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Presented here are two holiday classics: E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (which formed the basis for the Christmas ballet "The Nutcracker") and Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," (upon which Disney's "Frozen" is based).
First, we meet young Marie, young girl who is given a precious nutcracker as a Christmas present by her godfather, the enigmatic Drosselmeier. When the nutcracker is broken, Marie attempts to repair it and stays up late to tend to her new toy, but when the nursery is invaded by an army of mice - led by the seven-headed Mouse King - the nutcracker comes to life to both drive off the mice and escort Marie to a magical land of living dolls.
Then, in "The Snow Queen," we are introduced to childhood friends Gerda and Kay, whose relationship is shattered when Kay is infected by dark magic and disappears, spirited up to the Snow Queen's palace in the sky.
These two holiday classics are presented in their original and unabridged format and narrated by renowned audiobook performer Sara Nichols.
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Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (1776–1822), best known by his pen name E. T. A. Hoffman, was one of the major writers in the Romantic movement in literature. Born on January 24, 1776, in Königsberg, Prussia, he was the youngest of three children. He also was known as a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman, and caricaturist. His most famous story is “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” first published in 1816. The story inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet The Nutcracker. Hoffmann died in Berlin, Germany on June 25, 1822, at the age of 46.