Nutcracker and Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822)
Translated from the German by Ascott Robert Hope (1846–1927)
Illustrations by “Bertall” [Charles Albert d'Arnoux] (1820–1882)
First published 1816.
The illustrations and the original German text of this story are in the public domain worldwide because the creators died more than 100 years ago. This translation is in the public domain in countries where copyright is “Life+90” or less, and in the USA.
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Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, German Romantic writer, composer, and artist, is known for his stories in which supernatural and sinister characters move in and out of men’s lives, ironically revealing tragic or grotesque sides of human nature.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (German:
Nussknacker und Mausekonig) was written in 1816. Young Mary Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes to life, and after defeating the evil seven-headed Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. Dark undertones hover around the sometimes oddly sinister Godfather Drosselmeier.
The 1845 adaptation by Alexandre Dumas père, “The History of the Nutcracker,” was the basis for the famed and beloved Nutcracker ballet by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, scored by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Its annual performance has become a Christmas tradition in many venues.
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Text and illustrations were obtained from HathiTrust. OCR errors corrected; punctuation, italics and diacritics formatted.
After consulting another translation, I made a number of minor textual revisions to the transcription. These are documented in the book.
Embedded font for cap letters. Text-wrap version has drop-caps and some images wrapped in text. No-wrap version has up-caps and all centered images.
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This should have been done well before Christmas, but time ran away from me. Read it now, and keep the holiday spirit bubbling a while longer; or save it till next year and enjoy it then.
Happy holidays to all!
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