German writer, composer, and painter ErnstTheodor Amadeus Hoffman was born in Konigsberg, Prussia in 1776. After beginning a career in the law, Hoffman turned to music, working as a conductor, music director, and critic, and later composing a ballet, an opera, and other works. He established himself as a writer with the four-volume story collection Phatasiestucke in Callier Manier (Fantasy Stories in the Manner of Callot), which was published in 1814-1815. Even though he published several novels and story collections, including Nachtstucke (Hoffman's Strange Stories, 1817) and Die Serapionsbruder (The Serapion Brethren, 1819-1821), Hoffman continued to support himself as a legal official in… Berlin. This struggle between artistry and bureaucracy is played out in many of his works. Hoffman died of progressive paralysis in 1822.
David Charlton is Professor Emeritus, Music History, at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a regular contributor to conferences and has sat on the Council of the Royal Musical Association and the Comit� International Hector Berlioz. He has published widely on the history of opera and his books include Gr�try and the Growth of Op�ra-Comique (1986), E. T. A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings (1989), French Opera, 1730-1830 (2000) and The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera (as editor, 2003).