Writer Hoffmann biography. Ernst Hoffmann: biography, creativity, interesting facts

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born in 1776. The place of his birth is Konigsberg. At first, Wilhelm was present in his name, but he himself changed the name, since he loved Mozart very much. His parents divorced when he was only 3 years old and was raised by his grandmother - his mother's mother. His uncle was a lawyer and a very intelligent person. Their relationship was rather complicated, but the uncle had an influence on his nephew, on the development of his various talents.

early years

When Hoffmann grew up, he too decided to become a lawyer. He enters the university in Königsberg, after training he served in different cities, his profession is a judicial officer. But such a life was not for him, so he began to draw and play music, which he tried to earn a living.

He soon 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 in the city they began to gossip, and the relatives decided that it was necessary to send Hoffmann to Glogau to another uncle.

The beginning of the creative path

In the late 1790s, Hoffmann became a composer; he took on the pseudonym Johann Kreisler. There are several works that are quite famous, for example, an opera written by him in 1812 called "Aurora". Hoffmann also worked in the Bamberg theater and served as conductor and conductor.

So it was fate that Hoffmann returned to civil service. When he passed the exam in 1800, he became an assessor at the Poznan 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" and was published by the Leipzig newspaper. When he returned to jurisprudence in 1814, he simultaneously wrote fairy tales, including The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. German romanticism flourished at the time of Hoffmann's creation. If you carefully read the works, you can see the main tendencies of the school of romanticism. For example, irony, the ideal artist, the value of art. The writer demonstrated the conflict that took place between reality and utopia. He constantly sneers at his heroes, who are trying to find some kind of freedom in art.

Researchers of Hoffmann's work are unanimous in their opinion that it is impossible to separate his biography, his work from music. Especially if you watch the novels, for example, "Kreislerian".

The thing is that the main character in it is Johannes Kreisler (as we remember, this is the author's pseudonym). The work consists of essays, their themes are different, but the hero is one. 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 this case it 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 kids were called Marie and Fritz, and Hoffmann gave their names to his characters. If you read Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", the analysis of the work will show us the moral principles that the author tried to convey to the children.

The short story is this: Marie and Fritz are getting ready 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.

Children come to the tree and see that there is a whole bunch of gifts, the girl finds the Nutcracker. This toy is used to chew nuts. Once Marie played 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 join the battle with the mice.

Brief analysis

If we analyze the work of Hoffmann "The Nutcracker", then it is noticeable that the writer tried to show how important kindness, courage, mercy are, that one should not leave anyone in trouble, one must help, show courage. Marie was able to see its light in the unsightly Nutcracker. She liked his good nature, and she did her best to protect her pet from the nasty brother Fritz, who always offended the toy.

In spite of everything, she tries to help the Nutcracker, gives sweets to the impudent Mouse King, so that he does not harm the soldier. Courage and courage are demonstrated here. Marie and her brother, toys and the Nutcracker team up to achieve the goal - to defeat 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 tells about the life of people, how they rode a boat, went to visit each other, held festivities and much more.

The events of the fairy tale unfold in two worlds, this is the real Dresden, as well as Atlantis. If you analyze the work of "The Golden Pot" by Hoffmann, you can see that the author describes a harmony that you will not find in ordinary life during the day with fire. The protagonist is the student Anselm.

The writer tried to tell beautifully 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 accidentally caused the destruction of the garden of Prince Phosphorus. Then the prince drove this spirit into the world of people and told what the future of the Salamander will be: people will forget about miracles, he will meet his beloved again, they will have three daughters. The salamander will be able to return home when his daughters find lovers for themselves, ready to believe that a miracle is possible. In the work, the Salamanders can also see the future and predict it.

Hoffmann's works

I must say that although the author had very interesting musical works, he is nevertheless known as a storyteller. Hoffmann's works for children are quite popular, some of them can be read to a small child, some to a teenager. For example, if you take the fairy tale about the Nutcracker, then it is suitable for both.

"The Golden Pot" is a rather interesting fairy tale, but filled with allegories and double meaning, which demonstrates the foundations of morality that are relevant in our difficult times, for example, the ability to make friends and help, protect, show courage.

Suffice it to recall the "Royal Bride" - a work that was based on real events. This is an estate where one scientist lives with his daughter.

Vegetables are ruled by the underground king, he and his entourage come to Anna's vegetable garden and occupy it. They dream that one day only humans and vegetables will live on the whole Earth. It all started when Anna found an extraordinary ring ...

Tsakhes

In addition to the above-described fairy tales, there are other works of this kind by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober". Once upon a time there was 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 like that, then everyone thinks that he did it. And if the dwarf does something nasty, then everyone thinks on others. Possessing such a gift, the baby becomes a genius among the people, he is soon appointed minister.

"Adventure on New Year's Eve"

One night just before New Year's, a wandering comrade got to Berlin, where a completely magical story happened to him. He meets Julia, his beloved, in Berlin.

Such a girl actually existed. Hoffmann taught her music and was in love, but the family engaged Julia to another.

"The story of the missing reflection"

An interesting fact is that, in general, in the works of the author every now and then somewhere the mystical is peeped through, and there is no need to talk about the unusual. Skillfully mixing humor and moral principles, feelings and emotions, the real and the unreal world, Hoffman achieves the full attention of his reader.

