box 35//8
4. Viennese IdylIs
SIX TENSE STORIES
Viennese Idyils. By Arthur Schnitzler.
Translated by Frederick Eisemann.
Boston: John W. Luce & Co.
Mr. Eisemann has brought together
six of Arthur Schnitzler’s short stories
under a title little befitting their char¬
acter. These studies of mental obses¬
sion dealing with strange flts of passion,
remorse, fright, and the disillusionment
that follows upon great emotional erises
are scarcely to be classed as idylis.
Viennese these stories certainly are, in¬
asmuch as they embody that peculiar
mixture of the tender and the ironic,
that faculty of feeling and of contem¬
plating one’s self at the same time
which distinguishes the Young Austrian
writers from their imore single-minded
North German contemporaries. Five of
the stories are analyses of erotic experi¬
ences with a blend of mysticism. Blind
Geronimo and his Brother“ is the tale
of a brother’s fidelity: a single episode
vin the life of two strolling musicians
whom the carelessly spoken word of a
stranger throws into a situation where
each reveals his heart to each. The
concentration and realism of the treat¬
ment remind one of Maupassant, but
there is a warm note of compassion in
Schnitzler that is far removed from thel
French writer’s impersonality. The
translation lacks the grace and distine¬
tion of the original.
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