E. T. A Hoffmann

Young Marie Stahlbaum falls in love with the handsome nutcracker Godfather Drosselmeier gives her family as a Christmas gift, and has adventures with him as he faces the monstrous, seven-headed Mouse King.

"Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him."--Amazon.com. Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea. Godfather Drosselmeier, a one-eyed toy maker, presents a Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter. Klara...

Journeyman toymaker Stefan Drosselmeyer is recruited by his mysterious cousin, Christian, to find a mythical nut that will save Boldavia's princess and his own kidnapped father from a fanatical Mouse Queen and her seven-headed Mouse Prince, who have sworn to destroy the Drosselmeyer family.

After hearing how the toy nutcracker that she and her brother received for Christmas got his ugly face, Marie helps break the spell he is under and watches him change into a handsome prince. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

In this retelling of the original 1816 German story, Godfather Drosselmeier gives young Marie a nutcracker for Christmas, and she finds herself in a magical realm where she saves a boy from an evil curse.

"E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was one of the greatest German Romantic authors of fantasy and a pioneer in the genre we now call Gothic horror. His innovative stories explore ideas of madness, genius, doppelgängers, artificial intelligence, and the boundaries between realities and dreams. Artist Natalie Frank and leading fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes have joined forces in this lavishly illustrated volume of five of Hoffmann's most influential tales:...

Based on E.T.A. Hoffman's classic story of a spoiled prince who lives in a magnificent palace with his magician uncle. The prince and his servants are turned into toys and must reverse the spell to save the kingdom from tyranny.