In this study of the imaginary universe of Germany's most famous author of fantasy, Kenneth Negus attempts to establish the coherency and fathom the depth of the "other world" manifested in Hoffmann's many tales.

Proceeding mainly from Der Goldene Topf, Hoffmann's most fully developed mystical work, Negus shows how the figures, themes, and motifs Hoffmann established permeate his tales, forming a basic overall structure that embodies creation, destruction, and the interaction of the two extremes in a mythology that is a fantastic distillation of the real world with which it is...