Kathryn’s Reviews > Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker > Status Update

Wow! How is it? I’ve never even considered reading this. Never even thought about it. Now you have me all excited!

Ashley, this book contains two versions of the Nutcracker story: the original by Hoffmann and a retelling by Dumas. There is very little about this story that is Christmas-y! Both of these versions are very, very different from the ballet that bears the same name. The Hoffmann story is a bizarre (and sometimes gruesome) fairy tale. Dumas’s retelling is more flowery in its prose (Hoffmann’s is very German; Dumas’s is very French) but similarly bizarre. I would love to hear your thoughts after you read one or both!!