8
31.
Fraeulein Else
box 5/1
den nenenenen un unc
metere aeneene
—
THE NEW VORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW. SEPTEMBER 6. 1925
Sacy Briihlariee Si Sehificzler
aulein Else Resembles an Opal Flazlessly Cut
ur
Schnitzler has planned his conclusion
press herseif as frankly and nafvely
to accord with the nature of his
as Eise does in her solitary musings
while she dresses for dinner:
heroine rather than with the tastes
of a sentimental publie. Else’s
I must turn on the light.
It'
growing cool
Shut the window.
death is otherwise motivated than
Pull down the shade? —Super¬
that of St. Pierre’'s Virginia, who
fluous, that.
Nobody is standing
drowned sooner than allow a rude
over there on the mountain with
sailor to unloose her clothes; Else
*
a spyglass. A pity!
The
dies more from lowered resistance
next-torthe-last pair of silk stock¬
Arthur Schnitzler
than from ang high conviction.
ings! No one will notice the little
tear below the knec.
Outraged pride is as strong a factor
No one?
Who can tell! —Don't be frivolous.
In her suicide as outraged modesty,
Eise!
and when she wavers jealousy tips
Identified with the heroine, the
the scales. Though she dies inar¬
story takes on het characteristics.
ticulate to the lovers who preside
Like her, it is nervous, brooding.
at her bedside, we readers know that
and in manner à trifle jerky, but it
she is comforted by an ecstatic
is also dainty, fastidious and ex¬
dream of flying. This, according to
quisitely formed, full of aubtle little
the Freudian symbolism. is hardly a
pious conclusion.
turns and delicate shading.
I 18
classieal in its symmetry, adhering
If Conrad made melodrama plaus¬
nerfectly to the three dramatie uni¬
ible by combining it with psychol¬
ties. The entire action, beginning
ogy, Schnitzler has gone further and
on a tennis court and ending on à
exposed it to psychoanalysis.
He
does pot permit himself a single au¬
deathbed, lasts just fom hours,
drama reduced in scale. a tragie
covers 130 pages and is probably the
thor’s comment, but with fine dra¬
masterpiece doue in Dresden china.
matie technique has set before his
oniy serlous instance in literature of
It is evidence that Schnitzler’s skill
audience the rococo interior of Eise's
a first-person narrative which ends
has not lessened with the years, and
mind, where desires spar with one
nith the death ofthe narrator.
the criticism written by Philip Littell
another like actors on a stage and
Through the delicacy and perfec¬
in The New Republic of March, 1915,
are unconscious of any audience.
It
tion of its narrative form, through
applies equally to this latest work:
is the stuff of a clinical study, ar¬
its notably clever graftsmanship,
tistically arranged, and the artist’s
In Schnitzlerthe langnage is
Fräulein Else“' manages to avold
nearly always quite simple. Im¬
omniscience renders it more complete
being ludierous, in spite of the fact
possrble not to understand, except
than would be possible in the labora¬
that among civillzed peoples püblic
when your German fails you, what
tory. A psychiatrist wouid have dif¬
nudity is commonly a subject for
he is saying at any given moment.
ficulty in persuading a subject toex¬
laughter. Fräulein Eise“ is a. Greek
Equallg impossible not to feel.
6
when you have closed the book
and are marveling at the easy
path he has made for you among
such intricate ravines, that you
have seen the beginning of many
other paths leading toward darker
strangenesses.
Vou have been in
the deep borderland between con¬
sclous and unconscious. From
little clearings yon have locked
into darker regions where the light
is drowned. You have been listen¬
ing to faint sounds between the
louder.