MACHINATIONS AND MESMERISM: A TRIBUTE TO E.T.A. HOFFMANN
Edited by Farah Rose Smith, ÒMachinations and MesmerismÓ is an anthology of fantastic, strange fiction written in the vein of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, the oftÕ-unsung artistic polymath and writer of Dark Romanticism, Gothic Horror, and Fantastic literature.
E. T. A. Hoffmann was a Prussian lawyer, artist, composer, and writer. His stories are ripe with strange atmospheres and peculiar characters (including automata, madmen, and spectres), which would go on to influence the Gothic and macabre writers of the following generations including Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Baudelaire. This carefully curated anthology honors the literary dance between mesmerism, mechanics, and magic through which Hoffmann explored issues of Romantic idealism and the self.