Die Automate

Automate, Die, a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, written and published in 1814 in the Zeitung für die Elegante Welt. A fragment had previously appeared in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (1814). The story was subsequently included in Die Serapionsbrüder (vol. 2, 1819). It combines the account of an ingeniously designed speaking figure with the story of a young man's love for a woman possessed of a beautiful expressive and highly trained voice. This element in the story relates to Hoffmann's love for Julia Marc.