elimination of the machinery an
scäffolding necessary t0 ang piece
of architecture in the building.
In Dr. Graesler, the latest of his
scant dozem or, so ofgfictions to#be
translated into Englich, his heroris
nomore than merelyhalf success¬
ful physician of forty-eight Fears
* Tliefstorg begins with the weck fol¬
lowing his sister Friederika’s inex¬
plicäble suicide. She was a mature
spinster who, after their parents'
deaths, fifteen years before, had been
keeping house for her brother. Dr.
Gradsler knew little of her Foung4
darsi—he had been a ship’s surgeon
continuallg awag from home. Ove
her suleide he had been shocked, the
self-reproachful, then resentful an
söftrelieved. A certain freedom fron
restraint stole over him; if he ha
neivscarés he had new privileges.
Atthe spa where he practisen
summers he met Sabine, daughteg o#!
apatient, and entered upon a limid.
silent, unnwwonted adventure in löve.
T0 make kimself entertaining tocher
hei fbund himself searching his har¬
ren inemory for incidents worthfre¬
cohinting, of his life’s adventures.
Tlere was at first not much, buf he
found his fainter memories growing
clérer, and all sorts of things he
haf thought forgotten welled into
Gendach Suddenly he found himself
einventing,“ when memory falled
him, and delighted in bis phantasits.
But his old timidities and doubts enr¬
Edured, doubts of himself, of life, ndw
and then strange halting doubts bf
Sabine. With Sabine’s frank letter
to him, one calculated to smochh
away his doubts, but which offerel
hinin a word — marrfage, Df.
Graesler’s incipient love is chillcl
He would, if but he could, be thea
Agressor; failing that he is momen
tarily revolted by Sabine's frank prog
posal. He distrusts and flees to hi
native city, back to his and the dench
Friederika’s home.
And there, in the midst of a three
weeks' love affair with the littie
Katharina, the swift culmination of
which left no time for doubts, he
comes upon a packet of Friederika’s
Tletters, “to be burned unopened.“ Not
at first, but later, le felt the spur
Pof curiosity and argued with honor;
in the end he read them all. to dis¬
+cover how utterly a stranger to him
she had been. Then; his anger
f.amed against her and her 'deceits.“
They give the subflaver to his latter
ecstasy with Katharina, to his tardy
Preturnto Sabine andtto his ensuing
sudden marriage with Frau Sommer.
whose littie daughter he. had at¬
Ltended in an illnesss He grew fond¬
Ter and fonder oflthé little girl.
He went on taiking-ta her, holding
her soft hand in his, its gentle pres¬
Lsurentbrilling him with a happiness
that no other such contact had ever
brought him.“ Andeso Dr. Graesler
Isfleft, in mature middleage, nothing
emotionally büt 'an“ ód.Seld child
sinking deeper into childhood to es¬
çape the racking distrüsts ef ufe
that nearly fifty Fears öfaniere ex¬
istence had given him.
EnM KENTON.
raesler
Badearzt
29. Dokt
box 4/9
r G eLeasa
35
DE SENECTUTE
Docrok Gkars####rtur Schnitzler. Trans¬
lated by Paul Bloomsield Zeisler. Tamo. 180 pages.
Thomas Seltzer. 62.5o.
WHE hero of Doctor Graesler is the antithesis of the cheery
person in Bunyan’s couplet:
A man there was, tho’ some did count him mad,
The more he cast away the more he had.?
Doctor Graesler, the genteel physician of small watering-places,
never had much to cast away in the first place, and after he has
cast away that which he had to the extent of some hundred¬
seventy-five delicately executed pages, he is completely plucked.
It is partly the fault of temperament, but the real villain of
Schnitzler’s story is the subtle and sorry fortieth year. This is
not the first time that Schnitzler has essayed the tragedy of
senescence, of reluctantly turning forty, but in this short novel
he has not to deal with an aging Chevalier de Seingalt, the very
name and evocation of whom supplied a certain pictorial and at¬
mospheric advantage to Casanova’s Homecoming. Doctor Graesler
is just a timid, quickly used-up Don Juan who, at the outset of
the story, lies comfortably enough between the two stools of his
work, done ardently for its own sake, and a furtive, only half¬
enjoyed pleasure, consisting mainly of memories. On the surface,
he is as dull and drab as any one of lbsen’s none the less internally
exciting creations; the atmosphere of the story, apart from the
overtones it completely lacks, is the atmosphere of lbsen. The
doctor is the archetype of honest, self-respecting, dignified medi¬
ocrity; the eternal man in a black coat, 'always keeping his gig.“
And the setting of Doctor Gracsler lacks even the faded charm
of the settecento Italian towns in the former novel. As in Venice
there is water, everywhere, but not a drop (spiritually speaking)
to drink. It is a depressing little spa, placed vaguely on the Baltie
Sea, and peopled by dull valetudinarians, male and female medi¬
scäffolding necessary t0 ang piece
of architecture in the building.
