A New Year’s Eve Adventure (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffman
- First Published: 1815
- Type of Plot: Fantasy
- Time of Work: The early nineteenth century
- Setting: Berlin and Italy
- Principal Characters: The Travelling Enthusiast, Julia, Erasmus Spikher, Giuletta, Dr. Dapertutto, Peter Schlemihl
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Reality, Fear, Fantasy, Faustian bargains, Devils or demons, Satire, Fairy tales
- Locales: Berlin, Germany, Italy
The Story
“A New Year's Eve Adventure” is partially E. T. A. Hoffmann's own romantic fantasy, but it is also a satire on the convention of the lost reflection or shadow familiar in other German fantasies of the early nineteenth century. It is typical of Hoffmann in that its reality seems to hover halfway between the real world and the world of fairy tale; thus the split in the central character, Spikher, both between himself and his reflection, as well as between himself and the Travelling Enthusiast, is reflective of the duality of the world as Hoffmann sees it—always...
[The entire page is 1442 words long]
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