This fact can be traced in the interesting work "The Story of the Lost Reflection". Erasmus the Speaker really wanted to visit Italy, which he could achieve, but there he met a beautiful girl Juliet. He committed a bad deed, 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

I must say that the famous works of Hoffmann are of different genres and for different ages. For example, the mystical "Ghost Story".

Hoffmann very much gravitates towards mysticism, which can be traced in stories about vampires, about the fatal nun, about the sandman, as well as in a series of books called "Night Studies".

There is an interesting funny tale about the lord of the fleas, where we are talking about the son of a wealthy merchant. He doesn't like what his father is doing, and he is not going to follow 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. The Privy Counselor wants to find the culprit, but he is not interested in the culprit or not. He knows for sure - every person can find some kind of sin.

Most of the works of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann contain many symbols, 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 falling in love, with events that happen to Mary, that it will be quite interesting for children and adolescents, and even adults re-read it with pleasure.

Cartoons are shot based on this work, performances, ballet, etc. are repeatedly staged.

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 perceive. Some people come to these works quite deliberately in order to enjoy the extraordinary style of Hoffmann, his bizarre mixture.

Hoffmann is attracted by the topic when a person suffers from insanity, commits some kind of crime, he has a "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 Sand Man", Hoffmann studied scientific works on diseases and clinical components. The novella attracted the attention of researchers, among them was Sigmund Freud, who even devoted his essay to this work.

Everyone decides for himself at what age he should read Hoffmann's books. Some don't quite understand his overly surreal language. However, as soon as you start reading the work, you are involuntarily drawn into this mixed mystical and crazy world, where a gnome lives in a real city, where spirits walk the streets, and adorable snakes are looking for their beautiful princes.

Question number 10. Creativity of E. T. A. Hoffman.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776, Königsberg -1822, Berlin) - German writer, composer, romantic artist. Originally Ernst Theodor Wilhelm, but as a fan of Mozart, changed his name. Hoffmann was born into the family of a Prussian royal lawyer, but when the boy was three years old, his parents separated, and he was brought up in the house of his grandmother under the influence of his uncle, a lawyer, an intelligent and talented man, inclined to fantasy and mysticism. Hoffmann early demonstrated an aptitude for music and drawing. But, not without the influence of his uncle, Hoffmann chose the path of jurisprudence, from which he tried to break out of his entire subsequent life and earn his arts. Disgusted with bourgeois "tea" societies, Hoffmann spent most of the evenings, and sometimes part of the night, in the wine cellar. Having upset his nerves with wine and insomnia, Hoffmann would come home and sit down to write; the horrors of his imagination sometimes terrified him.

Hoffmann spends his worldview in a long series of fantastic stories and fairy tales, incomparable in their own way. In them, he skillfully mixes the miraculous of all ages and peoples with personal fiction.

Hoffmann and Romanticism. As an artist and thinker, Hoffmann is intimately connected with the Jena romantics, with their understanding of art as the only possible source of the transformation of the world. Hoffmann develops many of the ideas of F. Schlegel and Novalis, for example, the doctrine of the universality of art, the concept of romantic irony and the synthesis of arts. Hoffmann's work in the development of German romanticism represents a stage of a more acute and tragic understanding of reality, rejection of a number of illusions of Jena romantics, and a revision of the relationship between ideal and reality. Hoffmann's hero tries to break out of the shackles of the world around him through irony, but realizing the impotence of romantic confrontation with real life, the writer himself laughs at his hero. Hoffmann's romantic irony changes its direction; it, unlike the Jena, never creates the illusion of absolute freedom. Hoffmann focuses close attention on the personality of the artist, believing that he is the most free from selfish motives and petty worries.

Two periods are distinguished in the writer's work: 1809-1814, 1814-1822. In both the early and late periods, Hoffmann was attracted by approximately similar problems: the depersonalization of a person, the combination of dreams and reality in a person's life. Hoffmann reflects on this question in his early works, such as the fairy tale "The Golden Pot". In the second period, social and ethical problems are added to these problems, for example, in the fairy tale "Little Tsakhes". Here Hoffmann addresses the problem of the unfair distribution of material and spiritual wealth. In 1819, the novel The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat was published. Here the image of the musician Johannes Kreisler arises, who went with Hoffmann through all his work. The second main character is the image of Murr the cat - a philosopher - an ordinary person who parodies the type of romantic artist and man in general. Hoffmann used a surprisingly simple, at the same time based on a romantic perception of the world, method, combining, completely mechanically, the autobiographical notes of the learned cat and excerpts from the biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler. The world of the cat, as it were, reveals from the inside the introduction of the artist's rushing soul into it. The story of the cat flows measuredly and consistently, and excerpts from Kreisler's biography record only the most dramatic episodes of his life. The opposition of the worldviews of Murr and Kreisler is necessary for the writer in order to formulate the need for a person to choose between material well-being and the spiritual vocation of each person. Hoffman claims in the novel that only "musicians" are given to penetrate into the essence of things and phenomena. The second problem is clearly indicated here: what is the basis of the evil that reigns in the world, who is ultimately responsible for the disharmony that tears apart human society from the inside?

"The Golden Pot" (a tale of new times). The problem of duality and duality manifested itself in the opposition of the real and the fantastic and in accordance with the division of the characters into two groups. The idea of ​​the novel is the embodiment of the kingdom of fantasy in the world of art.

"Little Tsakhes" is a double world. The idea is a protest against the unfair distribution of spiritual and material wealth. In society, insignificance is endowed with power, and their insignificance turns into glitter.

