23.
Der Nec ins
Frei
box 3/1
aeadrateatsteuse essenseen Ssese un eesessesensenenee
Le
— —
a singer by profession, but cf good burgher family, is part
cause of lis musical gift, His father, whose recent death
is the first incident mentioned, was an aristocrat of taste
and culture. Georg’s tastes naturally lead him into musical
and somewhat unconventional circles, and, therefore, in
Vienna, among Jews. Ife forme a connexion with one of
these, a te#cher of singing, named Anna Rosner. She finds
herseif ab but to become a mother, and the preparations
made by the unmarried pair for the birth of the child
the birth itself, the sufferings of the mother, and the death
ofthe-luld before it was born, are all described with a minute¬
ness of detail which would be wearisome did we not recog¬
nize in it the conscious purpose of the artist. The author
seems to accep“ and even to approve freedom from moral
law (der Wegans Freie) in the relations of man and woman,
except in so far as these result in tlie production ef offspring.
But, if we interpret aright, futherhood and motherhood,
particularly the former, carry with them obligations mutual
and reciprocal, all the more rigid for the freedom permitted
in other circumstances. On the very first page, peculiar
and significant emphasis is laid on Goorg’s affection for
his own father. Georg, tile light-hearted and impres¬
sionable, is profoundly affected by the loss of the child
that“ was deud before it was born. He assumed tacitly
in his own mind that nis connexion with Anna would
become permanent should the child live, and this, not
from the idea of making“ an honest woman of her.?) Anna
professes hercelf rather proud than ashnmed of her mother¬
hood, and their connexion is such an open secret that
another Jewess, Else Ehrenberg (wilose own relations with
Georg are very delicately sketched) offèrs to adopt the infant
upon her own marriag with the English diplomat Jaies
Wyner. Else’s father is a passionate Zionist pas pratiquanf,
for his age, wealth, and connnercial instinct make hin
averse from settling in Palestine. He makes a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, and gazes cn the home of his fathers, in
the same spirit in which a good Bostoman used
to visit Stratford-on-Avon.
Eise herself is the cultivated Jewess, the flower of the
race, wilose counterpart we could easily find in London.
Her brother Oscar resents the social ostracism of
his race, and apes the Austrian aristocrat in manners and
vices, trying to persuade himself and others that he is a
gentleman and no Jew. The result is a violent quarrel with
his father in the public street, a duel—to save his honour—
with a fellow officer, the loss of an eye, and social and moral
wreckago. This is only one of the families, nearly all
Jewish, each member of whom is brought most vividly
before us by masterly touches. The idea of fatherhood,
which, if our interpretation be correct, is as it were the
woof of thepattern, is workedout in the verions attitudes of
all these merbers of the mysterious race towards their own
ancestry. On almost every page are pictures clearly seen and
dialogue keenly pointed; and we have only mentioned a
tithe of the characters, drawn in every case with unerring
precision. This book deservesto live as a comédie Viennoise,
if not as a larger comédie humaine.
Dur second story," Der Gehülfe, strikes, even on its
title-page, a note which wo have before remarked on as
significant of the younger German school. Neither Joseph
Marti, the assistant (Gehülfe) of an engineer and inventor,
Tobler, nor any of his acquaintance belong to society. They
ale unconscious of the existence of barons, or even of
literary or musical magnates. Joseph, after some shrewd
blows of fortune, is only too delighted to find himself sleeping
in a Clean bed, in a bright sunny attic, and fed excellently at
the table of his master, while the payment of his salary, a
sum never vegularly defined, is put off from day to day and
month to month, until Tobler’s own fortune shall be made.
His business is ostensibly to push the sale of Tobler’s inven¬
tions, especially of his famous advertising clock (Reklam¬
Uhr), by composing advertisèments, writing to agents, and
capitalists, and so on. Actually he finds himself made one of
a family, not unlike the Micawbers in its freedom from
responsibility, abundant enjoyment of the good things of the
present, and sanguine hopes for future prosperity. He
fetches wine or beer from the cellar, hangs out the clothes to
dry, or waters the garden with a hose, fetches and carries,
and, above all, does his best to keep off duns. With Frau
Tobler his friendship, though innocent, verges on something
and in spite of seeing threugh Tobler’s absurdities and dis¬
approving lis extravagance and neglect of family dutics,
he retaing to the last an exträordinary fear, mingled witl
admiration, for the outwardly masterful man. There are
four young Toblers, of whom the seccnd girl, Silvi, is that
forlornest of creatures, im unloved and ill-treated child. She
is neglected by her parents, brutally beaten by the detest¬
able maid, Pauline, and“ hated'’ by her mother, with whom
Joseph remonstrates in vain. After a year spent in this
fashion, the Tobler business going from bad to worse,
Joseph is dismissed by the chief for bringing into the house
the former Angestellte,'' a worthless drunkard, named
Wirsich. Frau Tobler bids the“ Gehülfe?' farewell :—
Ja, Joseph, denken Sie ein wenig an Frau Tobler, es wird Ihnen nicht
schaden. Das ist eine Frau, wie viele, keine bedeutende Frau.
