ver wild may be the subjects of
Hoffmann, and however rambling his method of treating them, his style
is remarkably lucid; and while Jean Paul is one of the most difficult
authors for a foreigner to read, Hoffmann is comparatively easy. He
was born at Koenigsberg on the 24th of January, 1776, where he studied
law, and in 1800 became assessor of the government at Posen. In 1802
he became a councillor of the government at Plock, and in 1803 went in
a similar capacity to Warsaw. His legal career was terminated by the
invasion of the French, in 1806, and he made use of his musical talents
to obtain a subsistence. In the autumn of 1808 he accepted the
invitation of Count Julius von Soden to go to a theatre at Bamberg,
where he was appointed musical director. The theatre soon closed, and
he was reduced to such distress that he was forced to part with his
last coat. He then occupied himself with musical instruction, and
contributed to the Leipzig _Musikalische Zeitung_. From 1813 to 1815
he conducted the orchestra of a theatrical company, alternately in
Dresden and Leipzig, and in 1816 was appointed councillor of the royal
_Kammergericht_ in Berlin, where he died on the 24th of July, 1822.
Hoffmann had devoted himself to music from his earliest years, he
composed the music for an opera on the subject of Undine, played at the
Berlin theatre, and many of his writings have an immediate reference to
the feelings and fortunes of the musician. This is conspicuous in the
collection called, _Fantasia-pieces in Callot's Manner_, which he
published in 1814, and which was followed by his _Devil's Elixir_,
published in 1816. His works, consisting of narratives, are very
numerous, and were published at Berlin, in fifteen volumes, and by
Baudry, of Paris, in one volume, royal octavo. Among the most
conspicuous are the fantastic _Confessions of Tomcat Murr_, the
collection called the _Scrapions Brothers_, and _Master Flea_. Many of
Hoffmann's stories have been translated into English, but they have not
been so successful here as in France, where, when the translations
appeared, they created a complete _furore_. Of the tales in this
collection, the _Sandman_, and the _Jesuits' Church_, are from the
"night-pieces," and the _Elementary Spirit_ is from Hoffmann's "later
works." In all these stories it will be observed that Hoffmann's
purpose is to point out the ill-effect of a morbid desire after an
imaginary world, and a distaste fo