2
JOIIN O• LONDON’S WEEKLY.
NOVEL OF THE WEEK.
By. LYDIA LANGUISH.
1#x& Woman s Double Life.
DR. SCHNITZLER AND THE FUTILITY OF THE LIFE OF PLEASURE:
THE TRAGEDY OF A LONG ENGAGEMENT.
UIENNA, sup¬
whimpering, wrinkled crcaturo, as she stretchedl
posedly a city
out her right arm towards it and tried to draw it
towards her. What will von do in thie worle
of galety and Jjoie d#
withont father or mother? And what shall 1 do
rirre, is mainly the
with von?... Come, my babe! Come, my little
scehe of Di-Arthur
Kashnir! Von don't want to ben bad man like
Schnitzler’s extremely
vour father, do von? Come! Von will lie com¬
gloomy chronicle of
fortablehere. I will cover von well. sothat nothing,
life,
woman's
nothing will hurt von. Here, under the pillow,
* Thercsa.“ (Consta¬
it is good to sleep, good to die. Another pillow,
No
so that gvou may be warmer. Good-bye, my
ble, 78. 6d.).
child!..
mean it for your good, my sweet
Victorian Mariana
little child. 1 am not the right mother for yon.
could have found
1 do not deserve von. Vou must not live. J am
life in her moated
here for other children; T have no time for yon.?
grange more doleful
Nevertheless, the little Franz flourishes and
Dr. Schnitzler.
than this daughter
is boarded out with a farmer and his wife at
of a retired Lieutenant
Ensbach.
at first settled in Salzburg, and later consigned
to a lunatie asylum. Frau Fabiani is frankly
A bad boy.
a bad lot. The boy Karl is neither hot nor
Por a time all goes well. Theresa responds
cold—he qualifies as a doctor, marrics, and
naturally to the charms of infancy and looks
propagates his species, entirely indifferent to
forwardto her visits to Ensbach as the red-letter
the fate of his only sister.
days oflife. She feels, indeed, thatsheis happier
Theresa attends classes at the Lyecum and
than many a mother who, having her children
ultimately qualisies for a tracher. Her subse¬
always with her, can never experiencesthe thrill
quent adventures are not a littie astonishing.
of holiday in anticipation of meeting. But as
She sets ont determined never to take a lover,
the boy grows older his manners and habits
nor have a child-—“one must never lose one’s
coarsen. The farmer’s daughter, Agnes, who
head. Above all, oue must never trust a
is a nursemaid in Vienna, is also a thorn in
man!
Theresa’s side. So much so that she decides
A long engagement.
eventualiy to take a small apartment and give
daily lessons instead oftaking another resident
Thereafter she promptly falls in love with
post. But instead of mending matters, Franz
Alfred Nuellheim, who calls her his
is bored with and even detests his mother.
dearest, his bride. She must wait fer him! In
six vears time, at the verv most, he would have
le plays fruant from school and deceives her
received his doctor’s degrec; and thien she would
on every possible occasion:
become his wife.
Now and then she caught a sinister look in bis
But, as so often happens in long engage¬
eves, a look in which Theresa this time recognized
ments, Alfred’s intentions petered out by slow
not ouly stubbornness, not only a lack of under¬
standing and love, but bitterness, scorn, and even
degrees, but by the time Theresa rcalizes that
a liidden reproach, to which he refrained from
their idvll will never culminate in marriage her
giving utterance, perhaps out of a last vestige of
affections—should one say her attentions?—
consideration for her.
Her heart froze with
Thev were, in fact,
are otherwise engaged.
terror, lest the boy who had turned away and pulled
somewhat facile—no fewer ihan six lovers,
the covers up over his head might again pierce her
apart from proposals of marriage, have fallen
wich his knowing, hating, deadly glance.
to her lot. Max, Kasimir, Dr. Bing, Alfred,
The boy becomes a voung man and betakes
Richard, and Herr Wallschein succeeded one
himself to lodgings of his own. For weeks at
another at shorter or longer intervals.
a time Theresa hears nothing of him, then he
these Kasimir, Alfred, and Wallschein were the
turns up unexpectedly demanding money with
most important: Kasimir, because he is the
menaccs. The worst happens wiien Agnes onc
ather of her ehild; Alfred, whro from forcc of
day appears with a message. Franz has heen
old associations and family friendship shows
in prison and is now in hospital, and she has
her à more or less consistent, if lukewarm,
come to beg a little moncy for delicacies and
affectien throughout her life; and Hlerr Wall¬
a few eigarettes.
schein, the father of one of her pupils, who at
long last really means marriage.
