30. Casanovas Heimfahr
—
—
—
UGLY BEAUTY
Casanora's Homecoming. Br Arthur Schuitz¬
ler, translated di Eden and Ceday Paul.
Thomas Seltser, Neze Vork.
NE consoling thought remains to us. We
hear so much—and no doubt much is
truc—talk about the wild day and age
in which we live, but we arc pleasedto know
that if people are no better than they were two
hundred years ago, at least they are no worse.
Casanova, heartbreaker, seducer, adventurer,
iho lived in Voltaire’s time, has for many years
been exiled from his beloved Venice. He re¬
ceives a pardon, on most disgraceful terms, and
prepares to leave Mantua for the city of a thon¬
sand wäters. Weil, one last adventure he must
have, and though it plumbs the lowest depths
ever reached by man or beast, he has his adven¬
ture.
The two days of the book secm two eternities.
und the two eternities make up one hideons night¬
mare. We have neither the space nor the desire
2.
to tell the details; suffice it to say that at three¬
and-lfty Casanova makes the wickedest of beard¬
less Don Juans appear saintly in comparison.
—
The story as told by Schnitzler is handled with
classie simplicity, omits florid attempts at local
color“, and is, in a word, a work of genis.
We always consiscred thie heights of fechnical
brilliance had been reached in theAffairs of
Anatel“, but Schnitzler, has achieved the impos¬
sible and gone far beyond his own record. This
long short-story, for it can hardly be considered
a novel, is gorgeous, diabolical, epoch-making.
We would be sorry to miss it, and sorry to reat
#it, for there is a strange mixture of power and
beauty with ugliness and Hith.
Picture a schoolroom in hell: the subect is
over-sexed beile-lettres, and the front-row pupils
inclde Oscar Wilde, Guy de Maupassant, Bau¬
delaire and others. Satan himself is lecturing.
Arthur Schnitzler enters, a sly smile on the cor¬
ner of his lips and Casanova'’ under his arm.
Old Beelzebub sighs, hands over his pitchfork
fo the newcomer, and says:Von be the teacher,
Arthur: Tllsit at your feet and learn.
It is necessary to add that the translators have
madé a flawless rendition of this masterpiece,
in no whit inferior to the original, which is as¬
suredly high praise, and meant to be so
Uymen Rose,
Casanova's Homecoming. By Ai¬
Sahne
fthur Schnitzler. Thomas Seitzer.
Casanova’s Home -Coming. — By
New York. Casanova wrete 12 vol¬
Arthur Schnitzler.
umes of his Memoirs, but of course
New Fork:
Thomas Seltzer. Translation by Eden
he lived some time after their con¬
and Cedar. Paul.—Arthur Schnitzler
clusion. What the old rake and
gives the story of sthe dangerous
adventurer did in those vears had
age“ in this man'’s, life. It is an
been left unrecorded, only to be
imaginary portrait of Casanova as he
supplied by our imagination until
figures in one last imaginary amor¬
Mr. Schnitzler set himself to the
cus intrigue.“
Though the book is
task of picturing what ought at
to be regarded as fiction, allusion to
many actual incidents of Casanova’s
least to have been the old repro¬
life appear. The book is plainly,
bate’s last amorous intrigue. The
frankly written, with nothing cover¬
story makes very plain what it
ed up. Says the New York Evening
means to a man of Casanova’s type
Post:
No other such instance of
to realize that at last he is an old
merciless vivisection, no such con¬
man. Iftherg i##gsmoral lesson
fession as this novel of Schnitzler’s,)
stoffous ending of an im¬
—
#e
moral life, the author presents it
here. 4
Gauut Genl
—.—
box 4/10
Casanova's Homecoming. by Ar¬
thur Schnitzler.
„ASANOVA in his own memoirs has
U left in the tweive volumes the most
complete evidence of his thousand
amours and thousand escapades,“
which Arthur Symons has character¬
lzed Othe most valnable document
which we possess on the society of the
eighteenth century.“ Bern an adven¬
turer and a lover, he was a gamester.
the politiclan, the vagabond and the
author of this book has taken the man
where hie memoirs end, when he was
in his 53d gear. His Fearning for
Venice, the citg o“ his birth, grew so
intense thal like a wounded bird, slowlz
cireling dorn #o# its death flight, he
began to mare in ever narrowing
circles.“
De had again and again asked the
Supreme Conneil to allow him to return
honie, al first deflant and then humble.
