The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Audio Download)

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (German: Nussknacker und Mausekönig) is a story written in 1816 by Prussian author E.T.A. Hoffmann, in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favourite 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. In 1892, the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov turned Alexandre Dumas's adaptation of the story into the ballet The Nutcracker.