Her blackest crime.
Theresa feels for the ürst time in her lise
The birth of her child.
notasense of guilt, but that her blackest erime
Even more remarkable, numerically, was the
has been the omission of a father in her hoy's
succession of situations which Theresa enters
Pexistence. She must find Kasimir:—
as governess. No fewer than eleven families
as in a pieture, she saw it all played out
enjoyed from time to time the benelits of her
before hei mind’s eve: how she aroused hin from
ministrations. From the English standpoint
his shunher; how she took his hand and led him
it would scem unlikely that any girl could have
through immnerable streets symbolizing the many
led this double existence successfully for an
devions paths of his life; how she, with him at her
length of time. M is true she staged nowhere
side, knocked at a door, thie door of the erimmal
for long, whlich makes it the more remarkable
hospital, and how she led him forward to the bedi
that she never sccmns to have experieneed any
of á sick boy who was his son; how he opened his
difliculties with regard to referenccs.
eyes wide in surprise, beginningto understand, and
The arrival of her child naturally makes her
finallg, how he sank on his knees at the bed-side
and, türning round to her, whispered:" Forgive
In the rclations of
life more complieated.
ine, Theresa !?
zuether and son the book attains profundity.
She is alone at the moment of herschild’s
What actually happens strikes an almost
birth, and her first impulse is towards infanti¬
comienote of irony.Theresa“' is an infinitely
eide:—
depressing book, but since it rams home the
futility and bitterness of a life of pleasure it
Why do von want to come into the world?
she askedl, in the depths of her heart, of this faintl, may not have been written in vain.
D. Neun
MOl EDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1929.
TUN
1
BAr
u
Lnd
FICTION FROM
ABROAD.
OVER
Suenee
EUROPE.
By R. ELLIS ROBERTS.
*The Sleeping Army.“ By Clura
Viebig. Benn. 78. 6d.
" Red Cavalry.“ By J. Babel. Knopf.
78/ 60.
4 Theresa.“ By A. Schnitzler. Con¬
stable. 73. 6d.
* The Green Banks of Shannon.“ I
Rosamund Lungbridge. Coilins. 78. 6d
German Poland, Soviet Russia,
Schnitzler’s Vienna, even Miss
Langbridge's Ireland seem far away
from this England.
Miss Viebig’s story is an industrious
but uninspired piece of work: it is coni¬
cerned with an earnest German's efforts
to Teutonise what were the Polish pro¬
vinces—only the stupid people are sym¬
pathetic, and those who are not stupid
are only cunning in a low, mean way.
But they are cultured and reasonable
beside the savages of M. Babel’s short
stories.
WAR IN RUSSIA:
If M. Babel's stories are popular in
Russia, it seems possible that before
long there will be a violent re¬
vulsion against the brutalitv, the
coarseness, the ignorant intolerar¬
which they exhibit. The author #s
sternly obiective in his manner—beside
bis even Maupassant would seem to be
biased in favour of his charucters.
Nearly all the stories are abbut the war
against Poland, and used as propa¬
ganda against war and against revo¬
lution they could bardly be excelled.
Whether that is M. Babel’s intention.
it is impossible to be certain. The
translation is idiomatie, but if there
is beauty, for instance, in such a story
as" Sait,“ it escapes altogether in the
English version: nor, indeed, Cocs
Babel anywhere in this book-show that
he could extract beauty from the tale
of the murder of a lying woman by an
ignorant soldier.
A GLOOMY NODEL.
Theresa.!—why is nbt the date of¬
its origffal appearance given ?—is not
one of Schnitzle.“ successes. Theresa
does have some experiences in her
life as a governess that are not sexual
or abnormal, but Schnitzler hurries
over them as his Victorian predecessors
would have hurried over or omitted
6609,144
has been paid in Free
Ins ance Claims to Readers
of the
Daily News & Westminster,“
Record number of 7,068
claims paid in 1928.
2,821 CLAIMS ALREADY
PAID THIS YEAR.
