Master Martin, the Cooper, and His Journeyman

E. T. A. Hoffmann

• Publisher: Read & Co. Classics
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781447465737
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473377462
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

In the proud guild world of sixteenth-century Nuremberg, a wealthy cooper vows his daughter shall marry only a master of the craft – and three suitors set out to win her. Master Martin, the Cooper, and His Journeyman brims with old-world charm.

Published in 1817 and later gathered into The Serapion Brethren, this warm historical tale evokes the workshops, festivals, and rivalries of Renaissance Germany with loving detail. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822), born in Königsberg, East Prussia, was a jurist, composer, and one of the founding voices of German Romanticism.

Table of contents

• Master Martin, the Cooper, and his Journeyman
• E. T. A. Hoffman
• How Master Martin was elected “Candle-master” and how he returned thanks therefor.
• What afterwards took place in Master Martin’s house.
• How Master Martin extols his trade above all others.
• The old Grandmother’s Prophecy.
• How the two young journeymen Frederick and Reinhold became acquainted with each other.
• How the two young journeymen, Reinhold and Frederick, were taken into Master Martin’s house.
• How the third journeyman came into Master Martin’s house and what followed in consequence.
• Of Dame Martha’s conversation with Rose about the three journeymen, Conrad’s quarrel with Master Martin.
• Reinhold leaves Master Martin’s house.
• How Frederick was driven out of the workshop by Master Martin.
• Conclusion.