A prominent prose writer, Hoffmann opened a new page in the history of German romantic literature. His role is also great in the field of music as the pioneer of the genre of romantic opera and especially as a thinker who for the first time expounded the musical and aesthetic principles of romanticism. As a publicist and critic, Hoffmann created a new artistic form of musical criticism, which was later developed by many major romantics (Weber, Berlioz and others). The pseudonym as a composer is Johann Chrysler.

The life of Hoffmann, his career, is the tragic story of an outstanding, versatile gifted artist who was not understood by his contemporaries.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) was born in Königsberg, the son of a QC. After the death of his father, Hoffmann, who was then only 4 years old, was brought up in his uncle's family. Already in childhood, Hoffmann's love for music and painting was manifested.
THIS. Hoffmann - a lawyer who dreamed of music and became famous as a writer

During his time at the gymnasium, he made significant progress in playing the piano and drawing. In 1792-1796, Hoffmann completed a course of science at the law faculty of the University of Königsberg. At the age of 18, he began giving music lessons. Hoffmann dreamed of musical creativity.

"Ah, if I could act according to the inclinations of my nature, I would certainly become a composer," he wrote to one of his friends.

After graduating from university, Hoffmann holds minor judicial positions in the small town of Glogau. Wherever Hoffmann lived, he continued to study music and painting.

The most important event in Hoffmann's life was his visits to Berlin and Dresden in 1798. The artistic treasures of the Dresden Picture Gallery, as well as the various impressions of the concert and theatrical life of Berlin, made a huge impression on him.
Hoffmann, riding the cat Murre, battles the Prussian bureaucracy

In 1802, for one of his evil cartoons of the higher authorities, Hoffmann was removed from his post in Poznan and sent to Plock (a remote Prussian province), where he was essentially in exile. In Plock, dreaming of a trip to Italy, Hoffman studied Italian, studied music, painting, and caricature.

The appearance of his first major musical works dates back to this time (1800-1804). Two piano sonatas (in f minor and F major), a quintet in c minor for two violins, viola, cello and harp, a four-part mass in d minor (accompanied by an orchestra) and other works were written in Plock. In Plock, the first critical article on the use of the chorus in contemporary drama was written (in connection with Schiller's "Messina Bride", published in 1803 in a Berlin newspaper).

The beginning of a creative career

The provincial atmosphere of Plock oppressed Hoffmann. He complained to friends and tried to get out of the "vile place." In early 1804, Hoffmann was assigned to Warsaw.

In a large cultural center of that time, Hoffmann's creative activity took on a more intense character. Music, painting, literature take possession of him more and more. The first musical and dramatic works of Hoffmann were written in Warsaw. These are the singspiel to the text by K. Brentano "Merry Musicians", music to the drama by E. Werner "The Cross on the Baltic Sea", the one-act singspiel "Uninvited Guests, or the Canon of Milan", the opera in three acts "Love and Jealousy" on the plot of P. Calderon , as well as a symphony Es-dur for large orchestra, two piano sonatas and many other works.

Heading the Warsaw Philharmonic Society, Hoffmann conducted symphony concerts in 1804-1806 and lectured on music. At the same time, he painted the Society's premises.

In Warsaw, Hoffmann got acquainted with the works of German romantics, major writers and poets: Aug. Schlegel, Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), V.G. Wackenroder, L. Tieck, K. Brentano, who had a great influence on his aesthetic views.

Hoffmann and theater

Hoffmann's intensive activities were interrupted in 1806 by the invasion of Warsaw by Napoleon's troops, who destroyed the Prussian army and dissolved all Prussian institutions. Hoffmann was left without a livelihood. In the summer of 1807, with the help of friends, he moved to Berlin, and then to Bamberg, where he lived until 1813. In Berlin, Hoffmann found no use for his versatile abilities. According to an advertisement in the newspaper, he learned about the place of conductor in the city theater in Bamberg, where he moved at the end of 1808. But without working there for a year, Hoffmann left the theater, not wanting to put up with routine and please the backward tastes of the public. As a composer, Hoffmann took on a pseudonym - Johann Chrysler

In search of a job in 1809, he turned to the famous music critic IF Rokhlitz, editor of the Universal Musical Gazette in Leipzig, with a proposal to write a number of reviews and short stories on musical themes. Rokhlitz offered Hoffmann as a theme the story of a brilliant musician who reached complete poverty. This is how the brilliant Kreisleriana - a series of essays about the conductor Johannes Kreisler, the musical short stories Kavalier Gluck, Don Juan and the first musical critical articles - emerged.

In 1810, when an old friend of the composer Franz Holbein became the head of the Bamberg theater, Hoffmann returned to the theater, but now as a composer, decorator and even an architect. Under the influence of Hoffmann, the theater's repertoire included works by Calderon in translations of Aug. Schlegel (shortly before this first published in Germany).