Es wird Ihnen sicherlich gut gehen, ich hoffe es und wünsche es, und ich
weiss es beinahe. Seien Sie immer ein bischen demütig, nicht zu viel.
Ihren Mann [t.e.,“ manhood'’’)werden Sie immer stellen müssen. Abr
brausen Sie nie auf, lassen Sie die ersten Worte des Uebelwollens immer
unbeantwor et; auf ein heftiges erstes Wort folgt ja so sehnell ein züch¬
tiges, sanftes. Gewöhnen Sie sich daran, Empfindlichkeiten in der
Stille zu besiegen. Was Frauen jeden Tag tun müssen das soll auch der
Mann nicht wollen ganz ausser acht lassen. Man gewöhnt sich
an alles, und nicht wahr, ein ganz klein wenig gern sind Sie doch hier bei
uns gewesen. Nicht wahr! Es war doch vieles hübsch. Wollen Sie
Tobler nicht auch adien sagen lassen !“
“ Von Herzen !“ sagte der Gehülfe.
Quotation gives little idea of the quality of this interesting
book. Walser has, perhaps, not the fine observation of
Schnitzler, but his emotional equipment is in some respects
richer. The picture of the unloved Silvi, whose mouth
twists itself into awkward ugliness when she would fain
smile winsomely, like her pretty sister Dora, is a sadly true
description of those whom a cruel stepmother nature has
shut out for ever from the warmth of human affection. Only
religions devotion seems able to surmount the natural anti¬
pathy that is felt towards such unfortunates. Joseph feels
all the pathos of the situation, but he is powerless, and his
humanity leads him to befriend Wirsich, another of nature’s
butcasts. His desireto“serve,'’ out of native sympathy and
comprehension of human weakness, is the outstanding
feature in his character. He is the altruist, and willulti-,
mately, perhaps, be the Christian, who is slowly replacing in
che estimation of novelists the atrocious egoist of Nietzsche.
Der Gehülfe?' though excellent, is hardly on the same
evel of literature as" Der Weg ins Freie.?' But its
sthical content seems to us sounder and of more hopeful
zugury.
Der Nec ins
Frei
box 3/1
aeadrateatsteuse essenseen Ssese un eesessesensenenee
Le
— —
a singer by profession, but cf good burgher family, is part
cause of lis musical gift, His father, whose recent death
is the first incident mentioned, was an aristocrat of taste
and culture. Georg’s tastes naturally lead him into musical
and somewhat unconventional circles, and, therefore, in
Vienna, among Jews. Ife forme a connexion with one of
these, a te#cher of singing, named Anna Rosner. She finds
herseif ab but to become a mother, and the preparations
made by the unmarried pair for the birth of the child
the birth itself, the sufferings of the mother, and the death
ofthe-luld before it was born, are all described with a minute¬
ness of detail which would be wearisome did we not recog¬
nize in it the conscious purpose of the artist. The author
seems to accep“ and even to approve freedom from moral
law (der Wegans Freie) in the relations of man and woman,
except in so far as these result in tlie production ef offspring.
But, if we interpret aright, futherhood and motherhood,
particularly the former, carry with them obligations mutual
and reciprocal, all the more rigid for the freedom permitted
in other circumstances. On the very first page, peculiar
and significant emphasis is laid on Goorg’s affection for
his own father. Georg, tile light-hearted and impres¬
sionable, is profoundly affected by the loss of the child
that“ was deud before it was born. He assumed tacitly
in his own mind that nis connexion with Anna would
become permanent should the child live, and this, not
from the idea of making“ an honest woman of her.?) Anna
professes hercelf rather proud than ashnmed of her mother¬
hood, and their connexion is such an open secret that
another Jewess, Else Ehrenberg (wilose own relations with
Georg are very delicately sketched) offèrs to adopt the infant
upon her own marriag with the English diplomat Jaies
Wyner. Else’s father is a passionate Zionist pas pratiquanf,
for his age, wealth, and connnercial instinct make hin
averse from settling in Palestine. He makes a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, and gazes cn the home of his fathers, in
the same spirit in which a good Bostoman used
to visit Stratford-on-Avon.
Eise herself is the cultivated Jewess, the flower of the
race, wilose counterpart we could easily find in London.
