This collection of three uncanny tales highlights the best of a 19th-century German author who is seen by many as the father of modern sci-fi and fantasy. In ‘The Sandman’, young Nathanael grows up terrified of a legendary figure who will steal his eyes if he’s caught out of bed at night — but it’s only when Nathanael has grown to adulthood, seemingly settled and happy, that the full, terrifying truth unfolds. A living doll, a series of doppelgangers, and the seeds of madness combine in this classic story of self-destruction.
‘The Cremona Violin’ also deals with obsession and thwarted desire, this time between an overbearing father and a musically talented daughter who may die of heart failure if she unleashes the full power of her extraordinary voice. Suppressed passion and possessive control prove a fatal mix in this powerful and claustrophobic story. ‘The Golden Pot’, meanwhile, is a novella-length tale which Hoffmann believed was his masterpiece. Disturbing, exciting and dream-like, it introduces us to the bumbling Anselmus, whose romantic tribulations are complicated by a witch’s curse and the fact that he’s in love with a girl who also happens to be a snake.
Influential in the worlds of both literature and music during his lifetime, Hoffmann’s doppelgangers, unattainable love objects and sinister puppet masters have lived on, becoming key figures in the modern imagination.
Endorsements
The godfather of modern horror and fantasy… Hoffmann’s true sorcery is his ability to transfer his characters’ private experiences into the reader. His stories teach us to respect the uncanny depths inside of any “ordinary” human being — New York Review of Books
Hoffman was the true inventor… of so much that makes literature pleasurable — Gilbert Adair
The products of a mind so brilliant, wild and singular as that of Hoffmann may long hover in the remembrance of the world — Thomas Carlyle