Musical creativity of Hoffmann

In the years 1808-1813, many pieces of music were created:

• romantic opera in four acts "Drink of Immortality"
• music to the drama "Julius Sabin" by Soden
• operas "Aurora", "Dirna"
• one-act ballet "Harlequin"
• piano trio E-dur
• string quartet, motets
• four-part choirs a cappella
• Miserere with orchestra
• many works for voice and orchestra
• vocal ensembles (duets, quartet for soprano, two tenors and bass, and others)
• in Bamberg, Hoffmann began work on his best work - the opera "Ondine"

When F. Holbein left the theater in 1812, Hoffmann's position worsened, and he was forced to look for a position again. Lack of livelihood forced Hoffmann to return to legal service. In the fall of 1814, he moved to Berlin, where from that time he held various positions in the Ministry of Justice. However, the soul of Hoffmann still belonged to literature, music, painting ... He moves in literary circles in Berlin, meets L. Tieck, K. Brentano, A. Chamisso, F. Fouquet, G. Heine.
The best work of Hoffmann was and remains the opera "Ondine"

At the same time, the popularity of Hoffmann as a musician is growing. In 1815, his music for Fouquet's solemn prologue was performed at the Royal Theater in Berlin. A year later, in August 1816, the premiere of "Ondine" took place in the same theater. The production of the opera was remarkable for its extraordinary splendor and was greeted by the audience and musicians very warmly.

"Ondine" was the last major piece of music by the composer and at the same time a piece that opened a new era in the history of the romantic opera house in Europe. The further creative path of Hoffmann is mainly associated with literary activity, with his most significant works:

• "Elixir of the Devil" (novel)
• "The Golden Pot" (fairy tale)
• "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (fairy tale)
• "Someone else's child" (fairy tale)
• "Princess Brambilla" (fairy tale)
• "Little Tsakhes nicknamed Zinnober" (fairy tale)
• "Major" (story)
• four volumes of stories "The Serapion brothers" and others ...

Hoffmann's literary work culminated in the creation of the novel The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat, coupled with fragments of the biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, which accidentally survived in the scrapbooks (1819-1821).

Hoffmann, Ernst Theodore Amadeus(Hoffman, Ernst Theodor Amadeus) (1776–1822), German writer, composer and artist, whose fantasy stories and novels embody the spirit of German romanticism. Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was born on January 24, 1776 in Königsberg (East Prussia). Already at an early age, he discovered the talents of a musician and draftsman. He studied law at the University of Königsberg, then for twelve years served as a judicial officer in Germany and Poland. In 1808, his love of music prompted Hoffmann to take the post of theater conductor in Bamberg, six years later he conducted the orchestra in Dresden and Leipzig. In 1816 he returned to public service as an adviser to the Berlin Court of Appeal, where he served until his death, which followed on July 24, 1822.

Hoffmann took up literature late. The most significant collections of stories Fantasies in the manner of Callot (Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier, 1814–1815), Night stories in the manner of Callot (Nachtstücke in Callots Manier, 2 vol., 1816-1817) and Serapion brothers (Die serapionsbrüder, 4 vol., 1819-1821); dialogue about the problems of theatrical affairs The extraordinary suffering of one theater director (Seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirektors, 1818); story in the spirit of a fairy tale Little Tsakhes nicknamed Zinnober (Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober, 1819); and two novels - Elixir of the devil (Die elexiere des teufels, 1816), a brilliant study of the problem of duality, and The worldly views of Murr the cat (Lebensansichten des Kater Murr, 1819-1821), a partly autobiographical work, full of wit and wisdom. Among the most famous stories of Hoffmann, included in the above collections, belong a fairy tale Golden pot (Die goldene topf), a gothic tale Major (Das mayorat), a realistic psychological story about a jeweler who is unable to part with his creations, Mademoiselle de Scudery (Das Fräulein von Scudéry) and a cycle of musical short stories, in which the spirit of some musical compositions and the images of composers are extremely successfully recreated.

Brilliant fantasy combined with a strict and transparent style gave Hoffmann a special place in German literature. The action of his works almost never took place in distant lands - as a rule, he placed his incredible characters in everyday situations. Hoffmann had a strong influence on E. Poe and some French writers; several of his stories served as the basis for the libretto of the famous opera - Hoffmann's fairy tale(1870) J. Offenbach.

All of Hoffmann's works testify to his talents as a musician and artist. He illustrated many of his creations himself. Of the musical compositions of Hoffmann, the most famous was the opera Undine (Undine), first staged in 1816; among his works - chamber music, mass, symphony. As a music critic, he showed in his articles such an understanding of Beethoven's music that few of his contemporaries could boast of. Hoffmann revered so deeply

German romanticism does not know a name brighter and, in fact, for many readers around the world, personifying this literary trend than Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822). Hoffmann was born in Königsberg. There he received his law degree and took his first steps in the civil service. Hoffmann very early discovered in himself a passion for music, literature and painting, but the circumstances were such that he could not fully devote himself to creativity and until the end of his life he conscientiously and diligently served as a legal official in the Prussian administration.

Hoffmann made his first breakthrough to creative pursuits while living in 1804-1806. in Warsaw, which at that time was part of Prussia. He played an active role in the Warsaw Musical Society, conducted, composed music based on well-known literary subjects, and drew with enthusiasm. After Napoleon's troops entered Warsaw in 1806, Hoffmann lost his position as an official and until the fall of 1814 was forced to move from one city to another, trying to find a reliable income and his place in life. From late 1808 to early 1813, Hoffmann lived in Bamberg. It was during these years of active immersion in theatrical, musical and pictorial activity (he served as a bandmaster and then as a decorator at a local theater, gave music lessons, painted frescoes on a Gothic tower) that his views on art took shape, and the first literary plans were realized. Since 1809, Hoffmann, as the author of reviews and short stories on musical themes, was published in the Leipzig "Universal Musical Gazette". In a cycle dedicated to the Musical Suffering of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler (as the first essay is called), Hoffmann outlined important points of his artistic and aesthetic program.

