Entertaining hour
"The Magical World of E. A. T. Hoffmann's Fairy Tales"
(6th grade)
Prepared by:
reading room librarian
Children's department MKUK Central Bank
E. A. Cherkasova.
“Read! And may there not be a single day in your life,
whenever you read at least one page from a new book!”
K.G. Paustovsky.
“Just a minute, I wanted to ask:
To the one who is Ernst, and Theodore, and Amadeus."
KUSHNER ALEXANDER
Target: get acquainted with the main characters of Hoffmann’s works (the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, the short story “The Golden Pot”, the fairy tale “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”, the novel “ Worldly views Murrah the cat"). Note their character traits, find out where and when the events described take place.
Tasks
Educational:
Develop skills in analyzing prose fairy-tale texts, enrich the understanding of artistic detail;
Develop the ability to retell closely to the text, without violating logic, highlight connections between phenomena, formulate conclusions and generalize.
Educational:
Develop students' creative vision, imagination, memory;
Develop the ability to work competently with a book.
Educational:
- bring children to realize how important it is to strive to understand others and, if necessary, help them;
Develop a culture of communication; to form the creative activity of schoolchildren;
- cultivate the need to communicate with each other;
- continue to develop interest in the subject.
Equipment: books, illustrations, quotes, crosswords, pictures for coloring, music from Tchaikovsky's ballet. “The Nutcracker”, portrait of E.T.A. Hoffmann, presentation, worksheets and pens, felt-tip pens.
During the classes.
Organizing time. Hello guys! Take your seats. Today our event is dedicated to the life and work of E. A. T. Hoffmann.
Introduction.
Librarian: All his books are filled with mysterious characters who can suddenly disappear or appear out of nowhere. His characters are always accompanied by unusual, incomprehensible surprises: a tiny gentleman-sharkun, a surprise box from which a silver bird jumps out with a jingle, a mechanical doll that cannot be distinguished from a living girl, a miniature castle with golden turrets and mirrored windows.
This magician and wizard did not wear a black robe with mysterious signs, but walked in a worn brown tailcoat and instead of a magic wand he used a quill pen, with which he wrote down all his wonderful stories, which he created literally from “nothing”: from a bronze door handle with a grinning face, from nutcrackers, from the hoarse chime of an old clock.
Guys, are you familiar with Hoffmann's fairy tales? What works have you read? Maybe you saw a famous cartoon based on a fairy tale"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"? Today we will meet the author of these fascinating stories, and also immerse ourselves in the magical world of his fairy tales.
Biography and creativity of E. A. T. Hoffman:
Librarian: Let's remember, and maybe learn something new from the author's biography. To begin with, let's listen to a poem by Alexander Kushner, in which the poet accurately noted the main points of Hoffmann's biography.
Hoffman
Just a minute, I wanted to ask:
Is it easy for Hoffmann to have three names?
Oh, to grieve and get tired for three people
To the one who is Ernst, and Theodore, and Amadeus.
Ernst is just a cog, a lawyer in the office,
He scratches a new sheet after sheet in court,
Don't draw, don't compose for him, don't sing for him -
That bureaucratic machine creaks.
Creak, sweat, commute someone's sentence.
Much luckier than Ernst was Theodor.
Arriving home, overcoming the pain in my shoulder,
He writes stories at night by candlelight.
He writes stories, but his heart gets sadder.
Then Amadeus comes to Theodore,
The guest is amazing and most dear.
He waves his hand in the air like Mozart...
On Friedrichstrasse, Hoffmann drinks and eats coffee.
“On Friedrichstrasse,” Ernst says quietly.
“Oh no, to the right!” - Theodore begs.
“Let’s go left,” they both hear, “and into the yard.”
The flute is playing barely in the yard,
It's like a schoolboy running his finger in an ABC book.
“But still she,” sighs Amadeus, “
Court records miles and stories."
KUSHNER ALEXANDER
Librarian: In 1776, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, now known as Ernst Theodor, was born in the city of Königsberg.Amadeus Hoffman. 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 famous writer and composer Hoffmann was born into the family of a lawyer, but his 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 brought up a creative personality in the boy and drew attention to his inclinations for music and drawing, although he insisted that Hoffmann receive a legal education 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. Much more popular writer became 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 “The Tales of Hoffmann” were created.
Hoffmann from the very early childhood more than anything in the world he loved music, played the piano, violin, organ, sang, drew and wrote poetry - but, despite this, he had to, like all his ancestors, become an official. He submitted to the will of his family: he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Königsberg and served for many years in various judicial departments. Life circumstances were such that his creative interests had to remain in second place - all his life he was burdened by his profession: he was oppressed by the need to go to boring legal work every day (which, by the way, he knew brilliantly), he was unlucky in his personal life, and he had a complex character, prone to frequent depression.
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 runs through all his worksawareness of the deep difference between reality and ideal and the understanding that it is impossible to get off the ground, 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.
The first fairy tale Hoffmann became a fairy tale"Pot of Gold" . Already from it it became clear that a writer from ordinary everyday life is capable of creating a fabulous miracle. There are people and objects there – real magic. Like all romantics of that time, Hoffmann is fascinated by everything mystical, everything that usually happens at night. One of the best works was “The Sandman”. Continuing the theme of bringing mechanisms to life, the author createda 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.
Hoffmann had a truly creative nature: he lived all the time in a world of fantasy and created bright unique images in his writings: “I am like children born on Sunday: they see what other people cannot see.” In their fantastic stories and fairy tales, the romantic writer skillfully mixes miracles of all centuries and peoples with his fiction, sometimes gloomy and tragic, sometimes cheerful and mocking.
Hoffmann's short stories can be funny and scary, bright and sinister, but the fantastic in them always arises unexpectedly, from the most ordinary things, from real life - this is one of the great secrets of his books. The satirical novel is considered the pinnacle of the writer's creativity., which presents two storylines: biography of the cat Murr and the story of life at the court in the German principality of Kapellmeister Johann Kreisler. This book is the confession of the learned cat Murr, who is here at the same time the author, the hero, an ordinary domestic cat, and a fantastic character (by the way, Hoffmann himself had a favorite cat Murr).
All of Hoffmann's works testify to his talents as a musician and artist. He illustrated many of his books himself.
Hoffmann idolized music:“The secret of music is that it finds an inexhaustible source where speech falls silent.” He wrote music under the pseudonym Johann Kreisler. Of his musical compositions, the most famous wasopera "Ondine" , among his works - chamber music, mass, symphony. Hoffmann was also a decorator, playwright, director and assistant director of the Bamberg Theater.
Fairy tale"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" has become a world-famous Christmas story. The plot of the fairy tale was born during the writer’s communication with the children of his friend Hitzig: he was always a welcome guest in this family, where the children anxiously awaited his gifts, fairy tales, and toys that he made for them with his own hands. One day, like godfather Drosselmeyer from this fairy tale, he made a magnificent model of a castle for his little friends. He also captured the names of the children “Marichen” and “Fritz” in this fairy tale.
