The

CLASSIC HORROR BLOG

Critical Essays on Horror, Ghost Stories, & Weird Fiction

— from Mary Shelley to M. R. James —

by M. Grant Kellermeyer

E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Entail: A Two-Minute Summary and Literary Analysis

One of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s most ambitious efforts at Gothic fiction is also one of his most complex (which is saying something for...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Lost Reflection: A New Year's Eve Adventure - A Two-Min. Summary & Analysis

In 1810 Hoffmann began teaching music to Julia Mark, the teenaged cousin of one of his close friends. Hoffmann met her when she was...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Stranger Child: A Two-Minute Summary and Literary Analysis

One of Hoffmann’s most common motifs – the hallmark of his fiction – is the theme of parallelism. His fantasies are unlike typical fairy...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's Councillor Krespel: A Two-Minute Summary and Literary Analysis

Music has almost always been seen as a sublime expression of the unconscious: singers, players, and composers allow humanity to express...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Sandman: A Two-Minute Summary and Analysis of the Classic Horror Story

None of Hoffmann’s tales compares in literary merit, psychological scope, or popular influence like “The Sandman.” While “Nutcracker and...

10 Best Creepy Stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann (Other than The Nutcracker and The Sandman)

He was the godfather of modern horror, weird fiction, and fantasy, an inestimable influence on Poe, Dickens, and Hawthorne, de...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's Freakishly Surreal, Reality-Bending Horror Stories

“I felt as a child feels when some fairy tale has been told it to conceal the truth it suspects.” – E. T. A. Hoffmann He was the...

E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker: A Summary and Literary Analysis of the Dark Fairy Tale

Most famous and proliferate of all Hoffmann’s tales, “Nutcracker and the Mouse-King” was not very well received by its contemporaries....