Hoffmann as an artist and theorist is closely connected with the traditions of early romanticism. He assimilated many of the ideas and artistic discoveries of Wackenroder, F. Schlegel, Novalis and Tieck. Romantic natural philosophy, in particular, a number of Schelling's judgments about music, had a significant impact on the system of his worldview.

Hoffmann considers music as the basis of creative life. It embodies the spirit of nature. From the spirit of music for a true artist is born a happy opportunity to partake of infinity. It is art that "allows a person to feel his high purpose and from the vulgar vanity of everyday life leads him to the temple of Isis, where nature speaks to him with sacred, never heard, but nevertheless understandable sounds." Hoffmann regards music as “the most romantic of all arts,” capable of combining all other forms of art. In music, he sees "the proto-language of nature expressed in sounds", finding under its influence "the correspondence between colors, sounds and smells."

In the center of the universe is an artist, an enthusiast, who simultaneously reflects the "kingdom of spirits" and contains it in his own soul. He has access to genuine art, to the realm of fairy-tale fantasy. Interest in the fairy tale, in the magical "Jinnistan", Hoffmann also inherited from the early romantics, as well as the multicolored, metaphorically rich poetic language, which by that time (not without Hoffmann's participation) had acquired a certain formality, even cliche.

With all of Hoffmann's numerous connections with early romantic art, his creative fantasy was based on a “sense of life,” which included and developed to an extreme degree the sensations only outlined in individual works by Wackenroder and Tieck. A well-known role in the development of a specifically Hoffmannian view of the world and art was played by the works of the German philosopher Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert "Discourses on the night side of the science of nature" (1808) and "Symbolism of sleep" (1814), as well as the passion for the English Gothic novel and the ideas of Franz Anton Mesmer about "animal magnetism". Hoffmann discovers both in nature and in the heavenly world the presence of two opposing principles. This splitting of the universe clearly separates its ideas from the early romantic worldview, in which chaos appeared as a possibility and a condition for harmony. Duality in Hoffmann appears as the central idea of ​​his theoretical and artistic searches.

For the writer, the earthly world is divided into the world of enthusiasts and the world of philistines. A creative person (a "good musician") is doomed in this reality to constant suffering and misunderstanding on the part of others, he is a "madman" and a "dreamer" who serves only the "kingdom of dreams" and is not able to "return to the real goal of his existence - to become a good serrated a wheel in a state mill. " The world of "good people, but bad musicians" opposed to the artist takes on distinct and tangible outlines from Hoffmann, its flesh and density. This world is able to significantly resist any attempt to overcome and remove it “magically”, it was, is and will always be, it is that stone on the road of wanderings, against which more than one Hoffmannian enthusiast breaks.

But the invisible world, accessible only to the "musician", does not represent some kind of higher unity and wholeness. It is divided into the "kingdom of dreams" and "the kingdom of the night", it contains both the magic of harmony and an evil, negative principle, which manifests itself primarily in the severe attacks of madness of enthusiastic heroes, in their clash with their own "doubles" endowed with criminal and destructive activity.

Irony is one of the most important components of Hoffmann's artistic system. At the same time, the “divine irony” identified by Hoffmann with creative fantasy in general becomes “heartbreaking” irony, following here rather than Novalis’s, but Wakenroder’s line: irony is mixed with a sense of tragic sense of life, absorbing elements of satire and acquiring a clearly expressed grotesque beginning.

Hoffmann's surreal plan loses its self-sufficient significance, the illusion that it is possible to replace reality with a fairy-tale world collapses. Hoffmann's hero realizes that he cannot hide from the burdensome everyday life in the fictional kingdom of dreams. He ironically perceives the world around him and tries to break out of its shackles, but the writer immediately sneers at the hero himself, realizing the impotence of the romantic "I" in front of the complex contradictions of life.

In 1814, Hoffmann, after several months in Dresden and Leipzig, moved to Berlin, re-entering the legal service. The Berlin period of his life and work opens with the publication of the book Fantasies in the manner of Callot. Leaves from the diary of a wandering enthusiast "(1814/15). Hoffmann combines iodine with one cover and under the general title fantastic and fabulous novellas with a book of musical and literary critical essays which he wrote to a certain genius composer Johannes Kreisler. These "fantasies" are united by the author's desire to present "the phenomena of everyday life in the atmosphere of the romantic ghostly kingdom of his soul."

The short story "Cavalier Gluck" immediately places the reader in the atmosphere of the "goffmaniade", a special world, saturated with mysterious images and grotesque situations. The subtitle "Remembrance of 1809" serves to confuse the reader, giving the events of the novel a mysteriously ambiguous meaning (it is known that the famous composer Christoph Willibald Gluck died in 1787). The strange old man, whom the narrator meets in one of the cafes, is placed in the atmosphere of the Prussian capital loaded with authentic historical and everyday realities. This everyday reality, where even music takes on a down-to-earth character, is opposed either by the genius musician himself, or by his crazy double, whom the illness of the spirit has raised to the highest stage of creative development. The grotesque situation that concludes the novel is the culmination of the narrator's dreams, torn from one dream and placed in another, an even more fantastic vision: the old man masterly performs the overture from Gluck's Armida, but the sweaty tome that stands in front of him on the music stand does not contain one note. The mysterious musician appears not only as a magical or dream-like embodiment of the famous composer. At the same time he embodies the spirit of music, "a spirit cut off from the body", "doomed to wander among the uninitiated."

