raumnovelle
33. Tnng
Co 1111
nearly everybody, nowadays.
RHAPSODV. By Arthur Schniteler. (81.
Schuster. 31.50
I
A fourth of the concentrated little
Schnitzler novels now succeeds
Fraulein Else.“ Beatrice“ and
None but the Brave.“ Each one of
the others was based on a psychie ab¬
eration if not actual insanity; does
this fact glve us a key to the pres¬
Cent remarkable narrative? The read¬
der must decide. The German title
of this fantasy is"Traumnovelle“—
a dream nevel. It will be difficult
for the casual reader to guess just
where the actual ends and the dream
begins; we are on, the borderland of
Illusion all the time. Perhaps (as
the German announcement ßug¬
gested) Schnitzler means us
gather that “no dream is altogether
a dream, and no reality completely
real.“
Viennese physician, after a mis¬
understanding with his wife, goes
forth at night and meets ,with a va¬
riety of extraordinary and bizarre
adventures. Most of them are erotic
in their nature, but none of them
Tcome to a natural conclusion. The
lure of romantie adventure is con¬
stantly held forth, and its consum¬
mation is as constantly denied.
novel, let us say, of the threshold
Cof conscionsness; doubtless a Freu¬
dian could explaln it all satisfac¬
Storily—to himself. But the art of the
Schnitzler story appears in this, that
complete explanation would ruin the
most attractive quallty of the book.
TED ROBINSON.
MASTEDO HIRIEEE
bos 5/7
Dreams Are Not Merely Dreams
Rhapersiv.“ By Arthur Schnitzler. Simon &#ity
is not the whole truth,
Schuster.
and no dream is entirely a
Schnitzler's new novel, Rhap¬
dream.“
sody,“ opens upon a scene wherein
a husband and a wife, bored by cach
Fridolin's big adventure begins
when he meets an old school friend,
other and by
Nachtigall in a third rate coffee
marriage, are
shop to which Fridolin has gonc late
confessing. and
one night on his return from the
claborat ing
deathbed of onc of his patients. Fri¬
upon, their lit¬
dolin proposes that he accompany
infidelities.
These infidelj. Nachtigall, in a third rate coffee
tery and exotic sin where Nachtigall,
—
ties, for the
as a pianist, plays each morning
most part, are
during the hours before daylight.
purely of the
Masking and learning the password
mind, the actual
to the house, Fridolin is admitted,
consummation
Arthur Schnitzler
only to be warned to leave immedi¬
of their desires
ately under a threat of great bodily
never occurring. In the case of
harm. When he stays, fascinated by
Fridolin, the husband, a physician
the apparition-like bodies of masked
in Vienna, there had been amours
naked women dancing with men
dressed in the guise of monks and
he had experienced desires which
courtiers, he is seized and ordered to #
extended beyond wedlock, but they
unmask. But he is released when a
were, for the most part, innocently
woman, dressed as a nun, comes for.
psychological. In the case of Al¬
ward, dropping her dark costume to
bertina, the wife, there were cer¬
the floor „and announces that she
tain experiences, most of them oc¬
will redeem him.
curring in her dreams, upon which
she allowed her imagination to play,
Fascinated by the beauty of this
experiences which she cherished in
spite of, perhaps as a consequence
woman, masked though she is, he
of, her technical faithfulness.
seeks the following day to find her.
At first associating her with an ap¬
Fridolin’s series of bizarre adven¬
pealing young prostitute whom he
tures in the course of a few nights,
had encountered earlier the preced¬
Albertina's equally bizarre dreams
ing evening, he seeks out this girl
during the same nights, are recount¬
again; but later, at midnight on the
ed by Schnitzler with all of the in.
following night. connecting up the
imitable brilliance of his prose. To¬
suicide of a beautiful titled lady
gether they form a vivid succession
with his adventure, he goes to iden¬
of beautifully conceived and dra¬
tify the body of this woman at the
matically contrasted ineidents, which
hospital morgue.
bring Schnitzler, finally, to a sim¬
Is it she?“ be is asked by the
ple statement of his theme: Real¬
doctor who is in charge of the
morgue.
Fridolin bent lower, as though he
could, with his piereing lock, wrest
an answer from the rigid features.
Tet at the same time he knew that
## it were her face, and her eyes, the
eyes that had shone at hlmsthe day
before with so much passion, he
would not, could not, and in reality
did not want to know. He gently
laidthe head back on the table. His
eyes followed the moving flashlight,
passing along the dead body. Was it
her body? — the wonderful, alluring
body for which, only yesterday, he
had felt such agonizing desire? Fri¬
dolin touched the forehend, the
cheeks, the shoulders and arms of the
dead woman, doing so as if compelled
and directed by an invisible power.
He twined his fingers about those of
the corpse and, rigid as they were,
they seemed to him to make an ef¬
fort to move, to seize his hand. In¬
deed. he almost felt that a vague and
distant look from underneath her
eyelids was searching his facc. He
bent over her, as if magically at¬
tracted.
Suddenly he beard a volce behind
him whispering: What on earth are
you doing?
Fridolin regained his senses in¬
stantly. He freed his fingers from
those of the corpse and, taking her
thin wrists, placed the ice cold arms
alongside of the body very carefully,
even a little scrupulously. It seemed
to him that she had just at that mo¬
ment died. He turned away; directed
his steps to the door and across the
resounding hallway into the room
which they had left a little while be¬
fore. Dr. Adler followed in silence.
locked the door behind t
iem