Her brother Oscar resents the social ostracism of
his race, and apes the Austrian aristocrat in manners and
vices, trying to persuade himself and others that he is a
gentleman and no Jew. The result is a violent quarrel with
his father in the public street, a duel—to save his honour—
with a fellow officer, the loss of an eye, and social and moral
wreckago. This is only one of the families, nearly all
Jewish, each member of whom is brought most vividly
before us by masterly touches. The idea of fatherhood,
which, if our interpretation be correct, is as it were the
woof of thepattern, is workedout in the verions attitudes of
all these merbers of the mysterious race towards their own
ancestry. On almost every page are pictures clearly seen and
dialogue keenly pointed; and we have only mentioned a
tithe of the characters, drawn in every case with unerring
precision. This book deservesto live as a comédie Viennoise,
if not as a larger comédie humaine.
Dur second story," Der Gehülfe, strikes, even on its
title-page, a note which wo have before remarked on as
significant of the younger German school. Neither Joseph
Marti, the assistant (Gehülfe) of an engineer and inventor,
Tobler, nor any of his acquaintance belong to society. They
ale unconscious of the existence of barons, or even of
literary or musical magnates. Joseph, after some shrewd
blows of fortune, is only too delighted to find himself sleeping
in a Clean bed, in a bright sunny attic, and fed excellently at
the table of his master, while the payment of his salary, a
sum never vegularly defined, is put off from day to day and
month to month, until Tobler’s own fortune shall be made.
His business is ostensibly to push the sale of Tobler’s inven¬
tions, especially of his famous advertising clock (Reklam¬
Uhr), by composing advertisèments, writing to agents, and
capitalists, and so on. Actually he finds himself made one of
a family, not unlike the Micawbers in its freedom from
responsibility, abundant enjoyment of the good things of the
present, and sanguine hopes for future prosperity. He
fetches wine or beer from the cellar, hangs out the clothes to
dry, or waters the garden with a hose, fetches and carries,
and, above all, does his best to keep off duns. With Frau
Tobler his friendship, though innocent, verges on something
and in spite of seeing threugh Tobler’s absurdities and dis¬
approving lis extravagance and neglect of family dutics,
he retaing to the last an exträordinary fear, mingled witl
admiration, for the outwardly masterful man. There are
four young Toblers, of whom the seccnd girl, Silvi, is that
forlornest of creatures, im unloved and ill-treated child. She
is neglected by her parents, brutally beaten by the detest¬
able maid, Pauline, and“ hated'’ by her mother, with whom
Joseph remonstrates in vain. After a year spent in this
fashion, the Tobler business going from bad to worse,
Joseph is dismissed by the chief for bringing into the house
the former Angestellte,'' a worthless drunkard, named
Wirsich. Frau Tobler bids the“ Gehülfe?' farewell :—
Ja, Joseph, denken Sie ein wenig an Frau Tobler, es wird Ihnen nicht
schaden. Das ist eine Frau, wie viele, keine bedeutende Frau.
Es wird Ihnen sicherlich gut gehen, ich hoffe es und wünsche es, und ich
weiss es beinahe. Seien Sie immer ein bischen demütig, nicht zu viel.
Ihren Mann [t.e.,“ manhood'’’)werden Sie immer stellen müssen. Abr
brausen Sie nie auf, lassen Sie die ersten Worte des Uebelwollens immer
unbeantwor et; auf ein heftiges erstes Wort folgt ja so sehnell ein züch¬
tiges, sanftes. Gewöhnen Sie sich daran, Empfindlichkeiten in der
Stille zu besiegen. Was Frauen jeden Tag tun müssen das soll auch der
Mann nicht wollen ganz ausser acht lassen. Man gewöhnt sich
an alles, und nicht wahr, ein ganz klein wenig gern sind Sie doch hier bei
uns gewesen. Nicht wahr! Es war doch vieles hübsch. Wollen Sie
Tobler nicht auch adien sagen lassen !“
“ Von Herzen !“ sagte der Gehülfe.
Quotation gives little idea of the quality of this interesting
book. Walser has, perhaps, not the fine observation of
Schnitzler, but his emotional equipment is in some respects
richer. The picture of the unloved Silvi, whose mouth
twists itself into awkward ugliness when she would fain
smile winsomely, like her pretty sister Dora, is a sadly true
description of those whom a cruel stepmother nature has
shut out for ever from the warmth of human affection. Only
religions devotion seems able to surmount the natural anti¬
pathy that is felt towards such unfortunates. Joseph feels
all the pathos of the situation, but he is powerless, and his
humanity leads him to befriend Wirsich, another of nature’s
butcasts. His desireto“serve,'’ out of native sympathy and
comprehension of human weakness, is the outstanding
feature in his character. He is the altruist, and willulti-,
mately, perhaps, be the Christian, who is slowly replacing in
che estimation of novelists the atrocious egoist of Nietzsche.
Der Gehülfe?' though excellent, is hardly on the same
evel of literature as" Der Weg ins Freie.?' But its
sthical content seems to us sounder and of more hopeful
zugury.