JOIIN O• LONDON’S WEEKLY.
NOVEL OF THE WEEK.
By. LYDIA LANGUISH.
1#x& Woman s Double Life.
DR. SCHNITZLER AND THE FUTILITY OF THE LIFE OF PLEASURE:
THE TRAGEDY OF A LONG ENGAGEMENT.
UIENNA, sup¬
whimpering, wrinkled crcaturo, as she stretchedl
posedly a city
out her right arm towards it and tried to draw it
towards her. What will von do in thie worle
of galety and Jjoie d#
withont father or mother? And what shall 1 do
rirre, is mainly the
with von?... Come, my babe! Come, my little
scehe of Di-Arthur
Kashnir! Von don't want to ben bad man like
Schnitzler’s extremely
vour father, do von? Come! Von will lie com¬
gloomy chronicle of
fortablehere. I will cover von well. sothat nothing,
life,
woman's
nothing will hurt von. Here, under the pillow,
* Thercsa.“ (Consta¬
it is good to sleep, good to die. Another pillow,
No
so that gvou may be warmer. Good-bye, my
ble, 78. 6d.).
child!..
mean it for your good, my sweet
Victorian Mariana
little child. 1 am not the right mother for yon.
could have found
1 do not deserve von. Vou must not live. J am
life in her moated
here for other children; T have no time for yon.?
grange more doleful
Nevertheless, the little Franz flourishes and
Dr. Schnitzler.
than this daughter
is boarded out with a farmer and his wife at
of a retired Lieutenant
Ensbach.
at first settled in Salzburg, and later consigned
to a lunatie asylum. Frau Fabiani is frankly
A bad boy.
a bad lot. The boy Karl is neither hot nor
Por a time all goes well. Theresa responds
cold—he qualifies as a doctor, marrics, and
naturally to the charms of infancy and looks
propagates his species, entirely indifferent to
forwardto her visits to Ensbach as the red-letter
the fate of his only sister.
days oflife. She feels, indeed, thatsheis happier
Theresa attends classes at the Lyecum and
than many a mother who, having her children
ultimately qualisies for a tracher. Her subse¬
always with her, can never experiencesthe thrill
quent adventures are not a littie astonishing.
of holiday in anticipation of meeting. But as
She sets ont determined never to take a lover,
the boy grows older his manners and habits
nor have a child-—“one must never lose one’s
coarsen. The farmer’s daughter, Agnes, who
head. Above all, oue must never trust a
is a nursemaid in Vienna, is also a thorn in
man!
Theresa’s side. So much so that she decides
A long engagement.
eventualiy to take a small apartment and give
daily lessons instead oftaking another resident
Thereafter she promptly falls in love with
post. But instead of mending matters, Franz
Alfred Nuellheim, who calls her his
is bored with and even detests his mother.
dearest, his bride. She must wait fer him! In
six vears time, at the verv most, he would have
le plays fruant from school and deceives her
received his doctor’s degrec; and thien she would
on every possible occasion:
become his wife.
Now and then she caught a sinister look in bis
But, as so often happens in long engage¬
eves, a look in which Theresa this time recognized
ments, Alfred’s intentions petered out by slow
not ouly stubbornness, not only a lack of under¬
standing and love, but bitterness, scorn, and even
degrees, but by the time Theresa rcalizes that
a liidden reproach, to which he refrained from
their idvll will never culminate in marriage her
giving utterance, perhaps out of a last vestige of
affections—should one say her attentions?—
consideration for her.
Her heart froze with
Thev were, in fact,
are otherwise engaged.
terror, lest the boy who had turned away and pulled
somewhat facile—no fewer ihan six lovers,
the covers up over his head might again pierce her
apart from proposals of marriage, have fallen
wich his knowing, hating, deadly glance.
to her lot. Max, Kasimir, Dr. Bing, Alfred,
The boy becomes a voung man and betakes
Richard, and Herr Wallschein succeeded one
himself to lodgings of his own. For weeks at
another at shorter or longer intervals.
a time Theresa hears nothing of him, then he
these Kasimir, Alfred, and Wallschein were the
turns up unexpectedly demanding money with
most important: Kasimir, because he is the
menaccs. The worst happens wiien Agnes onc
ather of her ehild; Alfred, whro from forcc of
day appears with a message. Franz has heen
old associations and family friendship shows
in prison and is now in hospital, and she has
her à more or less consistent, if lukewarm,
come to beg a little moncy for delicacies and
affectien throughout her life; and Hlerr Wall¬
a few eigarettes.
schein, the father of one of her pupils, who at
long last really means marriage.
