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Plays and Stories
Foreword by Stanley Elkin
Flirtations -- La Ronde -- Countess Mitzi, or The family reunion -- Casanova's homecoming -- Lieutenant Gustl.
Flirtations -- La Ronde -- Countess Mitzi, or The family reunion -- Casanova's homecoming -- Lieutenant Gustl.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Arthur Schnitzler
1,106 books568 followersArthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.
The son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter (a daughter of the Viennese doctor Philipp Markbreiter), was born in Vienna in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and began studying medicine at the local university in 1879. He received his doctorate of medicine in 1885 and worked at the Vienna's General Hospital, but ultimately abandoned medicine in favour of writing.
His works were often controversial, both for their frank description of sexuality (Sigmund Freud, in a letter to Schnitzler, confessed "I have gained the impression that you have learned through intuition — though actually as a result of sensitive introspection — everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons")[1] and for their strong stand against anti-Semitism, represented by works such as his play Professor Bernhardi and the novel Der Weg ins Freie. However, though Schnitzler was himself Jewish, Professor Bernhardi and Fräulein Else are among the few clearly-identified Jewish protagonists in his work.
Schnitzler was branded as a pornographer after the release of his play Reigen, in which ten pairs of characters are shown before and after the sexual act, leading and ending with a prostitute. The furore after this play was couched in the strongest anti-semitic terms;[2] his works would later be cited as "Jewish filth" by Adolf Hitler. Reigen was made into a French language film in 1950 by the German-born director Max Ophüls as La Ronde. The film achieved considerable success in the English-speaking world, with the result that Schnitzler's play is better known there under Ophüls' French title.
In the novella, Fräulein Else (1924), Schnitzler may be rebutting a contentious critique of the Jewish character by Otto Weininger (1903) by positioning the sexuality of the young female Jewish protagonist.[3] The story, a first-person stream of consciousness narrative by a young aristocratic woman, reveals a moral dilemma that ends in tragedy.
In response to an interviewer who asked Schnitzler what he thought about the critical view that his works all seemed to treat the same subjects, he replied, "I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?" Despite his seriousness of purpose, Schnitzler frequently approaches the bedroom farce in his plays (and had an affair with one of his actresses, Adele Sandrock). Professor Bernhardi, a play about a Jewish doctor who turns away a Catholic priest in order to spare a patient the realization that she is on the point of death, is his only major dramatic work without a sexual theme.
A member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna (Jung Wien), Schnitzler toyed with formal as well as social conventions. With his 1900 short story Lieutenant Gustl, he was the first to write German fiction in stream-of-consciousness narration. The story is an unflattering portrait of its protagonist and of the army's obsessive code of formal honour. It caused Schnitzler to be stripped of his commission as a reserve officer in the medical corps — something that should be seen against the rising tide of anti-semitism of the time.
He specialized in shorter works like novellas and one-act plays. And in his short stories like "The Green Tie" ("Die grüne Krawatte") he showed himself to be one of the early masters of microfiction. However he also wrote two full-length novels: Der Weg ins Freie about a talented but not very motivated young composer, a brilliant description of a segment of pre-World War I Viennese society; and the artistically less satisfactory Therese.
In addition to his plays and fiction, Schnitzler meticulously kept a diary from the age of 17 until two days before his death, of a brain hemorrhage in Vienna. The manuscript, which runs to almost 8,000 pages, is most notable for Schnitzler's cas
The son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter (a daughter of the Viennese doctor Philipp Markbreiter), was born in Vienna in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and began studying medicine at the local university in 1879. He received his doctorate of medicine in 1885 and worked at the Vienna's General Hospital, but ultimately abandoned medicine in favour of writing.
His works were often controversial, both for their frank description of sexuality (Sigmund Freud, in a letter to Schnitzler, confessed "I have gained the impression that you have learned through intuition — though actually as a result of sensitive introspection — everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons")[1] and for their strong stand against anti-Semitism, represented by works such as his play Professor Bernhardi and the novel Der Weg ins Freie. However, though Schnitzler was himself Jewish, Professor Bernhardi and Fräulein Else are among the few clearly-identified Jewish protagonists in his work.
Schnitzler was branded as a pornographer after the release of his play Reigen, in which ten pairs of characters are shown before and after the sexual act, leading and ending with a prostitute. The furore after this play was couched in the strongest anti-semitic terms;[2] his works would later be cited as "Jewish filth" by Adolf Hitler. Reigen was made into a French language film in 1950 by the German-born director Max Ophüls as La Ronde. The film achieved considerable success in the English-speaking world, with the result that Schnitzler's play is better known there under Ophüls' French title.
