Adventures on New Year's Eve

Foreword

The first half of the narration is an excerpt from the diary of a “wandering enthusiast” (a cross-section of the author’s collection). In the preface, we are talking about the transparency of the border separating the inner world and the outer world, thanks to which the bishop succeeds in luring the reader “to the other side of it”. Then, the author notes, fictional characters "easily invade the outside world surrounding you and begin to treat you in a friendly way, like old acquaintances."

New Year's Eve in Berlin

In Berlin, at the New Year's Eve, at the Counselor of Justice, the narrator meets his former beloved, Julia. She offers him a goblet with a flaming punch , over which blue tongues of flame are dancing. It seems to the narrator that Julia has a crush on him that she calls: “Oh, if you were at the piano now and sang the sweet songs of the lost neg and hopes!” But Julia is taken away by her ugly husband, and the sweet dream crumbles to dust .

“Well, of course, your card is a bit, my dearest,” someone says in a nasty voice next to the narrator. "Enthusiast" in despair runs out into the street. In the "top of the basement pub" he distinguishes the figure of Peter Shlemil - the man who sold his shadow to the devil. And then the so-called “ General Suvorov ” comes to the tavern, who - like this commander - demands that when he appears all the mirrors curtain with a cloth. Subsequently, the narrator will have the opportunity to make sure that the stranger is not reflected in the mirrors.

Because of the confusion with hotel rooms, a foreigner and an “enthusiast” have to sleep in the same room. The narrator dreams that he is ready to drink a cup of punch, adopted from the hands of Yulia, although his companion urges him not to do it in any way. All the surrounding ones are presented to the sleeper in the form of confectionary figures made from marzipan , while Julia “is like alluring maidens surrounded by all kinds of hellish evil spirits” In the morning he learns that the stranger has already left the hotel, leaving a note for him with a story about how he gave up his reflection in the mirror to the devil .

The story of the lost reflection

In his notes, a stranger (his name is Erasmus Spieker) tells of a romantic connection with the beautiful Italian Juliet. The mediator between them is the mysterious doctor in red ^[1] named Dapertutto (Italian. "Omnipresent"). When Erasmus remembers his duty to his family and decides to return to Germany to his wife and young son, Juliet demands that she keep at least her reflection in the mirror. Erasmus agrees.

Loss of reflection in the mirror causes suspicion of his wife. Bored with family quarrels, Erasmus returns back to Juliet. Dapertutto recalls that there is still family ties between him and his beloved and convinces Erasmus to get rid of his wife and child with the help of poison. Mad passion leads Erasmus to the point that he assigns this task to the infernal doctor:

At that moment, on the left arm of Erasmus, a vein suddenly burst and blood spurted.

“Dunk, dip your pen, sign it, sign it,” the giant in red whispered.

“Sign, sign, my only, forever loved one,” whispered Juliet.

Erasmus already dipped his pen in the blood, brought to the paper ...

Only the sudden appearance of his wife interrupts the deal with the devil . From the embrace of Juliet begins to blow the flames of hell. Erasmus understands that behind the celestial in this way lies the "hellish spirit" itself.

Conclusion

At the end of the reading, the “wandering enthusiast”, projecting the image of Juliet on the image of Julia, makes sure that the female image that attracts him is nothing but a devilish obsession. At the end of the story, he turns directly to his creator:

You see, my dear Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann, how often, too often an unknown dark force interferes in my life and, filling my dreams with deceptive visions, puts such strange creatures in my path.

The autobiographical motifs are reflected in the story - Hoffmann's painful choice between attachment to a faithful wife and passion for young Julia Mark. The theme of “getting rid of” the wife and child for the sake of some higher purpose will excite him in the future. He will return to this motive in the novel " The Jesuit Church in Germany. "

The idea of ​​a lost reflection in the mirror is inspired by one of Hoffmann's favorite works - the story of his friend Chamisso about a man who has lost his shadow. "The amazing story of Peter Shlemilya" was released in 1814 and immediately became a literary sensation.

The artistic world of the story is built in accordance with the Hoffmann concept of two-worldy . As usual, Hoffmann reproduces the topography of Berlin very precisely, including the names of popular restaurants and shops. The wrong side of this accuracy is the world of a fairy tale, where people lose their shadows and reflections, and where the devil acts, hiding under the mask of a doctor in red. As often happens with Hoffmann, the demonic line is connected with Italy , and the infernal characters bear Italian names.

The characters and situations of the “ story in the story ” about Erasmus and Juliet are symmetrical to the characters and the provisions of the framework story about the wandering enthusiast and Julia ( duality ). Sequential presentation of several plot independent stories, illustrating the same thought, will become Hoffmann's favorite structural device since the novel Sanctus (1816).

Hoffmann and before liked to lead the story in several planes. So, in the Magnetizer behind the title hero, the shadow of a long-dead major in red appears. A similar bifurcation of characters is also observed in the novel " Don Juan ", where the narrator is identified with Mozart , then with Don Juan , who conquered Donna Anna's heart.

"The Tale of the Lost Reflection" formed the basis of the last (Venetian) act of the opera " Tales of Hoffmann ", which opens the famous barcarolle Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour . Thanks to this work, the story was well known in Russia of the “ silver age ”. Vsevolod Meyerhold published The Love for Three Oranges magazine under the name of Dr. Dapertutto. In the years 1910-11 He worked at the Dr. Dappertuto theater cabaret " Intermedia House " on Galernaya Street . Meyerhold is mentioned by this name in the “Petersburg Hofmaniade” by A. Akhmatova - “A poem without a hero ”. In Penza there is a theater of Dr. Dapertutto .

Hoffmann's tale served as the proto-text for A. Schnitzler's Christmas “ Novels about Dreams ”. AV Chayanov was also guided by the Adventures on New Year's Eve when creating his “Moscow Hoffmann”.