The Lost Reflection: From their pens to your ears, genius in every story

Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffman was born on the 24th January 1776, the youngest of three children, in Königsberg, then in Prussia but now part of the Kaliningrad Russian enclave.

His parents separated when he was two and for many years life was to be provincial and, despite his talents for the creative arts and the classics, much was passing him by.

At 20 Hoffman obtained employment as a clerk and to the art that now surrounded him. Two years later he was in Berlin attempting a career as a comp...