E.T.A. Hoffmann, born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror as well as a jurist and composer.
Hoffman's family on both maternal and paternal sides were involved in law: his father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann, was a barrister in Prussia who married his cousin, Lovisa Albertina Doerffer, in 1767. Ernst was born the youngest of three children, though the second child died in infancy and the eldest, Johann Ludwig Hoffmann, went to live with his father in Insterburg when their parents separated in 1778. Hoffman and his mother stayed in Königsberg with her brother and two sisters, who collectively raised him.
Hoffman was educated in law and became a...