It was not because of his past disso¬
lnteness that he was person non grata
in his home town. but because of his
Ifree-thinking, which the Venetian coun¬
selors considered unpardonable. To
overcome this hie hoped to offer a
polemic that he had written against
the "slanderer Voltaire.“ Walking out
one morning heithought of his poverty.
his lack of love for the woman wlo
would lavish her affection upon him
and added to this his stupidity in writ¬
ing as he hacdone about Voltaire. He
was about to Start on a journey that
would tahe him ffearer to his beloved
Venice when he net an old friend,
Olive, whlo insisted that he come to his
house, where he introduced him to his
ihree Foung daughters and his niece,
the learned Marcolina. Before he met
her he had made up his mind to #make
her his own, but was sb interested in
her conversation that he forgot about
it. He felt for the first time possible
that a woman was nôt for him, but
within a few hours he learned that she
was not the virtuous person he had
thought she was from her conversation.
He received a letter from Venice tell¬
ing him that he might return, but thar
ho would be expected to spy upon der¬
tain persons, which did not attract him
at all.
The story then goes on to describe
his amour with Marcolina in true eight¬
centh century stvie and his final com¬
ing to Venice.
91
(Thomas Seitzer.) euen
1e1.
(George H.
Dorand Publishing
Cempapy. New Tonk City)
Casanova’s Home-Coming'
Casanova’s Home-Coming.“ by Ar¬
thur Schnitzler, is mentioned as a.
story of a piquant centurv and as
giving a clear and falthful idea of so¬
cietg during, that centurg, the eight¬
eenth.
Casanova“ is a vagabond, a roue,
a gambler, eterything that is
loose.
false, eruel and unscrupulous. If he
Is a type of tRe heroes of that time,
he is perhaps äe well left unwritten:
for clearly such
books are neither
wholesome nor lnspiring, unless it be
to evil.
It is related of Eim that this man—
Casanova—who wite his autobiog¬
raphy, Othe rarest &er written,“ told
with unblushifg, frankness the tale
of his own deprawchlife, His mem¬
oirs cover twelve Mlumes, and this
work of Arthur Schnitzler’s is an¬
nounced as having “completed him.“
Let us hope for the sake of elean
living that this is true. It scems a
pity that so brilllant a writer, so per¬
fect a master of the art of strong
and faultless writing, should be wil¬
ling to so debase his own great gift
with a book like this. Wasn't it Jean
Francols Millet who painted only nude
figures untll one evening golng down
a street in Paris he heard a studert
say of him:
There goes Millet, whol paints
nothing but naked women.“
The re¬
sult was Barbizon forest and“The
Gleaners.
That Mr. Schnitzler is a great art¬
Ist no man can dispute. That he has
not vet come to his Barbizon seems
equallg true.
(Thomas Seltzer, 5 West 50th St.,
New Fork; 82.50.)
T.TTFRARV
2
ir
al
81
tr.
3
*
Anna L. Hopper,
Literarv Editor
Frang
Casanova’s Gud d
198
Homecoming
RTHUR SCHNITZLER’S bril¬
4 liant story of the above title,
though received only recently at
this desk, has been printed in this
country long enough to have been
the subject of considerable comment,
so that its subject matter and char¬
acter are not unknown to readers fa¬
milar with current reviews. Casa¬
nova of theMemoirs,“ säid by Ar¬
thur Symons to be Lthe most valua¬
ble document which we possess on
the society of the Eighteenth Cen¬
tury,“ is here depicted in one addi¬
tional adventure at therage of 53.
Schnitzler’s play, Anatol’—in the
original, not the unrecognizable, de¬
natured film version—may be consid¬
cred a work of doubtful moral influ¬
ence, but this picture of andold roue'
in extremis can hardly excite any sen¬
timent less innocuous than pity.
Though written with Continental
frankness and with no glossing of the
corrupt character of its subject, its
effect is sobering rather than seduc¬
tive. Casanova in exile and penni¬
less, referring to his condition in the
tone of a dethroned sovereign,' doubt¬
ing a God. who :was gracious only to
the young.“ hating his contemporaries
for their age and his juniors for their
indifference, and pathetic above all
for his worn-out body and soul—there
is a sermon in the picture which its
Viennese painter is too great an art¬
ist to drive home. It is poignant
nonetheless—perhaps never more so
than at the moment when, detected
and despised in his crowning rascality
by the woman he has betrayed
threugh the treachery of her lover,
he remembers that Che was an adept
in the use of language' and wonders
if he "could not somehow, by a few
well chosen words, give matters a
favorable turn.“ Perhaps those who
have dealt much in words will appre¬
ciate most keenly this ironic thrust.
In its presentation of the customs
of the time and places involved and
as a piece of writing the novel—if so
brief a tale justifies that title—is a
masterpiece. It can be read at a
sitting, and will be—according to one
reader’s experience.
CASANOVA'S HOMECOMING. By
Arthur Schnitzler. Published by
Thomas Seltzer, New York.
