The Nutcracker - E. T. A. Hoffmann

The German romantic novelist Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (E T A) Hoffmann (1776-1822) wrote fantasy and Gothic horror, but was also a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. A number of his stories have inspired operas and ballets including Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann , in which a fictionalized version of Hoffmann is the hero. Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is based on the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King .