Weird Tales

About this issue

This is Volume I of an 1885 English translation of E.T.W. Hoffmann's Weird Tales, translated by J.T. Bealby. The collection contains six stories: "The Cremona Violin," "The Fermata," "Signor Formica," "The Sand-man," "The Entail," and "Arthur's Hall." "The Cremona Violin," the opening story, concerns Councillor Krespel, an eccentric lawyer and diplomat who builds a house in an unconventional manner—establishing only foundations and walls before improvising door and window placements while walking about. The narrative reveals Krespel's obsessive interest in violins: he manufactures instruments of exceptional quality, plays each newly completed violin once before retiring it permanently, and purchases masterworks by celebrated makers—particularly Amati instruments—only to disassemble them for structural analysis. The story hints at a mysterious connection between Krespel and a young woman named Antonia, whose mention provokes violent emotional responses in the Councillor.