Weird Tales, Vol. 2
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers of Gothic and weird literature tracing the roots of psychological horror.
- Scholars of German Romantic literature needing an English translation for reference.
- Classic literature fans used to short-form reading and comfortable with slow buildup.
- Free eBook users willing to proofread public-domain texts themselves.
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking modern fast-paced horror and strong sensory shocks.
- Readers with limited English who struggle with nineteenth-century translation style.
- Beginners hoping for full annotations and scholarly introductions.
Reading tips
- Start by scanning the contents and trying a shorter piece to get used to the translation before reading through systematically.
- Pause briefly after each story and note where the narrative slips from reality into the eerie.
- Read alongside material on Hoffmann's life and German Romanticism for context.
- Adjust font size and line spacing on an e-reader to ease long sentences in the old translation.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
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- 31
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- 36
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- 43
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- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
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- 61
- 62
- 63
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- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
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- 74
- 75
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About the author
E. T. A. Hoffmann (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, 1776–1822) was a major German writer of the Romantic era whose work spans fiction, fairy tales, and fantastic stories. The library holds 17 of his works, including Nachtstücke, Der Goldene Topf, Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober, The Serapion Brethren, and The Devil's Elixir. His writing is marked by the grotesque, the supernatural, and psychological illusion, moving between reality and fantasy; it has had a lasting influence on later fantasy literature and the tradition of psychological narrative. His subjects range from fairy-tale invention to a searching look at the darker sides of human nature. Public information is limited, so no biographical details are given here; readers may approach this author through the subjects and styles of the works mentioned above.