V, Textsammlungen 14, Little Novels, Seite 13

14. Littie Novels
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SCHNTTZLER’S IRONY.
LyferENovrrs.- Bv Arthur Schnitzler.
/Translated by Eic Sutton. London:
Constable and C. Pp. 216. 78. 60.
net.
The infidelities of Viennese husbands“
and wives have never failed to provide
Herr Arthur Schnitzler with useful
material for his sardonically romantic
pen. During the first decade of the
present century, wnen he was in greati#
form at short story writing, de minde
such effective use of this material that
bis studtes in illeit love, with a bias
toward the feminme psychology, have
stood the test of many changes in
social procedure, änd even in the
method of philanderers and libertines.
The languid, scented sensualist with
money, culture, and an extraordinary
maximum of leisure and minimum of
bodily movement has besome an
extinct species; at all events, we never
hear of him—or her. But in Schnitzler’s
stories, of which the present volume
contains a finely translated ten, they
are as alive, as pathological and
secretive, as complex and surprising, as
ever they were and as certain of the
contemporary French writers who were
also attracted by the type could never
make them.
The brute animal is always discern¬
ible beneath the fastidiousness and
#
suavity of Katherina in
The
Stranger,? the cold deceit of Gregor
Samodeski in" The Greek Dancing
Girl,“ or the perverse malice of thel
bachelor, in the brilliant little master¬
piece at the end of the collection, who
left behind him at his death a letter
informing his friends that he had
seduced each of their wives in turn. The
victim of his or her own lust is discern¬
ible also—and in the same personality
The
as the conquering animal.
Death of a Bachelor
is a story that
will give particular satisfaction to all
who value strong and sure craftsman¬
ship. There is not an unnecessary
word or phrase in the whole ofit; there
is not the faintest appeallto sentiment.
Rather is there cruelty and ruthless¬
ness; and yet the impression left on
the reader is one which Herr Schnitzler
always leaves when he is at his beste¬
of smilingly sublime pity.
T.9
1
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SCHNITZLER
On
ande
Viennese Disciple of
Maupassant
LirTtE NOVELS.
By Arthur Schnitzler.
Translated by Eric Sutton. Constable.
3s. 6d. net.
For the ten short stories in this book,
most admirably translated by Mr. Eric
Sutton, it is claimed that they represent
the cream of Schnitzler’s art;
and che
claim is an indication of how good the
stories must be. They are all intensely
characteristic of the author, who was un¬
doubtedly one of the most gifted and
original of pre-war writers. There 18,
both in the subjects and the manner
of his contes, an irresistible suggestion of
Guy de Maupassant, with more than a
touch of the mockery of Heine, as, for
instance, in that cynical masterpiece, with
which this collection closes,“ The Death
of a Bachelor.“ The theme is one which
would be impossible for an English author
because it would be incredible, but set in
Schnitzler’s native milieu, it seems only a
grim pleasantry—one of life's more acid
11 —
ironies. The five stories, lhe Stranger,“
Freiherr von Leisen¬
The Fate of
The
" The Greek Dancing Girl,“
bohg.
Dead Gabriel, and“ Redegouda’s Diary,
are pure Maupassant, and if the influence
is less evident in“ Blind Geronimo and
his Brother,“ it is because behind the irony
there is a note of tenderness and compas¬
sion which the author generally denies
himself.
It is a real enough world in
which Schnitzler’s characters move, but
a world of weird experiences, a world seen
through a slightly disturbing medium,
where the normal proportions are con¬
fused, and turn to the grotesque. But it
is impossible to read these short storles
without a sense of their artistic mastery
and, in spite of their mockery, without
The Vienna whlen
keen enjoyment.
nurtured Schnitzler is gone with the old
world to the grave, and thither Schnitzler
himself has followed; but the legacy which
he has left is worthy to secure bothy in
remembrance.
P