Nutcracker and Mouse-King: Part 1

by ETA Hoffman

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show notes

In this episode you’ll hear the first part of a classic fantasy story by ETA Hoffman that was turned into a well-known Christmas ballet. Nutcracker and Mouse-King: Part 1 is narrated by Karyne Norton.

Important Links:

The Narrator: Karyne Norton’s website

Know a story we should feature? Apply with your own story or nominate an author here.

full transcript

Karyne (00:00:07) – Hi fantasy readers. This is Karyne Norton, your fellow book binger, and you are listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast where you can test out a new fantasy story every single week to find your next favorite author.

I’m taking a bit of liberty for the next two weeks and going away from my normal routine. I’m still technically bringing you a fantasy story, but it’s a classic found in the public domain instead of a present-day author. If you’re not familiar with how copyright works, there are some general principles dependent on the country you live in, and depending on how long an author has been dead, their copyright can basically become invalid and the work gets put into the public domain to be used in whatever way people want. Many authors nowadays get around this by putting their works in their estate to pass down to their kids and things like that, but there are a lot of classics moving into the public domain every year, which is why we suddenly had the Winnie the Pooh surge.

But unlike those stories, which are a bit like fan fiction, I’m interested in bringing you an original tale told by E.T.A. Hoffman, because back in 1816, he wrote a story that Tchaikovsky later adapted into a famous Christmas ballet. Even though I’ve seen this classic ballet and cartoon adaption dozens of times, I had never read the original novella, and I figured many of you hadn’t either.

It’s time we change that. Please enjoy Part 1 of Nutcracker and Mouse-King, written by E.T.A. Hoffman and translated by Mrs. St. Simon.

Karyne (00:01:47) –  Nutcracker and Mouse-King: Part 1 by ETA Hoffman is read by Karyne Norton. You can find the full novella in the public domain.

Karyne (01:20:47) – I hope you enjoyed listening to part one of Nutcracker and Mouse-King, written by ETA Hoffman and translated by Mrs. St. Simon. Hopefully, digging out a classic has been fun for you, even if it’s stylistically very different from what you normally get on the podcast. I promise we’ll be back to our regular routine with the new year.

I’ve actually booked authors pretty far into the spring, because Paeter and I are gearing up to record my next audiobook, and we wanted to get ahead of the game for the podcast. But I still have openings before the end of season two, so if you’re wanting to have a story you’ve written featured before the summer, now is the time to apply. Check out the contact page on the website, where you can find an application form for authors as well as a contact form for readers. I’ll be sure to have a link for it in the show notes as well.

Thanks so much for listening, and happy reading!

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Narrator

Karyne Norton hasn’t found the key to time travel, immortality, or infinite lives, so she’s taking a break from nursing and photography to focus on raising four human beings while writing epic fantasy.