In Dr. Graesler, the latest of his
scant dozem or, so ofgfictions to#be
translated into Englich, his heroris
nomore than merelyhalf success¬
ful physician of forty-eight Fears
* Tliefstorg begins with the weck fol¬
lowing his sister Friederika’s inex¬
plicäble suicide. She was a mature
spinster who, after their parents'
deaths, fifteen years before, had been
keeping house for her brother. Dr.
Gradsler knew little of her Foung4
darsi—he had been a ship’s surgeon
continuallg awag from home. Ove
her suleide he had been shocked, the
self-reproachful, then resentful an
söftrelieved. A certain freedom fron
restraint stole over him; if he ha
neivscarés he had new privileges.
Atthe spa where he practisen
summers he met Sabine, daughteg o#!
apatient, and entered upon a limid.
silent, unnwwonted adventure in löve.
T0 make kimself entertaining tocher
hei fbund himself searching his har¬
ren inemory for incidents worthfre¬
cohinting, of his life’s adventures.
Tlere was at first not much, buf he
found his fainter memories growing
clérer, and all sorts of things he
haf thought forgotten welled into
Gendach Suddenly he found himself
einventing,“ when memory falled
him, and delighted in bis phantasits.
But his old timidities and doubts enr¬
Edured, doubts of himself, of life, ndw
and then strange halting doubts bf
Sabine. With Sabine’s frank letter
to him, one calculated to smochh
away his doubts, but which offerel
hinin a word — marrfage, Df.
Graesler’s incipient love is chillcl
He would, if but he could, be thea
Agressor; failing that he is momen
tarily revolted by Sabine's frank prog
posal. He distrusts and flees to hi
native city, back to his and the dench
Friederika’s home.
And there, in the midst of a three
weeks' love affair with the littie
Katharina, the swift culmination of
which left no time for doubts, he
comes upon a packet of Friederika’s
Tletters, “to be burned unopened.“ Not
at first, but later, le felt the spur
Pof curiosity and argued with honor;
in the end he read them all. to dis¬
+cover how utterly a stranger to him
she had been. Then; his anger
f.amed against her and her 'deceits.“
They give the subflaver to his latter
ecstasy with Katharina, to his tardy
Preturnto Sabine andtto his ensuing
sudden marriage with Frau Sommer.
whose littie daughter he. had at¬
Ltended in an illnesss He grew fond¬
Ter and fonder oflthé little girl.
He went on taiking-ta her, holding
her soft hand in his, its gentle pres¬
Lsurentbrilling him with a happiness
that no other such contact had ever
brought him.“ Andeso Dr. Graesler
Isfleft, in mature middleage, nothing
emotionally büt 'an“ ód.Seld child
sinking deeper into childhood to es¬
çape the racking distrüsts ef ufe
that nearly fifty Fears öfaniere ex¬
istence had given him.
EnM KENTON.
raesler
Badearzt
29. Dokt
box 4/9
r G eLeasa
35
DE SENECTUTE
Docrok Gkars####rtur Schnitzler. Trans¬
lated by Paul Bloomsield Zeisler. Tamo. 180 pages.
Thomas Seltzer. 62.5o.
WHE hero of Doctor Graesler is the antithesis of the cheery
person in Bunyan’s couplet:
A man there was, tho’ some did count him mad,
The more he cast away the more he had.?
Doctor Graesler, the genteel physician of small watering-places,
never had much to cast away in the first place, and after he has
cast away that which he had to the extent of some hundred¬
seventy-five delicately executed pages, he is completely plucked.
It is partly the fault of temperament, but the real villain of
Schnitzler’s story is the subtle and sorry fortieth year. This is
not the first time that Schnitzler has essayed the tragedy of
senescence, of reluctantly turning forty, but in this short novel
he has not to deal with an aging Chevalier de Seingalt, the very
name and evocation of whom supplied a certain pictorial and at¬
mospheric advantage to Casanova’s Homecoming. Doctor Graesler
is just a timid, quickly used-up Don Juan who, at the outset of
the story, lies comfortably enough between the two stools of his
work, done ardently for its own sake, and a furtive, only half¬
enjoyed pleasure, consisting mainly of memories. On the surface,
he is as dull and drab as any one of lbsen’s none the less internally
exciting creations; the atmosphere of the story, apart from the
overtones it completely lacks, is the atmosphere of lbsen. The
doctor is the archetype of honest, self-respecting, dignified medi¬
ocrity; the eternal man in a black coat, 'always keeping his gig.“
And the setting of Doctor Gracsler lacks even the faded charm
of the settecento Italian towns in the former novel. As in Venice
there is water, everywhere, but not a drop (spiritually speaking)
to drink. It is a depressing little spa, placed vaguely on the Baltie
Sea, and peopled by dull valetudinarians, male and female medi¬