Collected Works of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Illustrated

Book excerpt: Hoffmann's stories highly influenced 19th-century literature, and he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement. Hoffmann is one of the best-known representatives of German Romanticism, and a pioneer of the fantasy genre, with a taste for the macabre combined with realism that influenced such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Charles Dickens, Charles Baudelaire, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka and Alfred Hitchcock. Hoffmann's work makes a considerable contribution to our understanding of the emergence of scientific knowledge in the early years of the nineteenth century and to the conflict between science and magic, centred mainly on the 'truths' available to the advocates of either practice. The Novels: 1. The Devil’s Elixirs 2. Little Zaches 3. Master Flea The Tales: 4. The Serapion Brethren 5. Weird Tales 6. Miscellaneous Tales