But Herr Drosselmeier knows more than he lets on, and proceeds to tell her, pretending all the while that he's merely spinning a tale, how the Nutcracker came to be what he is. Upon waking the next day, Maria tells the whole crazy story to her parents and the doctor, who attribute it to a fever from her wound. Fainting (as all nineteenth century heroines written by male authors must do), she falls against glass and cuts her arm. He leads her brother's toy soldiers against the evil Mouse King - a seven-headed mutant - but is about to be killed by the beast until Maria throws her shoe at the creature and knocks it down. This Christmas her godfather, the royal counselor and inventor Herr Drosselmeier, has brought among his haul of amazing toys a nutcracker, which Marie becomes fascinated by.īegging permission to stay up late, she witnesses the Nutcracker and all the other toys come to life.

Our heroine is seven-year-old Maria, the daughter of a well-to-do German family. It makes zero sense, but is more than evocative enough to make up for it. Like a darker, Continental forerunner to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

And it is just as surreal as the ballet - but ballets are surreal by nature, while books needn't be. This is the marvellously strange and creative novella that Tchaikovsky's ballet is based on. It was Dumas's version that inspired the Tchaikovsky ballet in 1892 which did not become popular until 1954, several years after modern audiences were introduced to the music through Walt Disney's 1940 animated film 'Fantasia.' The original Hoffmann and Dumas stories are presented here in one volume which allows the reader to see the evolution of the tale and to enjoy the origin of the story that has become a Christmas classic, shades of which can be seen in other works ranging from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and beyond. Hoffmann's story was re-written by Alexandre Dumas, who lightened the tone somewhat and smoothed out some of the original tale's rougher edges. As the story unfolds, the little girl comes to believe that the Nutcracker - ruler of a fantasy land made of candy and sweets - is really the nephew of her doting Godfather cursed to exist in a wooden form until he is set free by true love.

Hoffmann, and featured the story of a young girl who finds herself caught in a battle between a wooden nutcracker and a seven-headed Mouse King. 'Nutcracker was very pale, but he beamed so ruefully and amiably that his smile shot right through her heart.'īased on folk tales from Bohemia, Poland and Muscovy, the original fairy tale 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' was written over 200 years ago in 1816 by Prussian author E.T.A.

Hoffman's nutcracker