PUBLIC LEDGER-PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 5, 1927
* C
10g
phie
being clarified m
en
tauch of cool reall
and
While Pridolin is minking these
as-
strange, half-involuntary contacts Al¬
F
o e
bertina llies sleeping, and when toward
Se ün
morning he returns to her side it is to
*
discover that she has been even mone
A G
inimical to him in slumber than che #to.
ives,
sund her in his alert pursuft of pleas¬
sories
A Viennese Delicacy
ure. She recounts to him frankly the
hand
hostile dream Prom which he has just
1 the
RHAPSODT: A DREAM NOVEL.
roused her, and itsteffest upon him is to
ittee
Bu Arthur Schnitzler.
dieide him From his wife more sharply
-Pur¬
Neu Tork: Simon and Schuster.
than all hisown recent experiences had
least
81.50.
done. During the next day ihe attempts
0ad-
to follow up the might’s events, hut is
1 #ll.
again cheated of satisfaction. At last
Reviewed by
#and
hegoes home. Mhis time it is not Al¬
BABETTE DEUTSCH
ence,
94
bertina who makes a confession, but
rous.
Fridolin.
-HERE is a saying ithat when a
aum¬
ARTHUR SCHNITZLER
good Parisinn ddies he goes to
The gray dawn was ereeping in
that
4 Vienna. And could there be a
through the curtains when Fridolin
Arthur Schnitzler
S u more sophisticated Paradise than this
finished. Albertina hadn't once inter¬
and
Jeity, where the chief sin is to be dowdy,
rupted him with a curious or impatient
was.
Borrows Technique
where Otto Friml competes with night¬
question. She probably felt that he
with
Tingales, and where patriarchs command
vould not, and would not, keep anything
Of Sleeping Dreams
warn
Haselnusstorte for dessert on wash-day?
From her. She lay there quietly, with
dam¬
At all events, Schnitzler has done his
her arms folded under her head, and
RHAPSODY: A Dream Novel. Br Artbur
ng 1o
Sciniizler, Franalated br Otto P. Schin¬
best to give point to this mot about his
remained silent long after Fridolin had
nerer. New Tork: Simon & Schuster.
becta¬
81.50.
city. His novels, tales and dramas are
finished. He was lying by her side and
where
TT IS easy enough to write that this!
like so many boxes containing a fra¬
finally bent over her, and, looking into
istra¬
grant, delicately bitter compound which
is an unusually fine novel; that thef)
her immobile face with the large, bright
ess on.
is three parts charm and two parts dis¬
prose is luminous and the translation
eyes in which morning seemed to have
me, and
excelient. These things are casy tol;
illusioned romanticism. This most re¬
dawned, he asked, in a voice of both
before
say; they have been said and will bes!
cent story is no exception.
coubt and hope: What shall we do
hony's
said again. But it is another matter!
now, Albertina?“
The German title of the piece,
is old
again to state in a paragraph what
T'rammnouelle, gives the key to its
Rhapsody' is all about.
S suc¬
She smiled, and, after a minute, re¬
quality far better than the English
It is Traumnovelle, a dream novel,
#rnl of
plied: "I think we ought to be grateful
Rhapsody.“ Here is no acconnt of a
done in vague shadow and dim light—
ungue.
that we have come unharmed out of all
violent passion or of an ecstatic inter¬
with all the imponderable immensitics
Miss
cur adventures, whether they were real
of dreams; the foreshortenings, the dis¬
lude. Here, rather, is an extraordi¬
ow only a dream.?
ange!
tortions which give, in dreams, strange
narily subtle delineation of emotions so
and gloomy signiticance to waking life.
Js—he
Are you quite sure of that?“ he
Here life moves in a mist—and ver#
vague that they seem grounded in fan¬
dband
life is here unquestionably, with inti¬
scked.
tasy, of ghosts so vivid that they seem
mations of mystery solved, secrets re¬
to have the living body’s pressure and
vealed, beauty logically accounted for
Just as sure as J amthat the reality
Herr Schnitzler has songht to amplify
heat. The provocatise character of the
fully,
ol one night, let alone that of a whole
the mutterings but dimly heard the
narrative lies in its mystery. Arethe
man¬
lifetime, is not the whole truth.“
other side of reality; and his short
nocturnal adventures of Fridolin actual
Unovel leaves you somehow informed.
ou will
experiences, or merely desires that have
And no dream,“ he said with a
Dr. Fridolin and his wife are happily
hy by
married. The novel discovers them dis¬
taken on palpability? Is the dream of
slight sigh, “is entirely a dream.)
