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The Germanic Reviem
aware of these problems, and that his failure to stress them in
his work is not due to sublime indifference. If additional
evidence were needed, his recent novel Therese. Chronik eines
Frauenlebens (Berlin, 1028) will dispel any doubts on this
subject. This account of the harrowing, heart-rending exist¬
ence, not of the proletariat to be sure, but nevertheless of a
human underdog, the governess Therese, could have been
written only by a man who had vicariously experienced all
her suffering.
Another sketch in the manner of“ Uber den Patriotismus,
entitled“ Er wartet auf den vazierenden Gott'’ and written in
1887, found its way into the columns of the Deutsche Wochen¬
schrift. Partly in the form of a dialog, the narrator describes
to us his poet-friend Albin, a genius of the fragment who never
works because he is so overwhelmed with ideas that he is
unable ever to finish anything. The line Er wartet auf den
vazierenden Gott'' is one of those bursts of inspiration with
which Albin's notebook is filled, but which has not as yet
revealed its full meaning even to himself. It turns out that
this“ vazierender Gott'’ is a sort of Jupiter without a job,
a dethroned prince, a singer without an engagement; even the
God of the Bible, before he committed the Jaur pas on the
last of those well-known six days of putting Adam into the
world, was a“ vazierender Gott.“' Finally, Albin suggests that
it is the genius lacking the ultimate inspiration which would
enable him to create that glorious, perfect work that would
carry him heavenward like a God who has returned to his true
abode. The narrator mildly objects that it is rather the genius
who could accomplish anything if he did not allow his inspiration
to pass out of sheer indolence and therefore fails to profit by it.
Albin, blissfully unconscious of any allusion to his own short¬
comings, suddenly concludes that he is such a“ vazierender
Gott. Henceforth he struts about like a God among the
mortals. When he joins the narrator in his café-corner, the
latter experiences such a deep feeling of reverence that he
scarcely dares offer him a cigar. But Albin fortunately accom¬
modates him by asking for one.
Schnitzler was often contemptuously referred to in the
—
20
600
nineties as one
deserve serious
he w
the wo
——
0
box 36/6
t
1
Panbfbrints
162
The Germanic Reviem
aware of these problems, and that his failure to stress them in
his work is not due to sublime indifference. If additional
evidence were needed, his recent novel Therese. Chronik eines
Frauenlebens (Berlin, 1028) will dispel any doubts on this
subject. This account of the harrowing, heart-rending exist¬
ence, not of the proletariat to be sure, but nevertheless of a
human underdog, the governess Therese, could have been
written only by a man who had vicariously experienced all
her suffering.
Another sketch in the manner of“ Uber den Patriotismus,
entitled“ Er wartet auf den vazierenden Gott'’ and written in
1887, found its way into the columns of the Deutsche Wochen¬
schrift. Partly in the form of a dialog, the narrator describes
to us his poet-friend Albin, a genius of the fragment who never
works because he is so overwhelmed with ideas that he is
unable ever to finish anything. The line Er wartet auf den
vazierenden Gott'' is one of those bursts of inspiration with
which Albin's notebook is filled, but which has not as yet
revealed its full meaning even to himself. It turns out that
this“ vazierender Gott'’ is a sort of Jupiter without a job,
a dethroned prince, a singer without an engagement; even the
God of the Bible, before he committed the Jaur pas on the
last of those well-known six days of putting Adam into the
world, was a“ vazierender Gott.“' Finally, Albin suggests that
it is the genius lacking the ultimate inspiration which would
enable him to create that glorious, perfect work that would
carry him heavenward like a God who has returned to his true
abode. The narrator mildly objects that it is rather the genius
who could accomplish anything if he did not allow his inspiration
to pass out of sheer indolence and therefore fails to profit by it.
Albin, blissfully unconscious of any allusion to his own short¬
comings, suddenly concludes that he is such a“ vazierender
Gott. Henceforth he struts about like a God among the
mortals. When he joins the narrator in his café-corner, the
latter experiences such a deep feeling of reverence that he
scarcely dares offer him a cigar. But Albin fortunately accom¬
modates him by asking for one.
Schnitzler was often contemptuously referred to in the
—
20
600
nineties as one
deserve serious
he w
the wo