E.T.A.
HOFFMANN
(1776-1822)
E.T.A. Hoffmann is most
famous as the author of the ‘Nutcracker’, and there is
a large number of people who have heard the name, or the ballet, but do not
know who wrote the tale. Casting
the dancing sugar-plum fairies to one side, Hoffmann’s finest short stories are
‘Der Goldne Topf’ (‘The Golden Pot’, which was translated by Thomas Carlyle, as
only Thomas Carlyle could) and ‘Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober’, which is here
presented. He was a man of many
talents and a great storyteller; unfortunately, versatility often provokes
claims of dilentanttism, and literary critics do not always appreciate those
who can give the reader a story well told.
For a long time, neither
‘Klein Zaches’ is a
humorous tale. The author employs
irony to poke fun at Enlightenment, German Romanticism (through the ‘character’
of the soppy hero, Balthasar), and, through Little Zaches, at himself. The theme of wasted reward and misdirected
reproach, which rises from the spell cast on Zaches by the Fairy Rosabelverde,
may perhaps draw forth slightly darker thoughts from the reader’s mind.
Klein Zaches genannt
Zinnober / Little Zaches, Great Zinnober