In the second part of "Fantasies", the central place is occupied by the short story "The Golden Pot. A tale from new times. " The protagonists of the tale are Hoffmann's contemporaries, endowed with signs of their time and settled by the author in Dresden, the city in which the writer spent several months during his wanderings. The student Anselm, a naive and enthusiastic young man, awkward and unlucky in the ordinary world, enters the market square of Dresden through the Black Gate, enters swiftly and awkwardly and hits his foot right into a basket of apples and pies. At the same time, Anselm is no less rapidly entering the plot of the novel, into magical adventures, about which the ugly old woman, the mistress of the basket, prophesies to him. "You will get under the glass!" - she shouts after him, testifying to the first collision of Anselm with the fairy world.

Anselm's adventures unfold in an outwardly recognizable, precisely outlined world and at the same time in a space of fantasy, a fairy-tale dream. The hero is surrounded by specific objects and phenomena of the outside world (a basket of apples, a doorknob, an old coffee pot with a broken lid, an archivist's dressing gown, a stomach liqueur, a punch bowl and glasses), which are endowed with a magical function and are able to turn their mysterious side.

Hoffmann uses the principle of two-planes at all levels of the narrative. The division of the novella into 12 vigilies (night "patrols") already points to the dreamy coloring of what is happening, to the grotesquely fantastic beginning of the "Golden Pot".

Anselm, penetrating beyond the bounds of visible reality, frightened and at the same time fascinated by the space of the fairy world that opened up to him, the struggle of good and evil magical forces, is forced to solve a difficult dilemma for himself. In the familiar, earthly world, Anselm, a candidate of theology, is in love with young Veronica, and she, in turn, sees in him a future court counselor and husband, with whom she dreams of realizing her ideal of earthly happiness and well-being. In the fabulous world, Anselm fell in love with the wonderful golden-green snake, the beautiful blue-eyed Serpentine. Evil and good wizards, also leading a dual existence, are involved in the struggle against and for this love. The archivist Lindhorst, an old eccentric who with his three daughters lives in solitude in a remote old house, is also a Salamander, a powerful wizard from Atlantis, a fairyland ruled by the spirit prince Phosphorus. The old merchant woman at the Black Gate, who once nursed Veronica, appears as a sorceress, capable of reincarnating in various evil spirits fighting for Anselm against Lindhorst, who patronizes him. Even the characters are quite philistine, down-to-earth (Conrector Paulman, Registrar Geerbrand) suddenly discover in themselves something different, not of this world, the beginning, however, happens under the influence of the "magic drink" - the punch they have drunk.

Anselm's story has a happy ending: the hero marries Serpentine, turning from a candidate of theology to a poet and settling in the fabulous Atlantis. The story of Veronica ends successfully. She renounces "satanic spells", marries Geerbrand, who has received the title of court counselor, and lives with him "in a beautiful house on the New Market", vowing to "love and respect" him "like a good wife."

The twelfth vigil, which concludes the novella, is written by Hoffmann on behalf of the narrator. The author reveals the technique, explaining to the reader that each of the previous chapters is a fantasy of the creative consciousness, the result of his night vigils, which were largely facilitated by the "magic drink". The narrator perceives his “I” as torn in two, he sees himself pale, tired, sad, “like Geerbrand's receptionist after a drinking bout,” and illuminated by the “fiery rays of a lily,” like Anselm who has found eternity in faith and love.

At the end of the novel, Hoffmann carries out an ironic transformation of the well-known romantic symbol - the "blue flower" of Novalis. From the temple, which rises among the magical garden in Atlantis, his Serpentine comes out to meet Anselm, holding a golden chamber pot with a magnificent lily that has grown from it. The end of the "Serpentine - Anselm" storyline is a definite parallel to the philistine, external happiness that the "Veronica - Geerbrand" pair acquires. At the same time, Hoffman reveals in a complex way the duality of a creative personality doomed to wander between two worlds - the world of poetry and the dull world of the attic in which the poet lives, being "in the grip of the pitiful squalor of a meager life."

The philosophical idea and subtle elegance of the entire artistic fabric of the novel are fully comprehended only in its ironic intonation, which acquires now a sad, now mocking, now grotesque shade. The dual nature of creative fantasy, the presence in it of both a clear flame that illuminates the world, and a devilish fire, highlighting the dark mysterious, gloomy, melancholy sides of the human soul, are emphasized in the novel by the ironically designed leitmotif of the "magic drink" of fantasy - after all, it is this drink (liquor, punch, arak) ignites both the boringly correct director Paulman, and the student Anselm, and the enthusiastic author. Having tasted from a golden glass, the narrator is instantly transported from pale reality to the divine world of Atlan- dis, to the land of Fantasy.

The publication of "Fantasies in the manner of Callot", and soon - the novel "Elixirs of Satan" (1815/16) confirmed the fame and literary name of Hoffmann. Hoffmann plunged into the literary and musical life of Berlin, around him gathered a circle of friends and like-minded people, art enthusiasts, called the Serapion Brotherhood. However, the writer failed to fulfill his old dream and fully devote himself to creativity. He performed his duties as a legal official accurately and skillfully, successfully promoted in the service, while devoting all his free time to artistic creation. His life had acquired, as it were, two dimensions. Hoffmann seemed to have fallen under the curse of the duplicity to which his literary characters were doomed.

