I, Erzählende Schriften 35, Therese. Chronik eines Frauenlebens, Seite 85

Therese
box 6/2
39. nnn
THE NEW YORK
SUN,
Nezo
Novels b
) Schnitzler
6
ATURDAY, OCTOBER
1928.
Sannn
ae 1n
an
nd Frank
Pletess Louts A1.

STUDIES OF HUMAN FRALLTY
Old Style and New—By Schnitzler and Thiess.
By H. W. BOYNTON.
THERESA. The Chronicle of adering. For he lacks the rather glow¬
Woman’s Life. By Arthur Schnitz¬
ering solemnity of most Teuton nov¬
Translated
William A.
Felists, Schnitzler, Wassermann et al.
Drake. Simon & Schuster. 82.50.
The theme of" Devil’s Shadow“
8
1Cserious“' enough in all conse
THE DEVIL'’S SHADOW. By Frank
But this study of it is shot th
Thiess. Translated from the Ger¬
with a redeeming radiance of
man by H. T. Lowe-Porter. Alfred A.
humor. The hero, or main pers
Knopf. 53.
one of the lads we met in“7
wayto Life,“ the absurd-patl
par Müller, with his petty v
9
Theresa“ is issued as Schnitzler’s
determination to lock fact
0e
first full-length novel in twenty
and his racia! sentime
Sehnsucht; his impatiene
art
years. Schnitzler is à little older
and compass and his inability to find
than Kipling, began to write at
or even to seek any port.
about the same time, and like him
Caspar Müller rebels against the
was an accepted master by the end
stuffiness of his middle class home.
of the century. In his continued
His father is a feeble martinet, bis
mother a Conventional fool. Caspar
productiveness he is more like Wells
Is resolved to be himself; and himself
or Hardy. Some of his early works
turns out to be, in any one’s eyes but
have already the status of classics,
his own. a paltry and even filthy be¬
while his later books continue to be
ing; thief, sponge, blackmaller, de¬
best sellers, at least in Austria. How
bauchee, pimp. The reviewer often
far has he developed with his time,
complains of publisher’s “blurbs.“
how Kir are the matter and quality
Here is a fine and adequate
ning
of his work affected by the political,
up of this book from its g
êt:
Caspar’s guiding lights
material and spiritual changes that
ney
and women; his adventure
Or.
have come about in Europe, and
tunism and blackmall are
stie
especially In Austria, since the war?
beyond belief; his devious schemes
Theresa“
gives no evidence.
lead him to every level of ihe world
There is nothing to date the book,
he inhabits. His life thus becomes a
however vaguely, but its lack of
study in the disintegration of moral
modernity. It might belong to the
values, and the result is an abtonish¬
period of an earlier study of femi¬
ingly vivid portrayal of an entire so¬
cial order, by turns bewildered, de¬
nine character, Bertha Garlan“
spairing and cynical, dancing on the
(1901), with which it may naturally
grave of its own aspirations.“
be compared.
Consumingly ironical are the closing
The surface resemblance is strong.
lines of the book. They are from a
In both books the theme is a well¬
letter written by Caspar to his mother
meaning woman who yearns and
at the moment when he is setting out!
seeks after happiness in love and
upon an enterprise which marks his
attainment of utter moral obliquity:
achieves only the excitements and
1 am as happy as a king
frustrations of sex. But there re¬
I am traveling first cabin, my ticket
mains a certaln feminine glamour
is paid for.
Marvelous food and
about Bertha Garlan, an aura of
glorious sunshine. What a century!
Victorian “charm.“ The author’s
We may well be proud of it. Life
tenderness for her finds utterance
is so glerious! Good-hv. good-by.“
in an emotional warmth, an almost
How is it that behind the nauseous
febrile sympathy whichTheresa'
fact of Caspar an eche of healing
laughter is faintly audible? The
quite lacks. "Bertha Garlan“ is a
fourth part of the tetralogy is to come.
nervous, flowing narrative, much
Will it show Caspar and his genera¬
broken hy dialogue and what is in
tion, grown older, in more hopeful
effect soliloquy. It is all told di¬
light?
rectly from the woman’s point of
view, directly out of her conscious¬
ness, with a Galsworthlan unfolding
of what goes on from moment #o#
moment in her mind and heart.
*Theresn.)
In manner and effect“Theresa“ is
quite other. A rather hard, dry, cir¬
cumstantial account, truly a “chron¬
icle'' of a life in which one is able to
discover little charm or dignity. On
the whole it is a chronicle of middle¬
aged frailtv by one who has outlived
even middle age. Schnitzler is sorry
Tor
s Theresa
son