It’s amazing how he managed, while describing the ordinary house of a German medical adviser, to fill it with such a unique atmosphere mysterious events and unfulfilled desires! He turned this pragmatic burgher world into a fantastic multi-story German Christmas pyramid, illuminated by the light of small candles, in which reality, dreams, and imagination coexist: evil forces coexist with good ones, and sometimes they transform into each other so skillfully that it is impossible to distinguish who is the friend today, and who is the enemy.
A wooden man, turned on a lathe by a puppeteer from the Saxon Ore Mountains, thanks to the magical talent of the writer, became an extraordinary all-powerful superhero who won an unequal battle over the seven-headed Mouse King and his gray army.
And here’s another secret - this fairy tale is like a nesting doll: hidden in one big story are other, smaller ones: “The Tale of the Tough Nut”, “The Doll’s Kingdom”. Any nut, in itself, is a symbol of overcoming difficulties, because it must be cracked in order to achieve a tasty kernel. How many difficulties does a wooden man have to overcome, endlessly gnawing on nuts!
Another facet of this far from simple tale is a call to be merciful to those who are in trouble, who are now unhappy. Appearance does not matter, because the main values are a pure, kind heart and loyalty in friendship and love, as in many of the best fairy tales in the world.
Librarian: Let's remember the characters of Hoffmann's fairy tales. I read the descriptions, and you name the hero and what work he is from.
4. Competition “Guess the Hero”
Librarian: Based on the description, you need to guess Hoffmann's characters and what fairy tales they are from.
1 . The son of a poor peasant woman, completely ugly, looking like a forked radish, and not having any of the virtues of a normal person. The fairy Rosabelverde took pity on him and gave him three golden hairs. From that moment on, he acquires a magical property: everything ugly that comes from him is attributed to someone else, and, conversely, everything pleasant or wonderful that anyone else does is attributed to him. He begins to give the impression of a charming child, then a young man “gifted with rare abilities”, talented poet and a violinist. He outshines the young prince, distinguished by his refined appearance and manners, so much so that those around him assume a princely origin. Finally, he becomes a minister, whom the prince honors with an order specially made for him, and all this is accordingly connected with the fact that another, truly worthy person, undeservedly experiences resentment or shame, and sometimes simply fails in his career or in love. The good done by the fairy turns into a source of evil. The insignificance of Tsakhes still reveals itself - in the way it ends. He was frightened by the crowd that was raging under the windows of his house, because he saw a monster looking out of the window, and hid in a chamber pot, where he died “for fear of dying.”( Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober).
2. He is a student at Kerepes University, a romantic.(Balthazar ).
3. Balthazar's friend, student, realist, cheerful man (Fabian ).
4. The fairy who gifted little Tsakhes with magical powers. ( Fairy Rosabelverde ).
5. He's a traveling magiciana magician living in the state of Kerepes.At one time, he remained in Kerepes only because he managed to hide his true “I” and in various works he argued that “without the permission of the prince there can be neither thunder nor lightning and that if we have good weather and an excellent harvest, then this We owe only to the prince’s exorbitant labors.” (Prosper Alpanus ).
6. A prince obsessed with introducing education in the country.(Paphnutius ).
7. Tsakhes’s mother, a poor peasant woman.( Lisa).
8. He was not distinguished by his beauty: he was a small, dry man with a wrinkled face, with a large black patch instead of his right eye and completely bald, which is why he wore a beautiful white wig; and this wig was made of glass, and extremely skillfully.(Drosselmeyer).
9. A funny toy that was given to the little girl Marie by her godfather Drosselmeyer for Christmas. Big head he looked ridiculous compared to his thin legs, and the cloak he was wearing was narrow and funny, sticking out like it was made of wood, and on his head was a miner’s cap. ( Nutcracker ).
10. She immediately fell in love with this toy, because the Nutcracker had kind eyes and a gentle smile. (Marie ).
11. A romantically inclined student, very strapped for money. He wears a pike-gray old-fashioned tailcoat and rejoices at the opportunity to earn a thaler by copying papers from the archivist Lindgorst. To a young man unlucky in everyday life, his indecisive character becomes the cause of many comic situations: his sandwiches always fall to the ground with the smeared side, if he happens to leave the house half an hour earlier than usual, so as not to be late, he will definitely be doused with soapy water from the window. (Anselm).
12. Kreisler’s antipode and at the same time his parody parallel. It's not alien to him romantic perception and creativity. He has a rich imagination, is capable of deeply feeling and worrying, being devoted to his friends, reacting sharply to injustice, to failure in love. At first he is naive and helpless in everyday situations. His first “entry into the world” leads to disappointment in this world, “full of hypocrisy and deception.” However, he soon becomes convinced that the desire for the extraordinary deprives many of life’s joys, brings only anxiety, and renounces the “free spirit” for the sake of the “perishable world”, sacrifices ideals, preferring peace and a stable position to them. “The cat’s flesh is weak: the best, most magnificent intentions were scattered into dust by the sweet smell of milk porridge.” Thus, the romantic principle disappears in him, the philistine consciousness triumphs, although he hides behind phrases in the spirit of a sublime romantic style.(Cat Murr ).
5. Competition “Gallery of Hoffmann’s Characters”.
Librarian: Match the names of the fairy tales with characters.
"Pot of Gold"
"Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober"
“Everyday views of Murr the cat”
"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"
Drosselmeer
Marie
Fritz
Nutcracker
Pirlipat
Anselm
Tsakhes
cat Murr
Picture No. 2.
Picture No. 3.
7. Competition “Kaleidoscope of fairy tale chapter titles”
Librarian: Your task is to correctly arrange the chapter names of the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. If you don't remember, try composing logical chain. Place numbers next to the name (from 1 to 12).
Conclusion
Christmas tree
Puppet kingdom
Battle
Present
Favorite
The Tale of the Hard Nut
Miracles
Victory
Capital
Disease
Uncle and nephew
1. Christmas tree 7. Tale of a hard nut
2. Gifts 8. Uncle and nephew
3. Favorite 9. Victory
4. Miracles 10. Doll Kingdom
5. Battle 11. Capital
6. Disease 12. Conclusion
8. Competition “Solve Crosswords”
Crossword No. 1.
Vertically
1. Name of the senior court counsel?
2. What was the name of Marie's brother?
4. The city where the Krakatuk nut was kept
5. What was the name of the queen of the mice?
7. Name of the nut
Horizontally
5. Who did the Nutcracker invite to the doll kingdom?
6. The Enchanted Prince
Librarian: And now we have a musical break. While the guys are drawing and you are doing crossword puzzles, you can enjoy musical compositions from Tchaikovsky's ballet P.I. "Nutcracker".
9. Competition “Quiz Experts”
Quiz based on the book by E. A. Hoffman “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”
1. What is the name of the most famous work of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann?("The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" .)
