{"product_id":"2940013669642","title":"The Sand-Man and other stories","description":"You are right, you have not written to me for a very long time, but\u003cbr\u003enevertheless I believe that I still retain a place in your mind and\u003cbr\u003ethoughts. It is a proof that you were thinking a good deal about me\u003cbr\u003ewhen you were sending off your last letter to brother Lothair, for\u003cbr\u003einstead of directing it to him you directed it to me. With joy I tore\u003cbr\u003eopen the envelope, and did not perceive the mistake until I read the\u003cbr\u003ewords, \"Oh! my dear, dear Lothair.\" Now I know I ought not to have\u003cbr\u003eread any more of the letter, but ought to have given it to my brother.\u003cbr\u003eBut as you have so often in innocent raillery made it a sort of\u003cbr\u003ereproach against me that I possessed such a calm, and, for a woman,\u003cbr\u003ecool-headed temperament that I should be like the woman we read of--if\u003cbr\u003ethe house was threatening to tumble down, I should, before hastily\u003cbr\u003efleeing, stop to smooth down a crumple in the window-curtains--I need\u003cbr\u003ehardly tell you that the beginning of your letter quite upset me. I\u003cbr\u003ecould scarcely breathe; there was a bright mist before my eyes. Oh! my\u003cbr\u003edarling Nathanael! what could this terrible thing be that had\u003cbr\u003ehappened? Separation from you--never to see you again, the thought was\u003cbr\u003elike a sharp knife in my heart. I read on and on. Your description of\u003cbr\u003ethat horrid Coppelius made my flesh creep. I now learnt for the first\u003cbr\u003etime what a terrible and violent death your good old father died.\u003cbr\u003eBrother Lothair, to whom I handed over his property, sought to comfort\u003cbr\u003eme, but with little success. That horrid weather-glass hawker Giuseppe\u003cbr\u003eCoppola followed me everywhere; and I am almost ashamed to confess it,\u003cbr\u003ebut he was able to disturb my sound and in general calm sleep with all\u003cbr\u003esorts of wonderful dream-shapes. But soon--the next day--I saw\u003cbr\u003eeverything in a different light. Oh! do not be angry with me, my best-\u003cbr\u003ebeloved, if, despite your strange presentiment that Coppelius will do\u003cbr\u003eyou some mischief, Lothair tells you I am in quite as good spirits,\u003cbr\u003eand just the same as ever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI will frankly confess, it seems to me that all that was fearsome and\u003cbr\u003eterrible of which you speak, existed only in your own self, and that\u003cbr\u003ethe real true outer world had but little to do with it. I can quite\u003cbr\u003eadmit that old Coppelius may have been highly obnoxious to you\u003cbr\u003echildren, but your real detestation of him arose from the fact that he\u003cbr\u003ehated children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNaturally enough the gruesome Sand-man of the old nurse's story was\u003cbr\u003eassociated in your childish mind with old Coppelius, who, even though\u003cbr\u003eyou had not believed in the Sand-man, would have been to you a ghostly\u003cbr\u003ebugbear, especially dangerous to children. His mysterious labours\u003cbr\u003ealong with your father at night-time were, I daresay, nothing more\u003cbr\u003ethan secret experiments in alchemy, with which your mother could not\u003cbr\u003ebe over well pleased, owing to the large sums of money that most\u003cbr\u003elikely were thrown away upon them; and besides, your father, his mind\u003cbr\u003efull of the deceptive striving after higher knowledge, may probably\u003cbr\u003ehave become rather indifferent to his family, as so often happens in\u003cbr\u003ethe case of such experimentalists. So also it is equally probable that\u003cbr\u003eyour father brought about his death by his own imprudence, and that\u003cbr\u003eCoppelius is not to blame for it. I must tell you that yesterday I\u003cbr\u003easked our experienced neighbour, the chemist, whether in experiments\u003cbr\u003eof this kind an explosion could take place which would have a\u003cbr\u003emomentarily fatal effect. He said, \"Oh, certainly!\" and described to\u003cbr\u003eme in his prolix and circumstantial way how it could be occasioned,\u003cbr\u003ementioning at the same time so many strange and funny words that I\u003cbr\u003ecould not remember them at all. Now I know you will be angry at your\u003cbr\u003eClara, and will say, \"Of the Mysterious which often clasps man in its\u003cbr\u003einvisible arms there's not a ray can find its way into this cold\u003cbr\u003eheart. She sees only the varied surface of the things of the world,\u003cbr\u003eand, like the little child, is pleased with the golden glittering\u003cbr\u003efruit, at the kernel of which lies the fatal poison.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh! my beloved Nathanael, do you believe then that the intuitive\u003cbr\u003eprescience of a dark power working within us to our own ruin cannot\u003cbr\u003eexist also in minds which are cheerful, natural, free from care? But\u003cbr\u003eplease forgive me that I, a simple girl, presume in my way to indicate\u003cbr\u003eto you what I really think of such an inward strife. After all, I\u003cbr\u003eshould not find the proper words, and you would only laugh at me, not\u003cbr\u003ebecause my thoughts were stupid, but because I was so foolish as to\u003cbr\u003eattempt to tell them to you.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070192074992,"sku":"2940013669642","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013669642_p0.jpg?v=1763583754","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013669642","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}