The Nutcracker

Prussian author E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote The Nutcracker [and the Mouse King] in 1816. The magical story tells how young Marie Stahlbaum's adored Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. The story was later adapted by the prolific French author, Alexandre Dumas, and in 1892, Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov turned Dumas's adaptation of the story into the ballet The Nutcracker which has become greatly beloved and most frequently performed of all ballets.