2. What were the names of the children in the fairy tale? (Marie and Fritz .)
3. What date does the action in the fairy tale begin? (December 24 .)
4. What did they give Marie? (Elegant dolls, dishes, silk dresses, books .)
5. What did they give Fritz? (Bay horse, squadron of hussars, books .)
6. What was the Christmas tree decorated with? (Gold and silver apples, candied nuts, colorful candies and all sorts of sweets, hundreds of small candles. )
7. What surprise did the children receive from godfather Drosselmeyer? (Castle, Nutcracker. )
8. The Nutcracker is... (Nut Chopping Tool .)
9. Who is Drosselmeyer’s relationship with the Nutcracker? (Nephew .)
10. At what time did the mouse invasion begin? (At 12 o'clock .)
11. How many goals did he have? mouse king? (7 .)
12.What did Clerchen want to give the Nutcracker before the fight with the mice? (Sequined Sash .)
13. Who commanded the cavalry and artillery? (Pantalone .)
14. What decided the outcome of the battle? (Marie threw her shoe at the mice .)
15. Who is Pirlipat? (Princess. )
16. Why was the King angry with Myshilda and her relatives? (They ate the lard intended for the guests .)
17. What happened to Myshilda’s seven sons? (They fell into a trap and were executed. )
18. How did Myshilda take revenge on the King? (I bewitched the princess .)
19. What was the name of the nut that was supposed to heal the princess? (Krakatuk.)
20. Where was the nut found? (In Nuremberg .)
21. What is the history of the nut?
22. Who agreed to crack the nut? (Drosselmeyer's nephew, The Nutcracker).
23. How did Drosselmeyer's nephew become the Nutcracker? (He killed Myshilda .)
24. Where did the Nutcracker invite Marie after defeating the mice? (To the Puppet Kingdom .)
25. What did they meet along the way? (Candy meadow, Christmas forest, Orange stream, Gingerbread village, Honey river, Confethausen, Pink lake, Candied grove...)
26. In what year was the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” written? (1816 )
27. Who wrote the music for the ballet “The Nutcracker”? (P.I. Chaikovsky .)
28. In what year was the cartoon “The Nutcracker” released at the Soyuzmultfilm studio? (1973)
29. Who is the director of the film “The Nutcracker”? (A. Konchalovsky. )
Librarian: Choose the correct answer. The test is difficult, but informative.
The Nutcracker is a device for splitting...
Sahara
nuts
acorns
wood chips
2. For what holiday were the children given the Nutcracker toy in Hoffmann’s fairy tale?
For Easter
on Maslenitsa
At Christmas
for the New Year
M. I. Glinka
M. P. Mussorgsky
P. I. Tchaikovsky
S. S. Prokofiev
4. Where did the premiere of the ballet “The Nutcracker” take place?
In the Catherine Palace
at the Mariinsky Theater
at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater
at the State Academic Maly Theater
5. In what year did the Kultura TV channel hold the first International Television Competition? young musicians"Nutcracker"?
In 1999
in 2000
in 2001
in 2002
6. The Grand Prix of the first competition was awarded to the participant who played...
Marimbe
violin
piano
flute
7. Where will the first and second rounds of “The Nutcracker” auditions take place?
At the Central Music School at the Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky
at the Bolshoi Theater
in the State central museum musical culture named after. M. I. Glinka
in Children's musical theater them. Natalia Sats
8. Who will conduct the orchestra with which the competition laureates will play on November 10, 2008?
Svetlana Bezrodnaya
Vladimir Spivakov
Yuri Bashmet
Mark Gorenstein
9. Which musician is not on the jury of the IX Nutcracker Competition?
Ekaterina Mechetina
Georgy Garanyan
Mark Pekarsky
Denis Matsuev
10. What award is not included in the Nutcracker competition?
Golden Nutcracker
Silver Nutcracker
Bronze Nutcracker
Crystal Nutcracker
10. Conclusion. Summarizing. Reflection.
Attention test
Librarian: Now let’s check how you remember new information. Now let's do an attention test. You need to choose the correct answer:
1. What is the name of the work?
a) "The Nutcracker"
b) “The Mouse King and the Nutcracker”
c) “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”
2. How old was Marie?
a) 8
b) 6
at 7
3. The godfather's wig was made:
a) made of wool
b) made of glass
c) made of fabric
4. Marzipan is
a) candy
b) pie
c) steering wheel
5. What did the godfather give to the children?
a) fortress
b) garden
c) castle
Check by key: 1-c, 2-c, 3-b, 4-a, 5-c
Reflection.
What new things did you learn in the lesson?
What feeling did you have after today's lesson?
Summarizing:
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.Re-read this well-known (or perhaps completely unknown) fairy tale, because everyone, without exception, is supposed to believe in miracles and magic.
Librarian: Well done! You did a great job today! And now the most active guys will receive well-deserved prizes.Certificates and prizes are awarded.
References:
1. Safranski Rüdiger. Hoffman./Trans. with German; entry article by V. D. Balakin.. - M. Young Guard, 2005. - 383 pp.: ill. -(Life of remarkable people: Ser. biogr.; issue 946).
2. Berkovsky N. Ya. Preface.//Hoffman E. T. A. Novels and stories. L., 1936.
3. Berkovsky N. Ya. Romanticism in Germany. L., 1973.
4. Botnikova A. B. E. T. A. Hoffman and Russian literature. Voronezh, 1977.
5. Vetchinov K. M. The adventures of Hoffmann - police investigator, state adviser, composer, artist and writer. Pushchino, 2009.
6. Karelsky A. V. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman // E. T. A. Hoffman. Collection Works: In 6 volumes. T. 1. M.: Khud. literature, 1991.
7. Mirimsky I. V. Hoffman // History German literature. T. 3. M.: Nauka, 1966.
8. Turaev S.V. Goffman // History of world literature. T. 6. M.: Nauka, 1989.
9. Hoffmann’s Russian Circle (compiled by N. I. Lopatina with the participation of D. V. Fomin, executive editor Yu. G. Fridshtein). - M.: Book Center of the VGBIL named after M.I. Rudomino, 2009-672 p.: ill.
10. Art world E. T. A. Hoffmann. M., 1982.
11. E. T. A. Hoffman. Life and art. Letters, statements, documents / Trans. with him. Composition K. Gunzel.. - M.: Raduga, 1987. - 464 p.
12. Works of Hoffmann on gofman.krossw.ru
13. 5 articles about Hoffman on gofman.krossw.ru
14. Works in Russian and German, music, drawings by Hoffman at etagofman.narod.ru
15. Sergey Kuriy - “Phantasmagoria of reality (fairy tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann)”, magazine “Time Z” No. 1/2007
16. Lukov Vl. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus // Electronic encyclopedia “The World of Shakespeare”.
