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After a humble start, ‘Nutcracker’ grew into a classic holiday treat

Quoted: Sabine Gross, a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke recently about Hoffmann’s story and the era.Calling Hoffmann one of the “dark Romantics,” she explained that he and many of his literary colleagues had a fascination with folk and fairy tales, as well as stories of the supernatural. The Grimm brothers, who collected and published their versions of such classic folktales as “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty,” also fall under that heading.