Collected Works of A. I. Herzen, Volume 4

the extra-terrestrial direction of German literature. For the most part, authors living before 1813 imagined that everything earthly was too low for them and lived in the clouds; but this did not go unpunished. Now that Germany has awakened to the roar of the Battle of Leipzig, a new generation has appeared, more earthly, more national. Now Heine, with his poisonous pen, lashes left and right at the old generation that severed itself from the homeland, at the past epoch that ended so colossally, so majestically in Weimar on March 22, 1832. Incidentally, it is terrifying to categorize Goethe in this direction; Goethe was too high to have any direction, too high to participate in these homeopathic upheavals... Be that as it may, Hoffmann himself felt very keenly and represented very well the one-sidedness of the German scholars who had entrenched themselves behind a wall against all of humanity in his excellent novella "Datura Fastuosa" original: "Datura Fastuosa", a reference to the poisonous plant, used here to critique the toxic isolation of academic life.. But let us turn to his life.

Forced to leave Warsaw and his self-built hall, he set off for Berlin with six louis d'or, which were stolen from him on the road; he somehow attached himself to the Bamberg theater, and from that time (1809) his literary career properly begins: then he wrote a marvelous analysis of Beethoven and Kreisler. However, this is not yet the Kreisler whose wastepaper sheets fell into the claws of the famous Kater Murr, but the initial education, the foundation of this figure to whom Hoffmann gifted all his own traits, who appears several times in his various works, and who occupied him until his very death. Soon all of Germany knew him, and Hoffmann appeared as a formal man of letters. There is no reason to be surprised at this: Germany is a land of writing and reading. "Whatever we do with one hand, there is inevitably a book in the other," says Menzel. "Germany invented printing specifically for itself, and tirelessly prints everything and reads everything" original: "Die deutsche Litteratur, von W. Menzel.". At the same time, Hoffmann writes musical compositions, gives lessons, draws, paints portraits, and par dessus le marché into the bargain makes jokes, asks to be paid not only for lessons but also for the pleasant passing of time; above all that, at the theater, he is a composer, decorator, architect, and conductor. However, his financial circumstances are still not brilliant: on November 26, 1810, a sad phrase is written in his diary: "den alten Rock verkauft um nur essen zu können" sold my old frock coat just to be able to eat. This variegated life serves as proof...