry” is perhaps one of the earliest prototypes of the detective genre story.
Music and madness flow through E.T.A. Hoffmann’s phantasmagoric stories. The ringing of crystal bells heralds the arrival of a beguiling snake, and a student’s descent into lunacy; a young man abandons his betrothed for a woman who plays the piano skillfully but seems worryingly wooden; a counselor’s daughter must choose between singing and her life.
Peter Wortsman’s masterful new translation allows Hoffmann’s distinct and influential style to shine, while breathing new life into stories that seem both familiar and uncanny.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities5 Reviews
4.0
Laís
Created 3 months agoShare
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Wndy
Created 12 months agoShare
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DianaMaria
Created about 4 years agoShare
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Mariann Komlós
Created over 5 years agoShare
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“Call me strange or what, but I really liked it! Yeah it was all romantic and too descriptive, but actually I got charmed by it. Yeah, 12-year old self and everybody else was not right.”
SarahDRoseH
Created over 7 years agoShare
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“Et meget meta-følende værk for romantikkens samtid. Hvad er poesi og hvad er romantikken? Klassiske træk som en følelse af virkelighed, ved inddragelse af fortælleren selv, i en ellers fantastisk fortælling. Ikke mindst er det også en underholdende fortælling.”
About E. T. A. Hoffmann
Prussian-born E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was one of the most influential authors of the German Romantic era. An artistic polymath with a fierce passion for music, Hoffmann spent much of his life struggling to reconcile his career as a bureaucrat with his commitment to his art. His stories, renowned for their combination of fantastic and macabre elements with twisting psychological realism, are often preoccupied with themes of artistic madness and the blurring of lines between the real and supernatural. His works exercised a profound influence on writers such as Balzac, Poe, Dostoevsky, and Kafka, as well as composers such as Schumann, Offenbach and Tchaikovsky.
Translator Peter Wortsman is the author of several short fiction collections and plays, an essay collection, and a travel memoir Ghost Dance in Berlin. His translations from the German include works by Peter Altenberg, Heinrich Heine, Robert Musil, Adelbert von Chamisso, Heinrich von Kleist, the Brothers Grimm and Franz Kafka.
Translator Peter Wortsman is the author of several short fiction collections and plays, an essay collection, and a travel memoir Ghost Dance in Berlin. His translations from the German include works by Peter Altenberg, Heinrich Heine, Robert Musil, Adelbert von Chamisso, Heinrich von Kleist, the Brothers Grimm and Franz Kafka.
Other books by E. T. A. Hoffmann
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