هي لطيفة وممتعة ومسلية بس مش قصة يافعين !

ترسيخ فكرة التضحية والحب الغير مشروط، وفك لعنة القبح....، لو هتُقدم بالشكل ده للأطفال والمراهقين بدون مناقشة، ف هي غير مناسبة.

كانت مملة في النص شوية.

The most charming Christmas fairytale!

Turns out that there is not much of a difference between the original story and this one. It's a bit more detailed at time, which makes it feel more like a story, and a sibling is missing, but besides that there's not much different. Some say that it's less dark, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Anyways, here is my review from the other version (still very relevant):

A classic about a young girl who believes that her nutcracker is alive after seeing a battle between him, the hussars, and the Mouse King. Nobody believes that it is all real, until they do and she has to save his life.

The story is short, but fun, and it's almost completely different from the ballet that I know even though this is the story that inspired the ballet. Hoffmann's work fits within the magical realism genre since he takes the real world and adds the magical elements to it, instead of creating whole new worlds filled with magic, and it can be hard to distinguish what is real and what is made up, and this story truly feels like it. Of course you know what can't exist, and you know that even in stories there are limits, but it's hard to find these limits within the book, and you're often wondering what is really happening and what is just a dream. I do feel like this version made things a bit less hard, but it still contained the same story where you were wondering what was real and what wasn't.

Spoiler ahead
The whole time I was sure that it was real, and then I thought that it was fake again, until the end where his nephew actually stepped through the door and I was just confused. But I am wondering if the nephew stayed young or if he is a lot older than Marie

29 years after it’s initial release, Alexandre Dumas took Hoffman’s “Nutcracker and Mouse King”, translated it into French, and branded it with his name on the cover. While Dumas was at a party of a friend and Count, the children at said party, tied him up, held him hostage, and demanded a story. In the Preface we are assured, “The Tale I’m going to tell you is not by me!” When asked who is it by, Dumas replied by “Herr E. T. A. Hoffman.” This is Hoffman’s story, reimagined by Dumas.

A little girl named Marie, is gifted a handsomely decorated nutcracker from her mysterious uncle. On the night of Christmas Eve, the Nutcracker springs to life, along with all the other children’s toys in a battle against the evil seven-headed Mouse King. Marie has to find out the story of the Nutcracker and how the curse fell upon him. To lift his curse, young Marie just might fall in love.

Imagine your favorite song. You know the ins and outs of it. The lyrics, when the bass drops, the bridge, the exact moment when the chorus repeats. Then a more famous rock star comes along and covers it. It’s good, but it’s not the original. The language seems different, the tempo is off somehow, but it’s exactly the same. That’s how Dumas’s version appears.

Dumas’s version tells the exact same story with a plot with very few differences. Godfather Drosselmeier is now Drosselmayer. Marie Stahlbaum is now Marie Silberhaus. Marie’s father, a Medical Officer, is now a Presiding Judge. The Nutcracker, has never worn boots, now has worn nothing but boots. But even with this same plot and very few differences, Dumas has a drastically different prose and a different approach to the story than Hoffman does. Just take a look at the opening paragraphs to each. What one’s your favorite?

Hoffman version:

For the entire twenty-fourth of December, the children of Medical Officer Stahlbaum were not permitted to step inside the intermediary room, much less the magnificent showcase next door. Fritz and Marie sat huddled together in a corner of the back room. The deep evening dusk had set in, and the children felt quite eerie because, as was usual on this day, no light had been brought in. Fritz quite secretly whispered to his younger sister (she had just turned seven) that he had heard a rustling and murmuring and soft throbbing in the locked rooms since early that morning. Also, not so long ago (Fritz went on), a short, dark man with a large casket under his arm had stolen across the vestibule. However, said Fritz, he knew quite well that it was none other than Godfather Drosselmeier. Marie joyfully clapped her little hands and exclaimed: "Ah, wonder what lovely presents he's made for us!"

Dumas version:

Once, in the town of Nuremberg, there lived a highly esteemed presiding judge known as Presiding Judge Silberhaus, which means Silver House. This judge had a boy and a girl. The boy, nine years old, was called Fritz. The girl, seven and a half years old, was called Marie. They were two lovely children, but so different in face and character that no one would ever have believed them to be brother and sister. Fritz was a big boy, chubby, blustering, mischievous, stamping his foot at the slightest annoyance. He was convinced that everything in the world was created for his entertainment, and he stuck to his guns until the doctor, intolerant of his cries and tears, his stamping foot, emerged from his office!

