The first volume of the Collected Works of E.-T.-A.Hoffmann (1776–1822) includes “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814–1819), which made him famous, the play “Princess Blandina” (1814) and “The Extraordinary the suffering of a theater director" (1818).

Among the company gathered before the New Year, the hero-narrator meets his lost lover. He is shocked by the change in her and flees. Wandering around Berlin, he stops at a bodega on Unter den Linden and meets amazing visitors. One of them pursues the hero, writes down the strange story of his life and gives the manuscript to the narrator.