Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus(1776-1822) - German writer, composer and artist romantic direction, who gained fame thanks to fairy tales that combine mysticism with reality and reflect the grotesque and tragic sides of human nature. The most famous fairy tales Hoffmann:, and many other fairy tales for children.
Biography of Hoffmann by Ernst Theodor Amadeus
Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus(1776-1822) - - German writer, composer and artist of the romantic movement, who became famous for his stories that combine mysticism with reality and reflect the grotesque and tragic sides of human nature.
One of the most bright talents XIX century, a romantic of the second stage, who influenced subsequent writers literary eras up to now
The future writer was born on January 24, 1776 in Königsberg in the family of a lawyer, studied law and worked in various institutions, but did not make a career: the world of officials and activities related to writing papers could not attract an intelligent, ironic and widely gifted person.
Start independent life Hoffmann coincided with Napoleonic wars and the occupation of Germany. While working in Warsaw, he witnessed its capture by the French. Their own material instability was superimposed on the tragedy of the entire state, which gave rise to duality and a tragically ironic perception of the world.
Discord with his wife and love for his student, devoid of hope for happiness, who was 20 years younger than him - a married man - increased the feeling of alienation in the world of philistines. His feeling for Julia Mark, that was the name of the girl he loved, formed the basis for the most sublime female images of his works.
Hoffman's circle of acquaintances included the romantic writers Fouquet, Chamisso, Brentano, and the famous actor L. Devrient. Hoffmann owns several operas and ballets, the most significant of which are Ondine, written on the plot of Ondine by Fouquet, and musical accompaniment to the grotesque “Merry Musicians” by Brentano.
The beginning of Hoffmann's literary activity dates back to 1808-1813. - the period of his life in Bamberg, where he was a bandmaster at the local theater and gave music lessons. The first short story-fairy tale “Cavalier Gluck” is dedicated to the personality of the composer he especially revered; the name of the artist is included in the title of the first collection - “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814-1815).
Among Hoffmann’s most famous works are the short story “The Golden Pot”, the fairy tale “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”, the collections “Night Stories”, “Serapion’s Brothers”, the novels “The Worldly Views of the Cat Murr”, “The Devil’s Elixir”.
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 a very smart man. 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 Koenigsberg, 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 at the Poznań Supreme Court. 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.” During the times when Hoffmann created and flourished German romanticism. 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 in this case this 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 you read Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and mouse king", an analysis of the work will show us the moral principles that 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, the toys and the Nutcracker team up to achieve the goal of defeating the 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 the harmony that ordinary life You won't find it 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 Prince Phosphorus' garden. 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 small child, some 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 meanings, 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 New Year one wandering 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, the real and unreal world, Hoffman achieves the full attention of his reader.
This fact can be seen in 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
It must be said that the famous works of Hoffmann 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're talking about 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. Privy Councilor wants to find the criminal, but whether the criminal is guilty or not is not interesting to him. 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 shot, plays, ballets, etc. are staged repeatedly.
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 to the theme when a person suffers from insanity, commits some kind of crime, he has " dark side"If a person has imagination, has 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 novella attracted the attention of researchers, among them was 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.
Tales of Hoffmann and his best work - The Nutcracker. Mysterious and unusual, with deepest meaning and a reflection of reality. The golden fund of world literature recommends reading Hoffmann's fairy tales.
Read Tales of Hoffmann
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Brief biography of Hoffmann
In 1776, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, now known as Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, was born in the city of Königsberg. Hoffmann changed his name already in adulthood, adding to it Amadeus in honor of Mozart, the composer whose work he admired. And it was this name that became the symbol of a new generation of fairy tales from Hoffmann, which both adults and children began to read with rapture.
The future was born famous writer and composer Hoffmann in the family of a lawyer, but the father separated from his mother when the boy was still very young. Ernst was raised by his grandmother and uncle, who, by the way, also practiced as a lawyer. It was he who raised the boy creative personality and drew attention to his inclinations for music and drawing, although he insisted that Hoffmann receive a law degree and work in law to ensure an acceptable standard of living. In his subsequent life, Ernst was grateful to him, since it was not always possible to earn a living with the help of art, and it happened that he had to go hungry.
In 1813, Hoffmann received an inheritance; although it was small, it still allowed him to get on his feet. Just at that time, he had already received a job in Berlin, which came at the right time, by the way, because there was time left to devote himself to art. It was then that Hoffmann first thought about the fabulous ideas hovering in his head.
Hatred of all social meetings and parties led to the fact that Hoffmann began to drink alone and write his first works at night, which were so terrible that they drove him into despair. However, even then he wrote several works worthy of attention, but even those were not recognized, since they contained unambiguous satire and were not to the taste of critics at that time. The writer became much more popular outside his homeland. Unfortunately, Hoffmann finally exhausted his body with an unhealthy lifestyle and died at the age of 46, and Hoffmann’s fairy tales, as he dreamed, became immortal.
Few writers have received such attention to their own lives, but based on the biography of Hoffmann and his works, the poem Hoffmann's Night and the opera Tales of Hoffmann were created.
Hoffmann's work
Hoffmann's creative life was short. He published his first collection in 1814, and 8 years later he was no longer there.
If we wanted to somehow characterize the direction in which Hoffman wrote, we would call him a romantic realist. What is the most important thing in Hoffmann's work? One line running through all his works is the awareness of the deep difference between reality and ideal and the understanding that it is impossible to tear yourself away from the earth, as he himself said.