17. Catalog of AV musical works by E. T. A. Hoffmann
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 was a judicial official. 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.” At the time when Hoffmann was creating, German romanticism flourished. 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 we read Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the 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 a harmony that you cannot find in ordinary life 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 the New Year, a traveling 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.
“I must tell you, gentle reader, that I... more than once
managed to capture and put into embossed form fairy-tale images...
This is where I get the courage to make it public in the future.
publicity, such pleasant communication with all kinds of fantastic people
figures and incomprehensible creatures and even invite the most
serious people to join their bizarrely motley society.
But I think you won’t take this courage for insolence and will consider
it is quite forgivable on my part to try to lure you out of a narrow
circle of everyday life and amuse in a very special way, leading into someone else's
you a region that is ultimately closely intertwined with that kingdom,
where the human spirit of its own free will dominates real life and being."
(E.T.A. Hoffman)
At least once a year, or rather at the end of the year, everyone remembers Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann in one way or another. It’s hard to imagine the New Year and Christmas holidays without a wide variety of productions of “The Nutcracker” - from classical ballet before the show on ice.
This fact is both pleasing and saddening, because Hoffmann’s significance is far from being limited to writing famous fairy tale about a puppet freak. His influence on Russian literature is truly enormous. " Queen of Spades"Pushkin, "Petersburg Tales" and "The Nose" by Gogol, "The Double" by Dostoevsky, "Diaboliad" and "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov - behind all these works the shadow of the great German writer invisibly hovers. The literary circle formed by M. Zoshchenko, L. Lunts, V. Kaverin and others was called “The Serapion Brothers,” like the collection of Hoffmann’s stories. Gleb Samoilov, the author of many ironic horror songs from the group AGATHA CHRISTIE, also confesses his love for Hoffmann.
Therefore, before moving directly to the cult “Nutcracker”, we will have to tell you a lot more interesting things...
The legal suffering of Kapellmeister Hoffmann
“He who cherished a heavenly dream is forever doomed to suffer earthly torment.”
(E.T.A. Hoffman “In the Jesuit Church in Germany”)
Hoffmann's hometown is today part of the Russian Federation. This is Kaliningrad, formerly Koenigsberg, where on January 24, 1776, a little boy with the triple name Ernst Theodor Wilhelm, characteristic of the Germans, was born. I’m not confusing anything - the third name was Wilhelm, but our hero was so fond of music from childhood that already in adulthood he changed it to Amadeus, in honor of you-know-who.
The main tragedy of Hoffmann's life is not new at all for a creative person. It was an eternal conflict between desire and possibility, the world of dreams and the vulgarity of reality, between what should be and what is. On Hoffmann's grave it is written: “He was equally good as a lawyer, as a writer, as a musician, as a painter”. Everything written is true. And yet, a few days after the funeral, his property goes under the hammer to pay off debts to creditors.
Hoffmann's grave.
Even posthumous fame did not come to Hoffmann as it should have. From early childhood until his death, our hero considered only music his true calling. She was everything to him - God, miracle, love, the most romantic of all arts...
THIS. Hoffman “The worldly views of the cat Murr”:
“-...There is only one angel of light capable of overpowering the demon of evil. This is a bright angel - the spirit of music, which often and victoriously rose from my soul; at the sounds of his powerful voice, all earthly sorrows are numb.
“I have always,” said the adviser, “I have always believed that music affects you too strongly, moreover, almost detrimentally, for during the performance of some wonderful creation it seemed that your whole being was permeated with music, even your features were distorted.” faces. You turned pale, you were unable to utter a word, you only sighed and shed tears and then attacked, armed with the bitterest mockery, deeply stinging irony, on everyone who wanted to say a word about the master’s creation ... "“Since I write music, I manage to forget all my worries, the whole world. Because the world that arises from a thousand sounds in my room, under my fingers, is incompatible with anything that is outside it.”
At the age of 12, Hoffmann was already playing the organ, violin, harp and guitar. He also became the author of the first romantic opera, Ondine. Even Hoffmann's first literary work, Chevalier Gluck, was about music and a musician. And this man, as if created for the world of art, had to work almost his entire life as a lawyer, and in the memory of posterity he will remain primarily as a writer, on whose works other composers “made a career.” In addition to Pyotr Ilyich with his “Nutcracker”, one can name R. Schumann (“Kreislerian”), R. Wagner (“The Flying Dutchman”), A. S. Adam (“Giselle”), J. Offenbach (“The Tales of Hoffmann”) , P. Handemita (“Cardillac”).
Rice. E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Hoffman openly hated his work as a lawyer, compared him to the rock of Prometheus, and called him a “state stall,” although this did not prevent him from being a responsible and conscientious official. He passed all advanced training exams with flying colors, and, apparently, no one had any complaints about his work. However, Hoffman’s career as a lawyer was not entirely successful, which was due to his impetuous and sarcastic character. Either he will fall in love with his students (Hoffman earned money as a music tutor), then he will draw caricatures of respected people, or he will generally portray the police chief Kampets in the extremely unsightly image of Councilor Knarrpanti in his story “The Lord of the Fleas.”
THIS. Hoffmann "Lord of the Fleas":
“In response to the indication that the criminal can only be identified if the fact of the crime is established, Knarrpanti expressed the opinion that it is important first of all to find the villain, and the crime committed will already be revealed by itself.
... Thinking, Knarrpanti believed, in itself, as such, is a dangerous operation, and the thinking of dangerous people is even more dangerous.”
Portrait of Hoffmann.
Hoffmann did not get away with such ridicule. A lawsuit was brought against him for insulting an official. Only his state of health (Hoffmann was already almost completely paralyzed by that time) did not allow the writer to be brought to trial. The story “Lord of the Fleas” was severely damaged by censorship and was published in full only in 1908...
Hoffmann's quarrelsomeness led to the fact that he was constantly transferred - now to Poznan, now to Plock, now to Warsaw... We should not forget that at that time a significant part of Poland belonged to Prussia. Hoffmann’s wife, by the way, also became a Polish woman - Mikhalina Tshcinskaya (the writer affectionately called her “Mishka”). Mikhalina turned out to be a wonderful wife who steadfastly endured all the hardships of life with a restless husband - she supported him in difficult times, provided comfort, forgave all his infidelities and binges, as well as his constant lack of money.
The writer A. Ginz-Godin recalled Hoffmann as “a little man who always wore the same worn, albeit well-cut, brown-chestnut tailcoat, who rarely parted with a short pipe, from which he blew out thick clouds of smoke, even on the street.” , who lived in a tiny room and had such sarcastic humor.”
But still, the biggest shock to the Hoffmann couple was brought by the outbreak of war with Napoleon, whom our hero subsequently began to perceive almost as a personal enemy (even the fairy tale about little Tsakhes seemed to many then to be a satire on Napoleon). When French troops entered Warsaw, Hoffmann immediately lost his job, his daughter died, and his sick wife had to be sent to her parents. For our hero, the time of hardship and wandering comes. He moves to Berlin and tries to make music, but to no avail. Hoffmann makes a living by drawing and selling caricatures of Napoleon. And most importantly, he is constantly helped with money by the second “guardian angel” - his friend at the University of Konigsberg, and now Baron Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel.
Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel.
Finally, Hoffmann's dreams seem to be starting to come true - he gets a job as a bandmaster in small theater town of Bamberg. Work in the provincial theater did not bring much money, but our hero is happy in his own way - he took up the desired art. In the theater, Hoffmann is “both the devil and the reaper” - composer, director, decorator, conductor, author of the libretto... During the theater troupe’s tour in Dresden, he finds himself in the midst of battles with the already retreating Napoleon, and even from afar he sees the most hated emperor. Walter Scott would later complain for a long time that Hoffmann supposedly had the privilege of being in the thick of the most important historical events, but instead of recording them, he scattered his strange fairy tales.
Hoffmann's theatrical life did not last long. After people who, according to him, understood nothing about art, began to manage the theater, it became impossible to work.
Friend Hippel came to the rescue again. With his direct participation, Hoffmann got a job as an adviser to the Berlin Court of Appeal. Funds for living appeared, but I had to forget about my career as a musician.
From the diary of E. T. A. Hoffmann, 1803:
“Oh, pain, I’m becoming more and more a state councilor! Who would have thought about this three years ago! The muse runs away, through the archival dust the future looks dark and gloomy... Where are my intentions, where are my wonderful plans for art?
Self-portrait of Hoffmann.
But here, completely unexpectedly for Hoffmann, he begins to gain fame as a writer.
It cannot be said that Hoffman became a writer completely by accident. Like any versatile personality, he wrote poetry and stories from his youth, but never perceived them as his main life purpose.
From a letter from E.T.A. Goffman T.G. Hippel, February 1804:
“Something great is going to happen soon—some work of art is going to come out of the chaos. Whether it be a book, an opera or a painting - quod diis placebit (“whatever the gods want”). Do you think I should once again ask the Great Chancellor (i.e. God - S.K.) if I was created as an artist or musician?..”
However, the first published works were not fairy tales, but critical articles about music. They were published in the Leipzig General Musical Newspaper, where the editor was Hoffmann's good friend, Johann Friedrich Rochlitz.
In 1809, the newspaper published Hoffmann's short story "Cavalier Gluck". And although he began to write it as a kind of critical essay, the result was a full-fledged literary work, where, among reflections on music, a mysterious double plot characteristic of Hoffmann appears. Gradually, Hoffman truly became fascinated by writing. In 1813-14, when the outskirts of Dresden were shaking from shells, our hero, instead of describing the history happening next to him, enthusiastically wrote the fairy tale “The Golden Pot”.
From Hoffmann's letter to Kunz, 1813:
“It is not surprising that in our gloomy, unfortunate time, when a person barely gets by from day to day and still has to rejoice in it, writing captivated me so much - it seems to me as if a wonderful kingdom had opened up before me, which is born from my inner world and, gaining flesh separates me from the external world.”
Hoffmann's amazing performance is especially striking. It's no secret that the writer was a passionate lover of “studying wines” in a variety of eateries. Having had enough to drink in the evening after work, Hoffman would come home and, suffering from insomnia, begin to write. They say that when terrible fantasies began to get out of control, he woke up his wife and continued to write in her presence. Perhaps this is precisely why unnecessary and whimsical plot twists are often found in Hoffmann's fairy tales.
The next morning, Hoffman was already sitting at his workplace and diligently engaged in hateful legal duties. An unhealthy lifestyle, apparently, brought the writer to the grave. He developed spinal cord disease and last days He spent his life completely paralyzed, contemplating the world only through an open window. The dying Hoffmann was only 46 years old.
THIS. Hoffmann "Corner Window":
“...I remind myself of the old crazy painter who spent whole days sitting in front of a primed canvas inserted into a frame and praising everyone who came to him the manifold beauties of the luxurious, magnificent painting he had just completed. I must give up that effective creative life, the source of which is in myself, which, embodied in new forms, becomes related to the whole world. My spirit must hide in its cell... 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. Come, brother, look out the window!”
The double bottom of Hoffmann's tales
“He was perhaps the first to depict doubles; the horror of this situation was before Edgar
By. He rejected Hoffmann’s influence on him, saying that he was not from German romance,
and from his own soul the horror that he sees is born... Maybe
Perhaps the difference between them is precisely that Edgar Poe is sober, and Hoffmann is drunk.
Hoffmann is multi-colored, kaleidoscopic, Edgar in two or three colors, in one frame.”
(Y. Olesha)
IN literary world Hoffmann is usually considered a romantic. I think that Hoffmann himself would not argue with such a classification, although among representatives of classical romanticism he looks in many ways like a black sheep. Early romantics like Tieck, Novalis, Wackenroder were too far away... not only from the people... but also from the surrounding life in general. They resolved the conflict between the lofty aspirations of the spirit and the vulgar prose of existence by isolating themselves from this existence, by escaping to such mountainous heights of their dreams and dreams that few modern readers, who would not frankly get bored over the pages of the “innermost mysteries of the soul.”
“Before, he was especially good at composing funny, lively stories, which Clara listened to with unfeigned pleasure; now his creations had become gloomy, incomprehensible, formless, and although Clara, sparing him, did not talk about it, he still easily guessed how little they pleased her. ...Nathanael's writings were indeed extremely boring. His annoyance at Clara's cold, prosaic disposition increased every day; Clara also could not overcome her displeasure with the dark, gloomy, boring mysticism of Nathanael, and thus, unnoticed by them, their hearts became more and more divided.”
Hoffman managed to stand on the thin line between romanticism and realism (later a number of classics would plow a real furrow along this line). Of course, he was no stranger to the high aspirations of the romantics, their thoughts about creative freedom, about the restlessness of the creator in this world. But Hoffmann did not want to sit either in the solitary confinement of his reflective self or in the gray cage of everyday life. He said: “Writers should not isolate themselves, but, on the contrary, live among people, observe life in all its manifestations”.
“And most importantly, I believe that, thanks to the need to perform, in addition to serving art, also civil service, I acquired a broader view of things and largely avoided the selfishness due to which professional artists, if I may say so, so inedible.”
In his fairy tales, Hoffmann pitted the most recognizable reality against the most incredible fantasy. As a result, the fairy tale became life, and life became a fairy tale. Hoffmann's world is a colorful carnival, where behind a mask there is a mask, where the apple seller may turn out to be a witch, the archivist Lindgorst may turn out to be a powerful Salamander, the ruler of Atlantis (“Golden Pot”), the canoness from the shelter of noble maidens may turn out to be a fairy (“Little Tsakhes…”), Peregrinus Tik is King Sekakis, and his friend Pepush is thistle Ceherit ("Lord of the Fleas"). Almost all characters have a double bottom; they exist, as it were, in two worlds at the same time. The author knew firsthand the possibility of such an existence...
