Audio only
Music, Magic, Muses, and Madness
The Tales of E. T. A. HoffmannBy E. T. A. HoffmannNarrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de CuirLength8h 4m
About this audiobook
“Don’t you too believe, kindly reader, that the sparks which fall into our hearts from the higher regions of Love are first made visible to us in the hours of hopeless pain? And so it is with the doubts that storm the artist’s mind. He sees the Ideal and feels how impotent are his efforts to reach it; it will flee before him, he thinks, always unattainable. But then again he is once more animated by a divine courage; he strives and struggles, and his despair is dissolved into a sweet yearning, which both strengthens him and spurs him on to strain after his beloved idol, so that he begins to see it continually nearer and nearer, but never reaches it.”—E. T. A. Hoffmann, “Arthur’s Hall”
In this original compilation from Skyboat Media, composers and artists, miners and soldiers, tinkerers and amateur psychologists must fend for themselves in the struggle for their own “ideal” wherein they may find either happiness and salvation, or tragedy and madness.
In “The Cremona Violin,” an eccentric violinmaker, who does not allow anyone to play his masterpieces, is hiding a mysterious young woman with the loveliest singing voice. He does not permit her to sing nor allow anyone to see her, but it is only years later that the truth of his strange behavior comes out. Then in “The Mines of Falun,” a young sailor returns home to find himself alone in the world and is tempted by a ghostly, old miner’s tales of the riches hidden just below their feet. An amateur psychologist hopes to cure a hermitic priest who believes he is thousands of years old in “The Story of Serapion.”
In Hoffmann’s most famous story, “Nutcracker and the King of Mice,” we revisit the childhood classic that inspired the famous ballet, but there is a more sinister truth behind the origins of this beloved toy soldier. Then in the old town of Dantzic, a young merchant falls in love, and is inspired by a new muse to abandon his profession and pursue his love of painting in “Arthur’s Hall.” Finally, in “The Sand-Man,” Nathanael, who has been haunted by childhood nightmares of the Sand-man and the memory of his father’s horrific death, must now face the fact that these terrors may not only be confined to his youth.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics, General Fiction
Length8 hrs 4 mins
Narrated byStefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateDec 11, 2021
LanguageEnglish
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 40m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 54m4.5 (10.6K)$2 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
The North American IndianEdward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h4.5 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version (Annotated)Oscar Wilde16h 12m4.5 (2.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Grimoire Of The Everyday WitchIsadora Lys / Virginia Santos5h 35m4.5 (3.9K)$9 · $0.00
Winnie-the-PoohAlan Alexander Milne2h 52m4.5 (401.1K)$3 · $0.00
Sitting PrettyRebekah Taussig7h 33m4.5 (18.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Poetic Edda & The Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson, Saemund Sigfusson9h 34m4.5 (4K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Satires & Essays of Mark Twain (Annotated)Mark Twain23h 21m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery10h 58m4.5 (46.7K)$1 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
You may also like
The Mortal ImmortalMary Shelley36m3.7 (3.4K)$2.30 · $0.00
The King in YellowRobert W. Chambers4h 33m3.9 (60.8K)$6 · $0.00
A House of PomegranatesOscar Wilde3h 25m4.1 (5.9K)$0.60 · $0.00
The Book of Forbidden KnowledgeUnknown Author3h 6m3.7 (2.1K)$21 · $0.00
The Door in the Wall, and Other StoriesH. G. Wells4h 40m3.9 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts (Annotated)Herbert Silberer12h 59m4.2 (388)$1.99 · $0.00
The Spell of the Sorcerer's SkullJohn Bellairs3h 27m3.9 (2K)$15
Your Invisible PowerGeneviève Behrend4h 6m4.3 (5.2K)$1 · $0.00
The Hungry Stones, and Other StoriesRabindranath Tagore4h 54m4.1 (782)Free
The Overcoat and Other Russian TalesNikolai Vasilievich Gogol7h 54m4.3 (1.8K)$20
Lady into FoxDavid Garnett2h 28m3.9 (9.3K)$2.40
The Land of Heart's DesireW. B. Yeats1h 44m3.8 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Hill of DreamsArthur Machen7h 35m3.9 (2.3K)$1 · $0.00
M Is for MagicNeil Gaiman5h 30m4.0 (33.3K)$24 · $0.00
Lud-in-the-MistHope Mirrlees9h 11m4.0 (14K)$23
Stories I Told My Dead LoverJo Paquette4h 44m3.0 (228)$20
The Scarecrow, and Other StoriesG. Ranger Wormser4h 7m3.5 (29)$2 · $0.00
Masterpieces of Mystery in Four Volumes: Mystic-Humorous StoriesVarious7h 1m3.5 (18)$2 · $0.00
Magic A Fantastic ComedyG. K. Chesterton1h 40m3.9 (444)$2.30
The Boy Who Wanted More CheeseWilliam Elliot Griffis8m$2