—
—
—
UGLY BEAUTY
Casanora's Homecoming. Br Arthur Schuitz¬
ler, translated di Eden and Ceday Paul.
Thomas Seltser, Neze Vork.
NE consoling thought remains to us. We
hear so much—and no doubt much is
truc—talk about the wild day and age
in which we live, but we arc pleasedto know
that if people are no better than they were two
hundred years ago, at least they are no worse.
Casanova, heartbreaker, seducer, adventurer,
iho lived in Voltaire’s time, has for many years
been exiled from his beloved Venice. He re¬
ceives a pardon, on most disgraceful terms, and
prepares to leave Mantua for the city of a thon¬
sand wäters. Weil, one last adventure he must
have, and though it plumbs the lowest depths
ever reached by man or beast, he has his adven¬
ture.
The two days of the book secm two eternities.
und the two eternities make up one hideons night¬
mare. We have neither the space nor the desire
2.
to tell the details; suffice it to say that at three¬
and-lfty Casanova makes the wickedest of beard¬
less Don Juans appear saintly in comparison.
—
The story as told by Schnitzler is handled with
classie simplicity, omits florid attempts at local
color“, and is, in a word, a work of genis.
We always consiscred thie heights of fechnical
brilliance had been reached in theAffairs of
Anatel“, but Schnitzler, has achieved the impos¬
sible and gone far beyond his own record. This
long short-story, for it can hardly be considered
a novel, is gorgeous, diabolical, epoch-making.
We would be sorry to miss it, and sorry to reat
#it, for there is a strange mixture of power and
beauty with ugliness and Hith.
Picture a schoolroom in hell: the subect is
over-sexed beile-lettres, and the front-row pupils
inclde Oscar Wilde, Guy de Maupassant, Bau¬
delaire and others. Satan himself is lecturing.
Arthur Schnitzler enters, a sly smile on the cor¬
ner of his lips and Casanova'’ under his arm.
Old Beelzebub sighs, hands over his pitchfork
fo the newcomer, and says:Von be the teacher,
Arthur: Tllsit at your feet and learn.
It is necessary to add that the translators have
madé a flawless rendition of this masterpiece,
in no whit inferior to the original, which is as¬
suredly high praise, and meant to be so
Uymen Rose,
Casanova's Homecoming. By Ai¬
Sahne
fthur Schnitzler. Thomas Seitzer.
Casanova’s Home -Coming. — By
New York. Casanova wrete 12 vol¬
Arthur Schnitzler.
umes of his Memoirs, but of course
New Fork:
Thomas Seltzer. Translation by Eden
he lived some time after their con¬
and Cedar. Paul.—Arthur Schnitzler
clusion. What the old rake and
gives the story of sthe dangerous
adventurer did in those vears had
age“ in this man'’s, life. It is an
been left unrecorded, only to be
imaginary portrait of Casanova as he
supplied by our imagination until
figures in one last imaginary amor¬
Mr. Schnitzler set himself to the
cus intrigue.“
Though the book is
task of picturing what ought at
to be regarded as fiction, allusion to
many actual incidents of Casanova’s
least to have been the old repro¬
life appear. The book is plainly,
bate’s last amorous intrigue. The
frankly written, with nothing cover¬
story makes very plain what it
ed up. Says the New York Evening
means to a man of Casanova’s type
Post:
No other such instance of
to realize that at last he is an old
merciless vivisection, no such con¬
man. Iftherg i##gsmoral lesson
fession as this novel of Schnitzler’s,)
stoffous ending of an im¬
—
#e
moral life, the author presents it
here. 4
Gauut Genl
—.—
box 4/10
Casanova's Homecoming. by Ar¬
thur Schnitzler.
„ASANOVA in his own memoirs has
U left in the tweive volumes the most
complete evidence of his thousand
amours and thousand escapades,“
which Arthur Symons has character¬
lzed Othe most valnable document
which we possess on the society of the
eighteenth century.“ Bern an adven¬
turer and a lover, he was a gamester.
the politiclan, the vagabond and the
author of this book has taken the man
where hie memoirs end, when he was
in his 53d gear. His Fearning for
Venice, the citg o“ his birth, grew so
intense thal like a wounded bird, slowlz
cireling dorn #o# its death flight, he
began to mare in ever narrowing
circles.“
De had again and again asked the
Supreme Conneil to allow him to return
honie, al first deflant and then humble.