Meeting of Peregrinus with the Master Flea. Rice. Natalia Shalina.
At Hoffmann's masquerade, it is sometimes impossible to understand where the game ends and life begins. A stranger you meet can come out in an old camisole and say: “I am Cavalier Gluck,” and let the reader rack his brain: who is this - a madman playing the role of a great composer, or the composer himself, who has appeared from the past. And Anselm’s vision of golden snakes in the elderberry bushes can easily be attributed to the “useful tobacco” he consumed (presumably opium, which was very common at that time).
No matter how bizarre Hoffmann's tales may seem, they are inextricably linked with the reality around us. Here is little Tsakhes - a vile and evil freak. But he evokes only admiration among those around him, for he has a wonderful gift, “by virtue of which everything wonderful that in his presence someone else thinks, says or does will be attributed to him, and he, too, is in the company of beautiful, sensible and smart people will be recognized as handsome, sensible and intelligent.” Is this really such a fairy tale? And is it really such a miracle that the thoughts of people that Peregrinus reads with the help magic glass, disagree with their words.
E.T.A.Hoffman “Lord of the Fleas”:
“We can only say one thing: many sayings with thoughts related to them have become stereotypical. So, for example, the phrase: “Do not refuse me your advice” corresponded to the thought: “He is stupid enough to think that I really need his advice in a matter that I have already decided, but this flatters him!”; “I completely rely on you!” - “I have long known that you are a scoundrel,” etc. Finally, it should also be noted that many, during his microscopic observations, plunged Peregrinus into considerable difficulty. These were, for example, young people who were filled with the greatest enthusiasm for everything and overflowed with an ebullient stream of the most magnificent eloquence. Among them, the most beautiful and wisest expressed themselves were the young poets, full of imagination and genius and adored mainly by the ladies. Along with them stood women writers who, as they say, ruled as if at home, in the very depths of existence, in all the subtlest philosophical problems and relationships social life... he was also amazed by what was revealed to him in the minds of these people. He also saw a strange interweaving of veins and nerves in them, but immediately noticed that even during their most eloquent rantings about art, science, and in general about the highest questions of life, these nerve threads not only did not penetrate into the depths of the brain, but, on the contrary, developed in the opposite direction, so that there could be no question of a clear recognition of their thoughts.”
As for the notorious insoluble conflict between spirit and matter, Hoffmann most often copes with it, like most people - with the help of irony. The writer said that “the greatest tragedy must appear through a special kind of joke.”
“- “Yes,” said Councilor Bentzon, “it is this humor, it is this foundling, born into the world of a depraved and capricious fantasy, this humor about which you, cruel men, do not know yourself, who you should pass him off for, - to be maybe for an influential and noble person, full of all sorts of merits; So, it is precisely this humor, which you willingly seek to palm off on us as something great and beautiful, at that very moment when everything that is dear and dear to us, you seek to destroy with caustic mockery!”
The German romantic Chamisso even called Hoffmann “our indisputable first humorist.” Irony was strangely inseparable from romantic features writer's creativity. I was always amazed how purely romantic pieces of text, written by Hoffmann clearly from the heart, he immediately subjected to ridicule a paragraph below - more often, however, benignly. His romantic heroes are often dreamy losers, like the student Anselm, or eccentrics, like Peregrinus, riding a wooden horse, or deep melancholics, suffering from love like Balthazar in all sorts of groves and bushes. Even a pot of gold fairy tale of the same name was first conceived as... a famous piece of toilette.
From a letter from E.T.A. Goffman T.G. Hippel:
“I decided to write a fairy tale about how a certain student falls in love with green snake, suffering under the yoke of a cruel archivist. And as a dowry, she receives a golden pot, and after urinating in it for the first time, she turns into a monkey.”THIS. Hoffmann "Lord of the Fleas":
"The old way, traditional custom The hero of the story, in case of strong emotional disturbance, must run into the forest or at least into a secluded grove. ...Further, not a single grove of a romantic story should be lacking in the rustling of leaves, nor in the sighs and whispers of the evening breeze, nor in the murmur of a stream, etc., and therefore, it goes without saying, Peregrinus found all this in his refuge ..."
“...It is quite natural that Mr. Peregrinus Tys, instead of going to bed, leaned out of the open window and, as befits lovers, began, looking at the moon, to indulge in thoughts about his beloved. But even if this damaged Mr. Peregrinus Tys in the opinion of a favorable reader, especially in the opinion of a favorable reader, justice requires that we say that Mr. Peregrinus, despite all his blissful state, yawned so well twice that some tipsy clerk, someone passing by, staggering under his window, shouted loudly to him: “Hey, you there, white cap! Be careful not to swallow me! This was sufficient reason for Mr. Peregrinus Tys to slam the window in frustration so hard that the glass rattled. They even claim that during this act he exclaimed quite loudly: “Rude!” But one cannot vouch for the authenticity of this, for such an exclamation seems to completely contradict both the quiet disposition of Peregrinus and the state of mind in which he was that night.”
THIS. Hoffmann "Little Tsakhes":
“...Only now did he feel how indescribably he loved the beautiful Candida and at the same time how bizarrely the purest, most intimate love accepted into external life a somewhat buffoonish appearance, which must be attributed to the deep irony inherent in all human actions by nature itself.”
If so positive characters Hoffman makes us smile, what can we say about the negative ones, on which the author simply splashes with sarcasm. What is the “Order of the Green-Spotted Tiger with Twenty Buttons” worth, or Mosch Terpin’s exclamation: “Children, do whatever you want! Get married, love each other, starve together, because I won’t give a penny as Candida’s dowry!”. And the chamber pot mentioned above was not in vain either - the author drowned the vile little Tsakhes in it.
THIS. Hoffmann “Little Tsakhes...”:
“My all-merciful lord! If I had to be content with only the visible surface of the phenomena, then I could say that the minister died of complete absence breathing, and this lack of breathing came from the inability to breathe, which impossibility, in turn, was produced by the elements, humor, the liquid into which the minister had fallen. I could say that the minister thus died a humorous death.”
Rice. S. Alimova to “Little Tsakhes”.
We should also not forget that in Hoffmann's time romantic devices were already commonplace, the images became emasculated, became banal and vulgar, they were adopted by philistines and mediocrities. They were most sarcastically ridiculed in the form of Murr the cat, who describes the prosaic everyday life of a cat in such narcissistic, sublime language that it is impossible not to laugh. By the way, the idea for the book itself arose when Hoffmann noticed that his cat liked to sleep in the desk drawer where the papers were kept. “Maybe this smart cat, while no one is looking, writes his own works?” - the writer smiled.