Hoffmann's whole life is a continuous struggle. For bread, for the opportunity to create, for respect for yourself and your works. Hoffmann's fairy tales, which both children and their parents are advised to read, will show this struggle, the strength to make difficult decisions and even greater strength not to give up in case of failure.
Hoffmann's first fairy tale was The Golden Pot. Already from it it became clear that a writer from ordinary everyday life is capable of creating a fabulous miracle. There, both people and objects are real magic. Like all romantics of that time, Hoffmann is fascinated by everything mystical, everything that usually happens at night. One of best works became Sandman. Continuing the theme of mechanisms coming to life, the author created a real masterpiece - the fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (some sources also call it The Nutcracker and the Rat King). Hoffmann's tales are written for children, but the themes and problems they address are not entirely for children.
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. It was replaced 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. Teddy bear, although alien to him creative quests and spiritual needs, will become his true 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 began 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 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”
French artist XVII century, 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 manner 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 he accidentally knocked over. main character student Anselm, all his misadventures began from this little thing.
Each chapter of the tale is named by the author as “vigil”, which is 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 like 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 man is still connected with secret forces, poet of abysses, gaps, from which a double, a ghost, or a vampire emerges. 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 sure that human personality is not something permanent, but unstable, capable of transformation, 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 edge 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 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 Ottilia, introduced it into high society 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 than everyone else 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 the ones I’ve written,” this is what the author said about it. This is his style - to clothe the most serious things in the veil of humor. We are talking about a blinded, stupid society that takes “an icicle, a rag for important person” and making an idol out of it. 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 replaced the blue flower of 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 of the brilliant 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 graphomaniac 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. 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 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 does this come from in me? sublime image thoughts, 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 the work of the German romantics. But if their predecessors, erecting 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 modern reality 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. Not giving dark forces a place in your soul is 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 of 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, a Dresden archivist has a brother who is a dragon, and his daughters are snakes, etc., etc., 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 was being mechanized, automata, soulless dolls were taking over man, the individual was drowning in the standard. He thought about the mysterious phenomenon of the transformation of all values into exchange value, new strength 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 social sciences, and Hoffmann is a seer for whom science fiction helped to lay bare 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.
Hoffman 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 power 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 no coincidence 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 Decree 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 “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” 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. It includes an exhibition in Moscow at the Library foreign literature them. 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
Option 1
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann is an outstanding German writer, composer and artist, representative of romanticism. Born on January 24, 1776 in Konigsberg in the family of a Prussian lawyer. When he was only three, his parents divorced and most of He spent his childhood in his grandmother's house. His maternal uncle, a lawyer, was mainly involved in raising the boy. It was the smartest person with a rich imagination. Hoffmann early began to show an inclination towards music and drawing, but chose a career as a lawyer. Throughout his subsequent life, he combined jurisprudence with the arts.
In 1800, he brilliantly graduated from the University of Königsberg and entered the public service. All attempts to make money through art led to impoverishment. Financial situation The writer's life improved only after receiving a small inheritance in 1813. For some time he worked as a theater conductor in Bamberg, and then as an orchestra conductor in Leipzig and Dresden. In 1816 he returned to public service, becoming a judicial officer in Berlin. He remained in this post until his death.
He considered his work to be hateful, so he free time started studying literary activity. In the evenings, he locked himself in a wine cellar and wrote horror stories that came to mind, which later turned into fantastic stories and fairy tales. The collection of stories “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814-1815) was especially popular. After this book, he began to be invited to various literary salons. Then “Night Stories” (1817), “Serapion’s Brothers” (1819-1820) came out. In 1821, Hoffmann began working on " Worldly views Murrah the cat." This is partly autobiographical work, full of wisdom and wit.
One of the most famous works The writer had a fairy tale “The Golden Pot”. From musical compositions The opera Ondine was especially popular. Initially, German critics were unable to properly appreciate Hoffmann's talent, while in other countries his works enjoyed great success. However, over time he gained a reputation talented musician and literary critic. Subsequently, his work influenced the work of Edgar Allan Poe and several French writers. Hoffmann's life and works formed the basis of J. Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann." The writer died on June 24, 1822 as a result of paralysis.
Option 2
German writer and composer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born in Königsberg on January 24, 1776. Soon the boy's parents divorced, and his uncle took up raising the child, under whose influence young Hoffman entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Konigsberg.
While studying at this institution, Hoffmann's first novels were written. After graduating from university, the writer worked in Poznan as an assessor, but then was transferred to Polotsk, where he married and settled down.
Soon Hoffmann left the civil service, hoping to devote himself to art. In 1803, the writer’s first essay, “A Letter from a Monk to his Capital Friend,” was published, and later several operas were written, which Hoffmann tried to stage on stage to no avail.
At this time, Hoffmann worked as a composer and conductor in Dresden. This money was barely enough for the young family to make ends meet.
Having lost his position as bandmaster, in 1815 Hoffmann was forced to return to civil service, but in Berlin. This occupation brought income, but made the writer dissatisfied with life. The only salvation for him was wine and creativity.
In 1815, Hoffmann completed the story “The Golden Pot” and wrote the opera “Ondine”. At the same time, two volumes of the writer’s first published book, “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot,” were published. Since then, Hoffmann has become a popular writer, and his Ondine is staged at the National Theater.
Having become seriously ill, Hoffmann soon died in Berlin from paralysis on June 24, 1822. Before his death, he manages to dictate his last works: “Lord of the Fleas”, “Corner Window” and “Enemy”.