Trum¬
cussing their love for each other, and
Albertina, his wife, an ephemeral
in a moment of confession they both re¬
Is and
That would seem to be the moral of
veal to each other an infidelity—say, of
miasma floating over the marshes of
ng and
tnis unadorned tale. It is part of
mood — which they both experienced
sleep, or is it a distorted memory of
it Mr.
ouly recently. And when Dr. Fridolin
Schnitzler’s exquisite skill that long be¬
real events, a threat of horrors and
leaves bis wife on an emergency call he
th are
fore the pair put it into words he has
leaves her with a sense of irritation,
hatreds that will yet stalk into life?
add at
woven it into the texture of his fable.
distrust and resentment. Once out in
These questions are fairly explicit in
ditable.
the night, he moves into a world of
And, though the two statements are
the interchange between husband and
1 peculiar intensity. The night is gro¬
but not
something of a commonplace, he has
tesque and the activities through which
wife with which the novel is brought to
idiotie
managed to convey their grave impli¬
he moves are wonderful and strange.
a close.
So delicately has Herr Schnitzler han¬
nessee
cations with all the deftness of an art¬
died his material the reader is no more
#ir put
ist and all the gentleness of a physi¬
The plot is simple enough; alone the
certain than Dr. Fridelin that he is
into a
skillful intertwisting of the threads of
cian. The style of the writing—even
not in the midst of a dream—that the
dark hall of the costumer with little
vas ond
fantasy and reality complicates the pat¬
in translation—is smooth, direct and
Pierrette and the red monks, that the
Born
tern. There are only two characters of
ample, a style which, as Vienna appre¬
cavaliers and the long-haired women f
volesale
any importancenthe others are either
cintes, shows off subtle material to the
that cataclvsmic moment in the hidden
house on the hill. that the gaunt bodies
t have ligments of the protagonists’ imagina- best advantage.
in the hushed city morgue are not fig¬
ments of Dr. Fridolin’s dreams, the
substance of his desire.
The story is thoroughly absorbing:
and leaves one silent before the art of
a writer who has merged reality and
unreality in such manner that each is
recognizable withont differences being
clearly apparent. This is a departure
beyond che field of literature. This is.
literallr. achieving the technique of
dreums.
w. r.
* C
10g
phie
being clarified m
en
tauch of cool reall
and
While Pridolin is minking these
as-
strange, half-involuntary contacts Al¬
F
o e
bertina llies sleeping, and when toward
Se ün
morning he returns to her side it is to
*
discover that she has been even mone
A G
inimical to him in slumber than che #to.
ives,
sund her in his alert pursuft of pleas¬
sories
A Viennese Delicacy
ure. She recounts to him frankly the
hand
hostile dream Prom which he has just
1 the
RHAPSODT: A DREAM NOVEL.
roused her, and itsteffest upon him is to
ittee
Bu Arthur Schnitzler.
dieide him From his wife more sharply
-Pur¬
Neu Tork: Simon and Schuster.
than all hisown recent experiences had
least
81.50.
done. During the next day ihe attempts
0ad-
to follow up the might’s events, hut is
1 #ll.
again cheated of satisfaction. At last
Reviewed by
#and
hegoes home. Mhis time it is not Al¬
BABETTE DEUTSCH
ence,
94
bertina who makes a confession, but
rous.
Fridolin.
-HERE is a saying ithat when a
aum¬
ARTHUR SCHNITZLER
good Parisinn ddies he goes to
The gray dawn was ereeping in
that
4 Vienna. And could there be a
through the curtains when Fridolin
Arthur Schnitzler
S u more sophisticated Paradise than this
finished. Albertina hadn't once inter¬
and
Jeity, where the chief sin is to be dowdy,
rupted him with a curious or impatient
was.
Borrows Technique
where Otto Friml competes with night¬
question. She probably felt that he
with
Tingales, and where patriarchs command
vould not, and would not, keep anything
Of Sleeping Dreams
warn
Haselnusstorte for dessert on wash-day?
