Faksimile

Text

14. Little Novels
box 35/11
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAE
Internadonel Preget dtring Burcati.
51. Red Lion St., London, W. C. 1.
———
Estract from
West Australian
Perth, Australia
Oste — 7. DEO 1929
# TLittle Novels,' by Arthur Schnitzler.
Constattund Cor Ltd., London. 6
From the Book Lovers’, Perth,
In medineval days, the “conte“ or Vnou¬
velle“' was a favourite medium for the
writer of fiction, and one in which such
rare exponents of the art as Boccaccio,
Margaret of Navarre, and Marie of France
—to name only three—worked and su¬
premely excelled. In quite recent times we
have had the late Maurice Hewlett, whose
Little Novels of Italy'’ were based, as
far as conception and style are concerned.
on the "nouvelles'' of the Italian roman¬
eists of the Renaissance period. Whether
Dr. Schnitzler is entirelv justified in ap¬
plying the term Vnonvelle'’ to his tales is
open to doubt; to us they appear to b
merely short stories of skilful craftsman¬
ship and ungneskionable power, each one
in tury revealing the analytical qualities.
the pessimism und detached ontlook which
are distinguishing attributes of this gifted
writer.
The ten stories included in the!
epresent volume cover a wide range—from
sthe uncanny to the humorous, from the
nsychology of the murderer to studies in
the social life of Vienna pre-war days.
For ourselves, we prefer above all others
the tale of"Blind Geronimo and
bis
Brother,“ if only because it has a humanity
about it which is singularlv lacking in the
other examples of I#t. Sel sitzler’s enig¬
matie art. The storics have been rendered
auto English by Mr. Erie Sutton.