Illustration for “Everyday views of Murr the cat.” 1840
THIS. Hoffman “The Worldly Views of Moore the Cat”:
“Whether there is a cellar or a woodshed there - I strongly speak out in favor of the attic! - Climate, fatherland, morals, customs - how indelible is their influence; Yes, aren’t they the ones who have a decisive influence on the internal and external formation of a true cosmopolitan, a true citizen of the world! Where does this amazing feeling of the sublime come from, this irresistible desire for the sublime! Where does this admirable, amazing, rare dexterity in climbing come from, this enviable art that I demonstrate in the most risky, the most daring and the most ingenious jumps? - Ah! Sweet longing fills my chest! Longing for my father's attic, an inexplicably rooted feeling, rises powerfully within me! I dedicate these tears to you, oh my beautiful homeland - to you these heartbreaking, passionate meows! In your honor I make these jumps, these leaps and pirouettes, full of virtue and patriotic spirit!...”
But Hoffmann depicted the darkest consequences of romantic egoism in the fairy tale “The Sandman.” It was written in the same year as the famous “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. If the wife of the English poet portrayed an artificial male monster, then in Hoffmann his place is taken by the mechanical doll Olympia. Unsuspecting romantic hero falls in love with her without memory. Still would! - she is beautiful, well-built, flexible and silent. Olympia can spend hours listening to the outpouring of her admirer’s feelings (oh, yes! - that’s how she understands him, not like her former – living – beloved).
Rice. Mario Laboccetta.
THIS. Hoffmann "The Sandman":
“Poems, fantasies, visions, novels, stories multiplied day by day, and all this, mixed with all sorts of chaotic sonnets, stanzas and canzonas, he tirelessly read Olympia for hours on end. But he had never had such a diligent listener before. She didn’t knit or embroider, didn’t look out the window, didn’t feed the birds, didn’t play with the lap dog or her favorite cat, didn’t twirl a piece of paper or anything else in her hands, didn’t try to hide her yawning with a quiet feigned cough - in a word, whole for hours, without moving from her place, without moving, she looked into the eyes of her lover, not taking her motionless gaze off him, and this gaze became more and more fiery, more and more alive. Only when Nathanael finally got up from his seat and kissed her hand, and sometimes on the lips, did she sigh: “Ax-ax!” - and added: - Good night, my dear!
- O beautiful, indescribable soul! - exclaimed Nathanael, return to your room, - only you, only you alone deeply understand me!
The explanation of why Nathanael fell in love with Olympia (she stole his eyes) is also deeply symbolic. It is clear that he does not love the doll, but only his far-fetched idea of it, his dream. And prolonged narcissism and a closed stay in the world of one’s dreams and visions makes a person blind and deaf to the surrounding reality. The visions get out of control, lead to madness and ultimately destroy the hero. "Sandman" is one of rare fairy tales Hoffmann with a sad, hopeless end, and the image of Nathanael is probably the most stinging reproach to rabid romanticism.
Rice. A. Kostina.
Hoffmann does not hide his dislike for the other extreme - the attempt to enclose all the diversity of the world and freedom of spirit in rigid, monotonous schemes. The idea of life as a mechanical, rigidly determined system, where everything can be sorted into shelves, is deeply disgusting to the writer. The children in The Nutcracker immediately lose interest in the mechanical castle when they learn that the figures in it only move in a certain way and nothing else. Hence the unpleasant images of scientists (like Mosh Tepin or Leeuwenhoek) who think that they are masters of nature and invade the innermost fabric of existence with rough, insensitive hands.
Hoffmann also hates the philistine philistines who think that they are free, but they themselves sit, imprisoned in the narrow banks of their limited world and scanty complacency.
THIS. Hoffmann's "Golden Pot":
“You are delusional, Mr. Studiosus,” one of the students objected. - We have never felt better than now, because the spice talers that we receive from the crazy archivist for all sorts of meaningless copies are good for us; Now we no longer need to learn Italian choirs; Now we go to Joseph’s or other taverns every day, enjoy strong beer, look at the girls, sing, like real students, “Gaudeamus igitur...” - and are happy.
“But, dear gentlemen,” said the student Anselm, “don’t you notice that all of you together, and each one in particular, are sitting in glass jars and cannot move or move, much less walk?”
Here the students and scribes burst into loud laughter and shouted: “The student has gone crazy: he imagines that he is sitting in glass jar, but stands on the Elbe Bridge and looks into the water. Let's move on!"
Rice. Nicky Goltz.
Readers may note that there is a lot of occult and alchemical symbolism in Hoffmann's books. There is nothing strange here, because such esotericism was in fashion in those days, and its terminology was quite familiar. But Hoffmann did not profess any secret teachings. For him, all these symbols are filled not with philosophical, but artistic sense. And Atlantis in The Golden Pot is no more serious than Djinnistan from Little Tsakhes or the Gingerbread City from The Nutcracker.
The Nutcracker - book, theater and cartoon
“...the clock wheezed louder and louder, and Marie clearly heard:
- Tick and tock, tick and tock! Don't wheeze so loudly! The king hears everything
mousey. Trick and truck, boom boom! Well, the clock, the old tune! Trick and
truck, boom boom! Well, ring, ring, ring: the king’s time is approaching!”
(E.T.A. Hoffman “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”)
Hoffmann’s “calling card” for the general public will apparently remain “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” What is special about this fairy tale? Firstly, it is Christmas, secondly, it is very bright, and, thirdly, it is the most childish of all Hoffmann’s fairy tales.
Rice. Libico Maraja.
Children are also the main characters of The Nutcracker. It is believed that this fairy tale was born during the writer’s communication with the children of his friend Yu.E.G. Hitzig - Marie and Fritz. Like Drosselmeyer, Hoffmann made them a wide variety of toys for Christmas. I don’t know if he gave the Nutcracker to the children, but at that time such toys really existed.
Directly translated, the German word Nubknacker means “nut cracker.” In the first Russian translations of the fairy tale, it sounds even more ridiculous - “The Rodent of Nuts and the King of Mice” or even worse - “The History of Nutcrackers”, although it is clear that Hoffmann clearly describes no tongs at all. The Nutcracker was a popular mechanical doll of those times - a soldier with big mouth, curled beard and pigtail at the back. A nut was put into the mouth, the pigtail twitched, the jaws closed - crack! - and the nut is cracked. Dolls similar to the Nutcracker were made in Thuringia, Germany in the 17th–18th centuries, and then brought to Nuremberg for sale.
Mouse ones, or rather, are also found in nature. This is the name given to rodents that grow together with their tails after being in close quarters for a long time. Of course, in nature they are more likely to be cripples than kings...
In “The Nutcracker” it is not difficult to find many characteristic features of Hoffmann’s work. You can believe in the wonderful events that happen in a fairy tale, or you can easily attribute them to the fantasy of a girl who has been playing too much, which is what all the adult characters in a fairy tale do, in general.
“Marie ran to the Other Room, quickly took out the seven crowns of the Mouse King from her box and gave them to her mother with the words:
- Here, mommy, look: here are the seven crowns of the mouse king, which young Mr. Drosselmeyer presented to me last night as a sign of his victory!