In the novelistic cycle Night Etudes (1817), Hoffmann allegedly passes from “music” to “painting”. The term "night sketch" in the cultural perception of that era was associated with the canvases of artists depicting night landscapes with spectacular transitions from light to shadow (Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Salvator Rosa). At the same time, the title of the collection is associated with the philosophical works of Schubert dedicated to the "night side" of natural phenomena and the human spirit. Schubert considers madness not as a destructive beginning, but as a breakthrough to a higher state of consciousness, to the creative stage of existence.

And Hoffmann believes that it is in the abnormal states of the soul that its secrets, its "duality" are most clearly revealed. At the same time, unknown phenomena of mental life testify to the former deep connections between man and nature, to the former, now destroyed and unattainable more harmonious unity of the spiritual and material, truth and beauty, piety and passion.

The novels of this collection are united by the cross-cutting theme of the night. In the literal sense, a "night sketch" is the short story "The Sand Man", the manuscript of which contains the author's note: "November 16, 1815, one in the morning." The plot basis of "The Sand Man" is the motive of the "terrible tale", the shock experienced in childhood by Nathanael, its protagonist. The terrible Sandman from a children's fairy tale, who threatens to take away the eyes of the child, takes the guise of the lawyer Coppelius and pursues Nathanael in his adult life, leading the young man's soul to a darkened state and ultimately pushing him to suicide.

At the plot-compositional level of the novel, the leading role is played by the motive of the "eye" (look, "magic glasses" that enhance, change vision). The eye acts as a metaphor for the contradictory ambiguity of life. The Magic Glasses have a special function in the story. They change the world, reveal in it what is invisible to the naked eye, or, conversely, bring into it something that normal human vision cannot see in it in principle. A similar role is played not only by glasses, lorgnets and telescopes of the seller of Coppola's barometers, dramatically changing Nathanel's vision and pushing him to madness and death, but also by the "roughly polished mirror" of art, artistic imagination.

The world in the novel appears seen from the most different sides, and none of the points of view is prevailing, does not carry the "last truth". The exposition consists of letters from Nathanael and Clara, his beloved. The heroes interpret the appearance of the terrible Coppelius in different ways. Nathanael sees in Coppelius the embodiment of "dark predestination", a mysterious and infernal force. Clara takes the mysterious doubles for the fruit of the frustrated imagination of her beloved young man. Lothar, brother of Clara and friend of Nathanael, sees what happened as a hostile infiltration of the world into the life of the soul. The author-narrator, who appears in the second part of the novella, avoids the "final" judgments, giving the narrative even greater mystery and uncertainty.

The central problem of the "Sandman" is the relationship between the living and the dead, the spiritual and the material principles in the human soul, associated with the motive of the automaton, the mechanical likeness of the personality. Nathanael falls madly in love with the automaton doll Olympia, who appears in his distorted vision as a model of beauty and grace. Her perfect beauty scares the hero with her grave cold and fills him with insane delight, because Olympia's glass eyes reflect the love and desire of the young man himself. In this situation, Hoffmann touches upon the problem of the spiritless world generated by an ordered society. The author also touches on a topic that is extremely important for the creative evolution of the writer himself. We are talking about the point of view of the world, about the creation by the subject contemplating reality of that reality, which is not at all such, but is only a phantom of his consciousness.

The four-volume collection of stories "The Serapion Brothers" (1819-1821) is compositionally linked together by the "Decameron" situation: a small circle of interlocutors calling themselves the name of the hermit Serapion, a Catholic saint, periodically organizes literary evenings, where those present read their stories to each other.

The author-narrator tells the story of a certain noble aristocrat who imagined himself as a hermit Serapion and leading a secluded life in the forest. The madman is endowed with a mighty power of imagination and believes that he lives in a different historical time and space, in ancient Alexandria. Hoffmann largely shared the romantic belief in the artist's right to subjectivity in relation to reality, but he still far from completely agreed with the absolute denial of reality on the part of Serapion and argued that earthly existence is determined by both the inner and the outer world. Without rejecting the need for the artist to turn to external experience, the author insists only that the fictional world be depicted as clearly and clearly as if it appeared before the artist's eyes as the real world.

In 1819, Hoffmann released a separate edition of the fairy tale "Little Tsakhes nicknamed Zinnober", one of his most famous works, which the author himself called "the brainchild of a very unbridled and sarcastic fantasy." The little freak Tsakhes is endowed with a fairy with a wonderful gift: everything that is wise and beautiful that happens around him is attributed to him. This property deforms the world, changes its norms. Tsakhes, an insignificant creature, becomes a strong personality, the first minister. He's both funny and scary. It is ridiculous when it seeks to be known as a clever horseman, sensitive poet or violin virtuoso. It is scary when it is discovered that everyone around him obsequiously admires his non-existent talents. The shifted world begins with mass psychosis, with a clouding of public consciousness. The tale denies a reality where honors and benefits are not rewarded to labor, intelligence and merit, where intellectual and moral insignificance rises above others.

The romantic ideal of “living in a dream,” which crowned the story of Anselm from The Golden Pot, is also subject to further ironic decline. Balthazar does not completely immerse himself in the world of poetry. Having won a victory over Tsakhes, he receives Candida as his wife, a rich dowry and, in general, all conceivable benefits and comforts of life. The irony of the tale extends to the dreamy romantic poet, casts doubt on the content of his aspirations and strikes the fairy-tale fantasy itself.

