This selection of Hoffmann's finest short stories vividly demonstrates his inten
se imagination and preoccupation with the supernatural, placing him at the foref
ront of both surrealism and the modern horror genre. Suspense dominates tales su
ch as "Mademoiselle de Scudery", in which an apprentice goldsmith and a female n
ovelist find themselves caught up in a series of jewel thefts and murders. In th
e sinister "The Sandman", famously used by Sigmund Freud to illustrate both his
concept of the unheimlich, or 'uncanny', and of Oedipal guilt, a young man's san
ity is tormented by fears about a mysterious chemist; while in "The Choosing of
a Bride" a greedy father preys on the weaknesses of his daughter's suitors.