From her. She lay there quietly, with
dam¬
At all events, Schnitzler has done his
her arms folded under her head, and
RHAPSODY: A Dream Novel. Br Artbur
ng 1o
Sciniizler, Franalated br Otto P. Schin¬
best to give point to this mot about his
remained silent long after Fridolin had
nerer. New Tork: Simon & Schuster.
becta¬
81.50.
city. His novels, tales and dramas are
finished. He was lying by her side and
where
TT IS easy enough to write that this!
like so many boxes containing a fra¬
finally bent over her, and, looking into
istra¬
grant, delicately bitter compound which
is an unusually fine novel; that thef)
her immobile face with the large, bright
ess on.
is three parts charm and two parts dis¬
prose is luminous and the translation
eyes in which morning seemed to have
me, and
excelient. These things are casy tol;
illusioned romanticism. This most re¬
dawned, he asked, in a voice of both
before
say; they have been said and will bes!
cent story is no exception.
coubt and hope: What shall we do
hony's
said again. But it is another matter!
now, Albertina?“
The German title of the piece,
is old
again to state in a paragraph what
T'rammnouelle, gives the key to its
Rhapsody' is all about.
S suc¬
She smiled, and, after a minute, re¬
quality far better than the English
It is Traumnovelle, a dream novel,
#rnl of
plied: "I think we ought to be grateful
Rhapsody.“ Here is no acconnt of a
done in vague shadow and dim light—
ungue.
that we have come unharmed out of all
violent passion or of an ecstatic inter¬
with all the imponderable immensitics
Miss
cur adventures, whether they were real
of dreams; the foreshortenings, the dis¬
lude. Here, rather, is an extraordi¬
ow only a dream.?
ange!
tortions which give, in dreams, strange
narily subtle delineation of emotions so
and gloomy signiticance to waking life.
Js—he
Are you quite sure of that?“ he
Here life moves in a mist—and ver#
vague that they seem grounded in fan¬
dband
life is here unquestionably, with inti¬
scked.
tasy, of ghosts so vivid that they seem
mations of mystery solved, secrets re¬
to have the living body’s pressure and
vealed, beauty logically accounted for
Just as sure as J amthat the reality
Herr Schnitzler has songht to amplify
heat. The provocatise character of the
fully,
ol one night, let alone that of a whole
the mutterings but dimly heard the
narrative lies in its mystery. Arethe
man¬
lifetime, is not the whole truth.“
other side of reality; and his short
nocturnal adventures of Fridolin actual
Unovel leaves you somehow informed.
ou will
experiences, or merely desires that have
And no dream,“ he said with a
Dr. Fridolin and his wife are happily
hy by
married. The novel discovers them dis¬
taken on palpability? Is the dream of
slight sigh, “is entirely a dream.)
Trum¬
cussing their love for each other, and
Albertina, his wife, an ephemeral
in a moment of confession they both re¬
Is and
That would seem to be the moral of
veal to each other an infidelity—say, of
miasma floating over the marshes of
ng and
tnis unadorned tale. It is part of
mood — which they both experienced
sleep, or is it a distorted memory of
it Mr.
ouly recently. And when Dr. Fridolin
Schnitzler’s exquisite skill that long be¬
real events, a threat of horrors and
leaves bis wife on an emergency call he
th are
fore the pair put it into words he has
leaves her with a sense of irritation,
hatreds that will yet stalk into life?
add at
woven it into the texture of his fable.
distrust and resentment. Once out in
These questions are fairly explicit in
ditable.
the night, he moves into a world of
And, though the two statements are
the interchange between husband and
1 peculiar intensity. The night is gro¬
but not
something of a commonplace, he has
tesque and the activities through which
wife with which the novel is brought to
idiotie
managed to convey their grave impli¬
he moves are wonderful and strange.
a close.
So delicately has Herr Schnitzler han¬
nessee
cations with all the deftness of an art¬
died his material the reader is no more
#ir put
ist and all the gentleness of a physi¬
The plot is simple enough; alone the
certain than Dr. Fridelin that he is
into a
skillful intertwisting of the threads of
cian. The style of the writing—even
not in the midst of a dream—that the
dark hall of the costumer with little
vas ond
fantasy and reality complicates the pat¬
in translation—is smooth, direct and
Pierrette and the red monks, that the
Born
tern. There are only two characters of
ample, a style which, as Vienna appre¬
cavaliers and the long-haired women f
volesale
any importancenthe others are either
cintes, shows off subtle material to the
that cataclvsmic moment in the hidden
house on the hill. that the gaunt bodies
t have ligments of the protagonists’ imagina- best advantage.
in the hushed city morgue are not fig¬
ments of Dr. Fridolin’s dreams, the
substance of his desire.
The story is thoroughly absorbing:
and leaves one silent before the art of
a writer who has merged reality and
unreality in such manner that each is
recognizable withont differences being
clearly apparent. This is a departure
beyond che field of literature. This is.
literallr. achieving the technique of
dreums.
w. r.