The last three years of Hoffmann's life were darkened by his participation in the commission for the investigation of political crimes. Unable to evade this activity, Hoffmann soon found himself in a conflict situation: he protested against the arbitrariness and rudeness of his colleagues in appeals to the Minister of Justice. The director of the police department von Kamptz, whom the writer cruelly ridiculed in his fairy tale "Lord of the Fleas" (1822), under the pretext of disclosing official secrets to his subordinates, carried out a disciplinary investigation that threatened to end for Hoffmann in the most sad way. On February 22, 1822, Hoffmann, by that time seriously ill, was interrogated. The last months of his life (Hoffmann died on June 25, 1822), the writer, despite a severe illness - progressive paralysis - continued to work on his works.

One of the most serious creative achievements of the late Hoffmann is his novel The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat, coupled with fragments of the biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, which accidentally survived in the scrapbooks (1819-1821). The phantom of bifurcation, which haunted his soul and occupied his mind all his life, Hoffmann embodied this time in an unheard-of daring art form. He not only put two biographies under one cover, but also mixed them. At the same time, both biographies reflect the same epoch-making problems, one subject is presented in two different lightings.

The ironic publisher emphasizes: Kreisler is not the main character of the book. The proposed book is a confession of the learned cat Murr. He is both the author and the hero. In preparation for publication, an embarrassment allegedly occurred: when the publisher received the proof sheets, he found that the cat's notes were constantly interrupted by scraps of other text. As it turned out, the cat, writing down his views, tore to pieces some book from the owner's library, using the sheets "partly for laying, partly for drying." This book was the life of Kreisler. Everything went into the set in this form.

The biography of the brilliant composer appears in the form of scrap sheets in the biography of the cat. This artistic device, which has its origins, in particular, in the narrative manner of Laurence Stern (the novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 1759-1767), creates a wide scope for the irony and self-irony of Hoffmann.

Johannes Kreisler is one of the most remarkable figures created by Hoffmann. He is devoted to music, he brings it to people. It combines many principles, sometimes difficult to connect. He is an enthusiast, a creator of the most wonderful music, and at the same time - a caustic satirical person. The artist in Hoffmann's novel is not the same abstraction that the artists presented in Wackenroder, Thieck and Novalis. Kreisler is a character with his own face, with his own psychology, with his own characteristic gestures and behavior.

The scene of the Kreisleriana is the puppet principality Sieghartsweiler, a kind of imaginary country, a dwarf state. In this country, the essence of the state was destroyed, its appearance, shell (balls, receptions, intrigues, etc.) remained completely preserved. In "Kreislerian" two moral and creative poles are designated: on the one hand, Prince Irina and his entourage, on the other, Kreisler and master Abraham. The middle position is occupied by Counselor Benzon. She is the true ruler in the principality, everything depends on her. Once upon a time she was greatly hurt by injustice, she resigned herself to the destruction of the true human feeling in herself and seeks to extinguish the living, the true, and from others. Benson's opponent in the novel appears to be the master Abraham (Hoffman had previously used such an arrangement of influential characters, for example Prosper Alpanus and the fairy Rosabelverde in Little Tsakhes).

The upper world, the world of suffering and searches of the brilliant composer is grotesquely reflected in the "Murrian". For early romanticism, genius is something self-sufficient, requiring no justification or justification. Hoffmann, on the other hand, not so much opposes the creative life to the prosaic life, as compares them, analyzes the artistic consciousness in an indispensable correlation with life.

At the same time, the dual world is presented in the novel not according to a simple scheme: "enthusiastic musician" and "philistine cat". In each of the images, there is a distinct complication, a doubling: and the cat Murr appears as an enthusiast no less than the musician Kreisler. Two lines in the novel function as parallel mirrors. For Hoffmann, the novel about Murr and Kreisler is a monument to biased calculation with romanticism and his belief in the omnipotence of poetic genius. The world constructed by art is not an outlet for the soul suffering from the disorder of earthly life.

One of the artistic features of Hoffmann's novel is its quotation. Hoffman reveals the citation technique, he resorts to quotations from public and popular - by ear and in plain sight - things. Among the cited sources are drama, song, operetta, lyrics. Among the cited authors are Ovid, Virgil, Cervantes, Russo, Torquato Tasso, Shakespeare. Philosophical texts are cited in a parody-reduced version, at the level of common phrases that have a formulaic, superficial character. Culture, philosophy, poetry - these high regions, in which the spirit of genius previously found refuge, lose their sacred purpose, become the property of an educated philistine, are exchanged for quotes for the occasion. And yet the romantic formula of being is not subject to final withdrawal from Hoffmann. The musician remains faithful to the spirit, to the ideal. Moreover, he is doomed to endless wandering. Kreisler's journey of life is a journey in circles, each of which begins with hope and ends in disaster.

In his short story 1820-1822. ("Master Flea", "Datura fastuosa", "Corner Window", etc.) ... However, the new spiritual situation more and more insistently demanded other ethical attitudes and aesthetic means of its development. The romantic era has come to its end, has turned from a living, developing, creatively active present into a completed past, has become an object of sharp criticism from the post-romantic generation and at the same time acquired the status of a cultural tradition, which many prominent European writers have repeatedly turned to throughout the 19th century.