Customer Reviews

Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker

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The Nutcracker is another Christmas story I love besides L. Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," and I had gotten curious about the original story the ballet is based on.

The story starts at Christmas Eve, at the Stahlbaum household, guests arrive for the Christmas party. One guest in particular is the Stahlbaum children's godfather Drosselmeyer, who gives the family an intricate toy castle, and gives Marie a Nutcracker. Marie pass the Nutcracker among the guests and her brother Fritz and sister Louise, cracking nuts, until Fritz tries to crack a nut that is too big and hard, and the Nutcracker's jaw breaks. Marie, upset, takes the Nutcracker away and bandages him with a ribbon from her dress. When it is time for bed, the children put their Christmas gifts away in the special cupboard where they keep their toys. Fritz and Louise go up to bed, but Marie begs to be allowed to stay with Nutcracker a while longer, and she is allowed to do so. She puts Nutcracker to bed and tells him that Drosselmeyer will fix his jaw as good as new. At this, the Nutcracker's face seems momentarily to come alive, and Marie is frightened, but she then decides it was only her imagination. The grandfather clock begins to chime, and Marie believes she sees Drosselmeyer sitting on top of it, preventing it from striking. Mice begin to come out from beneath the floor boards, including the seven-headed Mouse King. Marie, startled, slips and puts her elbow through the glass door of the toy cupboard. The dolls in the cupboard come alive and begin to move, Nutcracker taking command and leading them into battle after putting Marie's ribbon on as a token. The battle at first goes to the dolls, but they are eventually overwhelmed by the mice. Marie, seeing Nutcracker about to be taken prisoner, takes off her shoe and throws it at the Mouse King, then faints.

Marie wakes the next morning with her arm bandaged and tries to tell her parents about the battle between the mice and the dolls, but they do not believe her, thinking that she has had a fever dream caused by the wound she sustained from the broken glass. Drosselmeyer soon arrives with the Nutcracker, whose jaw has been fixed, and tells Marie the story of Princess Pirlipat and the Queen of the Mice, which explains how Nutcrackers came to be and why they look the way they do; well if I explain Drosselmeyer's story to you folks, it would be a very long review. Marie, while she recuperates from her wound, hears the King of the Mice whispering to her in the middle of the night, threatening to bite Nutcracker to pieces unless she gives him her sweets and her dolls. I won't get you anymore details, you'll have to read the story for yourself.

I was fortunate to order a copy of book with both E.T.A Hoffman's and Alexandre Dumas' version of the story. After reading this book, I found that I love Hoffman's version the best and The Nutcracker And Mouse King is a great Christmas fantasy to share.