Her blackest crime.
Theresa feels for the ürst time in her lise
The birth of her child.
notasense of guilt, but that her blackest erime
Even more remarkable, numerically, was the
has been the omission of a father in her hoy's
succession of situations which Theresa enters
Pexistence. She must find Kasimir:—
as governess. No fewer than eleven families
as in a pieture, she saw it all played out
enjoyed from time to time the benelits of her
before hei mind’s eve: how she aroused hin from
ministrations. From the English standpoint
his shunher; how she took his hand and led him
it would scem unlikely that any girl could have
through immnerable streets symbolizing the many
led this double existence successfully for an
devions paths of his life; how she, with him at her
length of time. M is true she staged nowhere
side, knocked at a door, thie door of the erimmal
for long, whlich makes it the more remarkable
hospital, and how she led him forward to the bedi
that she never sccmns to have experieneed any
of á sick boy who was his son; how he opened his
difliculties with regard to referenccs.
eyes wide in surprise, beginningto understand, and
The arrival of her child naturally makes her
finallg, how he sank on his knees at the bed-side
and, türning round to her, whispered:" Forgive
In the rclations of
life more complieated.
ine, Theresa !?
zuether and son the book attains profundity.
She is alone at the moment of herschild’s
What actually happens strikes an almost
birth, and her first impulse is towards infanti¬
comienote of irony.Theresa“' is an infinitely
eide:—
depressing book, but since it rams home the
futility and bitterness of a life of pleasure it
Why do von want to come into the world?
she askedl, in the depths of her heart, of this faintl, may not have been written in vain.
D. Neun
MOl EDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1929.
TUN
1
BAr
u
Lnd
FICTION FROM
ABROAD.
OVER
Suenee
EUROPE.
By R. ELLIS ROBERTS.
*The Sleeping Army.“ By Clura
Viebig. Benn. 78. 6d.
" Red Cavalry.“ By J. Babel. Knopf.
78/ 60.
4 Theresa.“ By A. Schnitzler. Con¬
stable. 73. 6d.
* The Green Banks of Shannon.“ I
Rosamund Lungbridge. Coilins. 78. 6d
German Poland, Soviet Russia,
Schnitzler’s Vienna, even Miss
Langbridge's Ireland seem far away
from this England.
Miss Viebig’s story is an industrious
but uninspired piece of work: it is coni¬
cerned with an earnest German's efforts
to Teutonise what were the Polish pro¬
vinces—only the stupid people are sym¬
pathetic, and those who are not stupid
are only cunning in a low, mean way.
But they are cultured and reasonable
beside the savages of M. Babel’s short
stories.
WAR IN RUSSIA:
If M. Babel's stories are popular in
Russia, it seems possible that before
long there will be a violent re¬
vulsion against the brutalitv, the
coarseness, the ignorant intolerar¬
which they exhibit. The author #s
sternly obiective in his manner—beside
bis even Maupassant would seem to be
biased in favour of his charucters.
Nearly all the stories are abbut the war
against Poland, and used as propa¬
ganda against war and against revo¬
lution they could bardly be excelled.
Whether that is M. Babel’s intention.
it is impossible to be certain. The
translation is idiomatie, but if there
is beauty, for instance, in such a story
as" Sait,“ it escapes altogether in the
English version: nor, indeed, Cocs
Babel anywhere in this book-show that
he could extract beauty from the tale
of the murder of a lying woman by an
ignorant soldier.
A GLOOMY NODEL.
Theresa.!—why is nbt the date of¬
its origffal appearance given ?—is not
one of Schnitzle.“ successes. Theresa
does have some experiences in her
life as a governess that are not sexual
or abnormal, but Schnitzler hurries
over them as his Victorian predecessors
would have hurried over or omitted
6609,144
has been paid in Free
Ins ance Claims to Readers
of the
Daily News & Westminster,“
Record number of 7,068
claims paid in 1928.
2,821 CLAIMS ALREADY
PAID THIS YEAR.