E.T.A. Hoffmann Biography
German Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Composer, Music Critic, Jurist
May 14, 2009
E.T.A. Hoffmann was one of Germany's most important authors belonging to the romantic literary movement. He wrote fantasy and horror and was best-known for Nighttime Tales.
Jacques Offenbach's brilliant fictional opera The Tales of Hoffmann, made him very famous. In it, he was portrayed as a dreamy character.
Biography of E.T.A. Hoffmann in a Nutshell
E.T.A. Hoffmann was born Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, on January 24, 1776, in Königsberg, East Prussia. He came from a family of jurists, with his father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffman, being a barrister. However, his father was also a poet and an amateur musician who played the viola da gamba, a period music instrument. He was youngest of three children.
Hoffmann was a man of many talents. Aside from being a writer, he was a composer, music critic, musical director, judge and a civil servant.
Hoffmann's First Love - Music
All his life, Hoffman's passion was music. Interestingly, the "A" in "E.T.A." stands for "Amadeus" which gave him the same middle name as the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Few writers have written well on music, but true to his love for music, Hoffmann applied the instincts of a composer in his writings.
He wrote nine operas including the opera The Water Sprite, considered as one of the first German Romantic opera. He also composed chamber and piano music, several works for chorus and orchestra, and one symphony. Most of his music is now forgotten.
Hoffmann the Writer
Hoffmann recognized that he would never be a great composer, so he turned to writing. As his taste dictated, he wrote sinister Gothic horrors and wild fantasy. His stories were full of ghosts, vampires and drug-induced visions.
In The Golden Pot, he takes his readers into a dreamscape where eligible snakes haunt an apple-thief. However, most of his tales also reveal his serious and thoughtful nature.
Typical of his style are the short stories collected in his famous Nighttime Tales, published when he was 41. His work was highly popular in his time.
Hoffmann's Legacy
His greatest legacy can be recognized through his major influence on later prominent writers. To name a few, they include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Charles Baudelaire.
Hoffmann also greatly influenced famous composers who used his tales in their ballets and operas. For example, Leo Delibes' Coppelia and Piotr Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite are derived from Hoffmann's writings.
E.T.A. Hoffman died on June 25, 1822, at the age of 46.
Works by E.T.A. Hoffmann
- The Golden Pot, 1814
- On Beethoven's Instrumental Music, 1813
- Fantasies, 1814-1815
- The Devil's Elixir, 1815-1816
- Nighttime Tales, 1817
- Strange Sufferings of a Theatre Director, 1818
- Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, 1819-1821
- Little Sachs, called Cinnaber, 1819
- The Serapion Brothers, 1819-1821
Sources:
- Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
- McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers / Harrap Publishers, 2002.
- Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
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