It was not because of his past disso¬
lnteness that he was person non grata
in his home town. but because of his
Ifree-thinking, which the Venetian coun¬
selors considered unpardonable. To
overcome this hie hoped to offer a
polemic that he had written against
the "slanderer Voltaire.“ Walking out
one morning heithought of his poverty.
his lack of love for the woman wlo
would lavish her affection upon him
and added to this his stupidity in writ¬
ing as he hacdone about Voltaire. He
was about to Start on a journey that
would tahe him ffearer to his beloved
Venice when he net an old friend,
Olive, whlo insisted that he come to his
house, where he introduced him to his
ihree Foung daughters and his niece,
the learned Marcolina. Before he met
her he had made up his mind to #make
her his own, but was sb interested in
her conversation that he forgot about
it. He felt for the first time possible
that a woman was nôt for him, but
within a few hours he learned that she
was not the virtuous person he had
thought she was from her conversation.
He received a letter from Venice tell¬
ing him that he might return, but thar
ho would be expected to spy upon der¬
tain persons, which did not attract him
at all.
The story then goes on to describe
his amour with Marcolina in true eight¬
centh century stvie and his final com¬
ing to Venice.
91
(Thomas Seitzer.) euen
1e1.
(George H.
Dorand Publishing
Cempapy. New Tonk City)
Casanova’s Home-Coming'
Casanova’s Home-Coming.“ by Ar¬
thur Schnitzler, is mentioned as a.
story of a piquant centurv and as
giving a clear and falthful idea of so¬
cietg during, that centurg, the eight¬
eenth.
Casanova“ is a vagabond, a roue,
a gambler, eterything that is
loose.
false, eruel and unscrupulous. If he
Is a type of tRe heroes of that time,
he is perhaps äe well left unwritten:
for clearly such
books are neither
wholesome nor lnspiring, unless it be
to evil.
It is related of Eim that this man—
Casanova—who wite his autobiog¬
raphy, Othe rarest &er written,“ told
with unblushifg, frankness the tale
of his own deprawchlife, His mem¬
oirs cover twelve Mlumes, and this
work of Arthur Schnitzler’s is an¬
nounced as having “completed him.“
Let us hope for the sake of elean
living that this is true. It scems a
pity that so brilllant a writer, so per¬
fect a master of the art of strong
and faultless writing, should be wil¬
ling to so debase his own great gift
with a book like this. Wasn't it Jean
Francols Millet who painted only nude
figures untll one evening golng down
a street in Paris he heard a studert
say of him:
There goes Millet, whol paints
nothing but naked women.“
The re¬
sult was Barbizon forest and“The
Gleaners.
That Mr. Schnitzler is a great art¬
Ist no man can dispute. That he has
not vet come to his Barbizon seems
equallg true.
(Thomas Seltzer, 5 West 50th St.,
New Fork; 82.50.)
T.TTFRARV
2
ir
al
81
tr.
3
*
Anna L. Hopper,
Literarv Editor
Frang
Casanova’s Gud d
198
Homecoming
RTHUR SCHNITZLER’S bril¬
4 liant story of the above title,
though received only recently at
this desk, has been printed in this
country long enough to have been
the subject of considerable comment,
so that its subject matter and char¬
acter are not unknown to readers fa¬
milar with current reviews. Casa¬
nova of theMemoirs,“ säid by Ar¬
thur Symons to be Lthe most valua¬
ble document which we possess on
the society of the Eighteenth Cen¬
tury,“ is here depicted in one addi¬
tional adventure at therage of 53.
Schnitzler’s play, Anatol’—in the
original, not the unrecognizable, de¬
natured film version—may be consid¬
cred a work of doubtful moral influ¬
ence, but this picture of andold roue'
in extremis can hardly excite any sen¬
timent less innocuous than pity.
Though written with Continental
frankness and with no glossing of the
corrupt character of its subject, its
effect is sobering rather than seduc¬
tive. Casanova in exile and penni¬
less, referring to his condition in the
tone of a dethroned sovereign,' doubt¬
ing a God. who :was gracious only to
the young.“ hating his contemporaries
for their age and his juniors for their
indifference, and pathetic above all
for his worn-out body and soul—there
is a sermon in the picture which its
Viennese painter is too great an art¬
ist to drive home. It is poignant
nonetheless—perhaps never more so
than at the moment when, detected
and despised in his crowning rascality
by the woman he has betrayed
threugh the treachery of her lover,
he remembers that Che was an adept
in the use of language' and wonders
if he "could not somehow, by a few
well chosen words, give matters a
favorable turn.“ Perhaps those who
have dealt much in words will appre¬
ciate most keenly this ironic thrust.
In its presentation of the customs
of the time and places involved and
as a piece of writing the novel—if so
brief a tale justifies that title—is a
masterpiece. It can be read at a
sitting, and will be—according to one
reader’s experience.
CASANOVA'S HOMECOMING. By
Arthur Schnitzler. Published by
Thomas Seltzer, New York.