...The senior court adviser, as soon as he saw them, laughed and exclaimed:
Stupid inventions, stupid inventions! But these are the crowns that I once wore on a watch chain, and then gave to Marichen on her birthday, when she was two years old! Have you forgotten?
...When Marie was convinced that her parents’ faces had again become affectionate, she jumped up to her godfather and exclaimed:
- Godfather, you know everything! Say that my Nutcracker is your nephew, young Mr. Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg, and that he gave me these tiny crowns.
The godfather frowned and muttered:
- Stupid inventions!
Only the godfather of the heroes - the one-eyed Drosselmeyer - is not an ordinary adult. He is a figure who is at once sympathetic, mysterious, and frightening. Drosselmeyer, like many of Hoffmann's heroes, has two guises. In our world, he is a senior court adviser, a serious and slightly grouchy toy maker. In a fairy-tale space - he is active actor, a kind of demiurge and conductor of this fantastic story.
They write that the prototype of Drosselmeyer was the uncle of the already mentioned Hippel, who worked as the burgomaster of Konigsberg, and in his free time wrote caustic feuilletons about the local nobility under a pseudonym. When the secret of the “double” was revealed, the uncle was naturally removed from the post of burgomaster.
Julius Eduard Hitzig.
Those who know The Nutcracker only from cartoons and theatrical productions will probably be surprised if I say that in the original version it is a very funny and ironic fairy tale. Only a child can perceive the Nutcracker's battle with the mouse army as a dramatic action. In fact, it is more reminiscent of a puppet buffoonery, where they shoot jelly beans and gingerbread at mice, and they respond by showering the enemy with “smelly cannonballs” of quite unambiguous origin.
THIS. Hoffmann "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King":
“- Am I really going to die in my prime, am I really going to die, such a beautiful doll! - Clerchen screamed.
- It’s not for the same reason that I was so well preserved to die here, within four walls! - Trudchen lamented.
Then they fell into each other’s arms and burst into tears so loudly that even the furious roar of the battle could not drown them out...
...In the heat of battle, detachments of mouse cavalry quietly emerged from under the chest of drawers and, with a disgusting squeak, furiously attacked the left flank of the Nutcracker army; but what resistance they met! Slowly, as far as the uneven terrain allowed, for it was necessary to get over the edge of the closet, the corps of dolls with surprises, led by two Chinese emperors, stepped out and formed a square. These brave, very colorful and elegant, magnificent regiments, composed of gardeners, Tyroleans, Tungus, hairdressers, harlequins, cupids, lions, tigers, monkeys and monkeys, fought with composure, courage and endurance. With courage worthy of the Spartans, this selected battalion would have snatched victory from the hands of the enemy, if a certain brave enemy captain had not broken through with insane courage to one of the Chinese emperors and bit off his head, and when he fell, he had not crushed two Tungus and a monkey.”
And the very reason for the enmity with mice is more comical than tragic. In fact, it arose because of... lard, which the mustachioed army ate while the queen (yes, the queen) was preparing liver kobas.
E.T.A.Hoffman “The Nutcracker”:
“Already when the liverwurst was served, the guests noticed how the king turned more and more pale, how he raised his eyes to the sky. Quiet sighs flowed from his chest; it seemed that his soul was overcome by intense grief. But when the black pudding was served, he leaned back in his chair with loud sobs and groans, covering his face with both hands. ...He babbled barely audibly: “Too little fat!”
Rice. L. Gladneva for the film strip “The Nutcracker” 1969.
The angry king declares war on the mice and sets mousetraps on them. Then the mouse queen turns his daughter, Princess Pirlipat, into a freak. Drosselmeyer's young nephew comes to the rescue, he dashingly cracks the magic Krakatuk nut and returns the princess to her beauty. But he cannot complete the magical ritual and, retreating the prescribed seven steps, accidentally steps on the mouse queen and stumbles. As a result, Drosselmeyer Jr. turns into an ugly Nutcracker, the princess loses all interest in him, and the dying Myshilda declares a real vendetta on the Nutcracker. Her seven-headed heir must avenge his mother. If you look at all this with a cold, serious look, you can see that the actions of the mice are completely justified, and the Nutcracker is simply an unfortunate victim of circumstances.
Hoffmann's fairy tales can easily be funny and scary, bright and frightening, but the fantastic in them always arises unexpectedly, from the simplest things. That was it main secret, which Ernst Hoffmann was the first to guess about.
You will discover a vibrant world while reading Hoffmann's tales. How charming these tales are! How strikingly different are Hoffmann’s tales from most that we have read so far!
The fantastic world under Hoffmann's pen arises from simple things and events. That is why the entire list of Hoffmann’s fairy tales reveals to us a completely different, even more interesting world- the world of human feelings and dreams. At first glance, it seems that the action in fairy tales takes place, as it happens in a fairy tale, “in a certain state,” but in fact, everything that Hoffman writes about can be traced back to that troubled time, of which the writer was a contemporary. On our website you can read Hoffmann's tales online without any restrictions
VIGILIA FIRST The misadventures of the student Anselm... - Healthy tobacco from Conrector Paulman and golden-green snakes. On the day of the Ascension, around three in the afternoon, a young man was rapidly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden and just fell into a basket of apples and pies that was being sold by an old, ugly woman - and he fell so successfully that...
Publisher's Preface The Wandering Enthusiast 1 - and from his diary we borrow another fantastic play in the manner of Callot - apparently, so little separates his inner world and the outer world 2 that the very border between them is barely distinguishable. However, precisely due to the fact that you, gentle reader, cannot clearly see this...
Hoffmann's fairy tales can easily be funny and scary, bright and frightening, but the fantastic in them always arises unexpectedly, from the simplest things. This was the main secret, which Ernst Hoffmann was the first to guess.
You will discover a vibrant world while reading Hoffmann's tales. How charming these tales are! How strikingly different are Hoffmann’s tales from most that we have read so far!
The fantastic world under Hoffmann's pen arises from simple things and events. That is why the entire list of Hoffmann's fairy tales opens up to us a completely different, even more interesting world - the world of human feelings and dreams. At first glance, it seems that the action in fairy tales takes place, as it happens in a fairy tale, “in a certain state,” but in fact, everything that Hoffman writes about can be traced back to that troubled time, of which the writer was a contemporary. On our website you can read Hoffmann's tales online without any restrictions
VIGILIA FIRST The misadventures of the student Anselm... - Healthy tobacco from Conrector Paulman and golden-green snakes. On the day of the Ascension, around three in the afternoon, a young man was rapidly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden and just fell into a basket of apples and pies that was being sold by an old, ugly woman - and he fell so successfully that...
Publisher's Preface The Wandering Enthusiast 1 - and from his diary we borrow another fantastic play in the manner of Callot - apparently, so little separates his inner world and the outer world 2 that the very border between them is barely distinguishable. However, precisely due to the fact that you, gentle reader, cannot clearly see this...