The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and The Snow Queen - Two Holiday Classics!

Q: Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

No, you don’t have to buy the ebook to participate, but we do recommend it to get the most out of your club. There are several premium social reading features that are only available when you buy the ebook, like annotations, reactions, comment threads, resources, discussion prompts, and more, all embedded right in the text. It’s a unique and immersive way to read.

Q: Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

It’s annoying, we know. App store rules prevent us from selling directly in the app, so for now you can only purchase ebooks on our website. Don’t worry: when you purchase an ebook on the web, it’s automatically added to your bookshelf in the app.

Q: How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Kindle is a straightforward e-reader; Fable is an interactive e-reader that includes social features inside the ebooks. When you read an ebook on Fable, you can see and react to the text with others in real time. Start a discussion, share highlights and quotes, add emoji reactions—all of it lives right inside the book. It’s hard to explain and easy to see, so we recommend reading the free sample in one of our most active clubs to get a feel for it.

Q: Do you sell physical books too?

We do not sell physical books at this time. Wish we did? Let us know why here!

Q: Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

Most of our clubs are completely free to join. The only exceptions are clubs marked as “Premium” or “Career Development,” which do require a fee. You can find out more on each club’s detail page.

Q: How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

The first step is to download the Fable app. From there, you’ll be able to create your own private or public book club and invite others to read with you. Once your club is created, click on the plus sign under “Currently reading” and search for this book to add it to your club.

By E.T.A. Hoffmann & Hans Christian Andersen &

Publisher Description

Presented here are two holiday classics: E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (which formed the basis for the Christmas ballet "The Nutcracker") and Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," (upon which Disney's "Frozen" is based).

First, we meet young Marie, young girl who is given a precious nutcracker as a Christmas present by her godfather, the enigmatic Drosselmeier. When the nutcracker is broken, Marie attempts to repair it and stays up late to tend to her new toy, but when the nursery is invaded by an army of mice - led by the seven-headed Mouse King - the nutcracker comes to life to both drive off the mice and escort Marie to a magical land of living dolls.

Then, in "The Snow Queen," we are introduced to childhood friends Gerda and Kay, whose relationship is shattered when Kay is infected by dark magic and disappears, spirited up to the Snow Queen's palace in the sky.

These two holiday classics are presented in their original and unabridged format.

Download the free Fable app

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

No Reviews

About E.T.A. Hoffmann

E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a German jurist, composer, artist and Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror. A number of later works - including two ballets and an opera - were adapted from his works, most notably "The Nutcracker" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which is based upon Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" and has gone on to become one of the most popular ballets in history. While Hoffmann was educated for a career in the law and government - which he pursued for much of his young life - he was drawn to writing, drawing and literature and eventually wound up running several theatres, sometimes contributing his own work. But his literary output was hardly limited to the stage. Hoffmann wrote short stories, operas, novellas, lyrics and even composed his own music. A leading writer of the Romanticism movement, his taste for the dark and macabre influenced many writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Franz Kafka. In 1881, composer Jacques Offenbach wrote an opera fantastique called "The Tales of Hoffmann" in which a heavily fictionalized Hoffmann presents three of his short stories. Towards the end of his life, Hoffmann was plagued by legal disputes, ill-health, alcoholism and an advanced case of syphilis, which finally took his life in Berlin in 1822 at the age of forty-six.

Other books by E.T.A. Hoffmann

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King - Unabridged

E.T.A. Hoffmann & Kevin Theis

$2.99

Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann

E.TA. Hoffmann & Leonard J. Kent &

$17.99

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: The Graphic Novel

E.T.A. Hoffmann & Natalie Andrewson

$11.99

Meister Floh

E.T.A. Hoffmann & Thomas Vormbaum &

$91.99

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a prolific and internationally cherished author of plays, novels, poems and even travelogues, but he is best known for his children's fables, which include some of the most famous short stories ever written. His tales include several of the world's most beloved classics, many of which have been adapted to the stage and screen, including "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Red Shoes," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Match Girl," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina" and over a hundred others. By the end of his life, Andersen was an internationally revered and admired author and the Danish government, considering him to be a national treasure, paid him a yearly stipend for his contributions to Danish culture.