‘The Sandman’ by ETA Hoffmann concerns madness, horror, and the unheimlich. It tells the story of Nathanael, a young poet, who is haunted not only by his father’s death, but also by his childhood terror of ‘the Sandman’, an evil creature that steals children’s eyes in the night. Nathanael’s life is disrupted when he encounters a mysterious salesman named Coppola, who reminds him of this story. Nathanael then meets Coppola’s daughter Olimpia at a grand party hosted by his tutor Spallanzani. She is a gifted harpsichordist, but her movements are rather stiff, and she can only say, “Ah, Ah!” – nonetheless Nathanael is smitten. It later transpires that Olimpia is an automaton, created by Coppola with the aide of Spallanzani, and revelation of this knowledge drives Nathanael mad!

This is another story I first read at university, and I am uncannily still haunted by my struggles at trying to pin down all the metaphors and relate them to some of Freud’s theories, which the tutor seemed very keen for us to do. I know some people do not get on with these, but I love stories with an unreliable narrator. They are tricky things to make convincing. This story is still making my cogs whir to this day.

First published in The Night Pieces (Der Nachtstücke), 1816, and widely collected; available to read here