midnight
In a letter written to Hoffmann on March 26th , 1821 , recommending a young fellow-countryman to him , Oehlenschläger says , `` Dip him also a little in the magic sea of your humour , respected friend , and teach him how a man can be a philosopher and seer of the world under the ironical mantle of the mad-house , and what is more an amiable man as well ; '' and he subscribes himself , `` A. Oehlenschläger , Serapion Brother . '' In 1817 was published the collection of tales called _ Die Nachtstücke _ , embracing _ Der Sandmann _ -LRB- The Sand-man -RRB- and _ Das Majorat _ -LRB- The Entail -RRB- , which reproduce personages and experiences belonging to the years in Königsberg ; _ Die Jesuitenkirche _ and _ Das steinerne Herz _ , going back to his life in Glogau ; _ Das Gelübde _ , built upon a story related by his wife as connected with her native town of Posen ; _ Das Sanctus _ , which was suggested by an incident in Berlin soon after Hoffmann 's arrival there ; and _ das öde Haus _ , this last due to the way in which he was incessantly haunted by the appearance of a closed house in the _ Unter den Linden _ . These were mostly written in 1816 and 1817 ; and to them he added _ Ignas Denner _ , which possesses some merit , but is of too gloomy and darkly unpleasant a cast to be attractive to English readers ; it was written during the first days in Dresden , just after his emancipation from the Bamberg thraldom . Whilst in it he gives free rein to sombre melancholy , and dips his pen in `` midnight blackness , '' in _ Berganza _ , written about the same time , he has poured out the cynical bitterness and scathing scorn which was then undoubtedly gnawing at his heart . _ Der Sandmann _ , though embodying reminiscences of its author 's youth , also contains material derived from an incident which took place during a visit of Hoffmann 's to Fouqué 's country-seat near Ratenow , and Nathanael was recognised by Fouqué as meant for himself . _ Das Majorat _ is , as already stated , a lasting memorial to his old great-uncle , Vöthöry ; the moral backbone of the story -- the evil destiny attaching to the successors of a man whose ambition aimed at founding a powerful family by an act of injustice to his youngest son -- reminds the reader forcibly of the purpose that runs through Hawthorne 's _ House with the Seven Gables _ . Of the in many respects admirable story _ Das Gelübde _ -- it is to be regretted that it is marred by the dangerous nature of the subject ; -LSB- 25 -RSB- it is else poetically treated and invested with a spirit of weird mysticism that would have made it rank higher than what it does .