"De Gouden Vaas" by E. T. A. Hoffmann is a novella first published in 1814. A clumsy student named Anselmus falls in love with a mysterious snake in an elderberry bush, only to discover she is the daughter of an eccentric archivist who is actually a banished salamander from Atlantis. Caught between the magical Serpentina and the earthly Veronika, Anselmus must choose between two worlds while copying ancient manuscripts and battling witches wielding enchanted mirrors. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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