“The little girl then learnt that the dandified gentleman belonged to that ancient and respectable race of Nutcrackers whose origin is as ancient as that of the town of Nuremberg, and that he continued to exercise the honourable calling of his forefathers.”

“… all kinds of wonderful and extraordinary things may there be seen by those who have eyes sharp enough to discover them.”

Confession: I’ve never seen the ballet version of this story. But this book was so lovely, I now want to. I especially enjoyed the introduction that explains the beginning and whole evolution of The Nutcracker into the iconic ballet everyone knows about today.

È la storia di Hoffman riscritta da Dumas con il brio che lo contraddistingue, ricco di dettagli e descrizioni che non ci sono nella favola originale. Bellissima l'introduzione, Dumas questa volta non parla a noi lettori, ma a un gruppo di bambini, a una festa di compleanno.
Una bella lettura da fare in questi giorni di festa spilucchiando un panettone.

n  "It's a hard nut to crack."n

Una storia estremamente dolce, perfetta per il periodo natalizio

C'ettait une jollie conte pour les enfants, mais moi aussi, je l'ai bcp aimee !!

On commence avec le 'frame' -cet a dire, avec l'entourage de l'histoire. Ce sont les enfants qu'avaitent capture's la personne que reconte l'histoire. Ensuite, il y avait un histore de fievre qui termine avec une marriage. Mais, cette fois ci, c'est la dame qui sauve l'homme !
Chouette !


--
we start with the 'frame' - that is to say, with the entourage of the story. These are the children captured by the person retelling the story.

The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky has always been one of my favourite ballets, and I see it in theatres in December whenever possible (i.e., when I have enough time and money). Until I came across this copy of  The Nutcracker by  Alexandre Dumas, I had been under the impression that the famous ballet was based upon the Nutcracker fairy tale by  E.T.A. Hoffmann – cue my surprise when I discovered that Marius Pepita, with whom Tchaikovsky collaborated for the ballet, based the story of the ballet mostly upon Dumas’ adaptation!

Unfortunately, as I have yet to read the original tale by Hoffmann, I cannot compare the two – though I have heard that Hoffmann’s version is a lot darker, with slightly creepy undertones, compared to Dumas’ sugary wonderland filled with sweet delight. Because that is what this tale is: sweet, romantic, soft, magical, and just a true Christmas classic.

The story adds a bit more depth to the character of the Nutcracker himself, and how he came to be, much like the animated film of the 90s (“The Nutcracker Prince”, 1990, with Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of the Nutcracker). This leads to a tale within a tale (within a tale!), during which godfather Drosselmeyer tells Marie the story of the tiny nameless kingdom near Neurenburg, of the beautiful princess Pirlipat who was cursed, and how Nathaniel Drosselmeyer eventually got turned into the Nutcracker while trying to save Pirlipat from the curse laid upon her.

The writing is, at times, quite jumbled and feels like someone just keeps rambling and rambling on. However, that doesn’t take away the magic of all the candy-filled magical places Marie travels to together with the Nutcracker, nephew to her godfather Drosselmeyer, and all the strange and beautiful characters she meets along the way. I felt like I was eight years old again and watched the ballet on TV for the first time, immersing myself in the magical world and imagining myself as Marie.

However, there was one small, creepy thing – at the start of the story, Marie is seven-and-a-half years old. And then at the end, the Nutcracker-turned-handsome-boy-again asks to marry her, but only a year later. Meaning Marie will be eight years old once married off to an albeit handsome, but almost nineteen-year-old Nutcracker? I almost felt like somebody (either Dumas or Hoffmann) forgot about Marie’s age; at least, I hope so!

Recommended for those curious about the original tale that inspired the famous ballet. Keep in mind that it is presented as a children’s story and is written as such, and can come across as a bit confusing and/or jumbled. However, I applaud the great translation by  Sarah Ardizzone, and quite enjoyed this magical Christmas fairy tale (without the supposed darkness of the Hoffmann tale) myself.

Reading this while listening to a Nutcracker playlist >>> Anyways, I really liked this and it was the perfect holiday little read

:) <3