In the novella, Fräulein Else (1924), Schnitzler may be rebutting a contentious critique of the Jewish character by Otto Weininger (1903) by positioning the sexuality of the young female Jewish protagonist.[3] The story, a first-person stream of consciousness narrative by a young aristocratic woman, reveals a moral dilemma that ends in tragedy.
In response to an interviewer who asked Schnitzler what he thought about the critical view that his works all seemed to treat the same subjects, he replied, "I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?" Despite his seriousness of purpose, Schnitzler frequently approaches the bedroom farce in his plays (and had an affair with one of his actresses, Adele Sandrock). Professor Bernhardi, a play about a Jewish doctor who turns away a Catholic priest in order to spare a patient the realization that she is on the point of death, is his only major dramatic work without a sexual theme.
A member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna (Jung Wien), Schnitzler toyed with formal as well as social conventions. With his 1900 short story Lieutenant Gustl, he was the first to write German fiction in stream-of-consciousness narration. The story is an unflattering portrait of its protagonist and of the army's obsessive code of formal honour. It caused Schnitzler to be stripped of his commission as a reserve officer in the medical corps — something that should be seen against the rising tide of anti-semitism of the time.
He specialized in shorter works like novellas and one-act plays. And in his short stories like "The Green Tie" ("Die grüne Krawatte") he showed himself to be one of the early masters of microfiction. However he also wrote two full-length novels: Der Weg ins Freie about a talented but not very motivated young composer, a brilliant description of a segment of pre-World War I Viennese society; and the artistically less satisfactory Therese.
In addition to his plays and fiction, Schnitzler meticulously kept a diary from the age of 17 until two days before his death, of a brain hemorrhage in Vienna. The manuscript, which runs to almost 8,000 pages, is most notable for Schnitzler's cas
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 5, 2026
"I feel as if I were forever telling myself a story" (261).
I enjoyed this collection for the most part. The first two plays, Flirtations and La Ronde were the highlights, though especially the former, with its lively dialogue, living characters, and its culminating sentiment. Had I read it in a more somber environment, I imagine it would've affected me a good deal. It touches well on seriousness vs. gaiety in relationships, whether youth ought to express or repress itself, and subterfuges in love. It even features time-old heteropessimism:
MITZI: But I'm always telling you: you should never believe one word a man says.
CHRISTINE: What are you talking about—men, men.—What do I care about men! (35)
The second play is brilliantly executed, consisting of a sequence of 10 man-woman pairings that comes full circle, exposing the anxieties, hypocrisies, and subtleties of infidelity across social classes when it comes to sexuality. Although it can be a little repetitive—as its original title, Reigen, literally "round dance," insinuates—that speaks to its theme: That the desire for singularity, to be the one and only, the "special" one, with all the attendant possessiveness, jealousy, and insecurity, is universal to men and women no matter one's station in life. It's easy to see why it was such a scandal in fin-de-siècle Austria, with the suggestion that adultery and impurity are more common than was thought—perhaps even omnipresent and inevitable. Such a suggestion is shocking and disturbing; however, at the same time, it was a move of daring, courageous realism on Schnitzler's part. He probably wanted to wake up the bourgeoisie from their dogmatic slumber and get them to see what they were avoiding.
The third play, Countess Mitzi, pursues similar themes, although I thought it tried to fit in too much into too short a space; Schnitzler wanted to pack as many plot switches at the end as he could.
Casanova's Homecoming I skimmed through mostly, as I didn't find it too interesting; I locked in for the ending, which was, however, pretty gripping. Two men sword fight, literally and almost figuratively. Casanova insightfully remarks, "There are women who would pay a high price for the spectacle!'" (237). #yaoi
Lastly, Lieutenant Gustl is an early instance of stream-of-consciousness prose. "Dujardin did it first!" "No, Tolstoy did it first!!!" All very well. It's an early instance. It was pretty funny and reminded me of the man from underground quite a bit.
I enjoyed this collection for the most part. The first two plays, Flirtations and La Ronde were the highlights, though especially the former, with its lively dialogue, living characters, and its culminating sentiment. Had I read it in a more somber environment, I imagine it would've affected me a good deal. It touches well on seriousness vs. gaiety in relationships, whether youth ought to express or repress itself, and subterfuges in love. It even features time-old heteropessimism:
MITZI: But I'm always telling you: you should never believe one word a man says.
CHRISTINE: What are you talking about—men, men.—What do I care about men! (35)
The second play is brilliantly executed, consisting of a sequence of 10 man-woman pairings that comes full circle, exposing the anxieties, hypocrisies, and subtleties of infidelity across social classes when it comes to sexuality. Although it can be a little repetitive—as its original title, Reigen, literally "round dance," insinuates—that speaks to its theme: That the desire for singularity, to be the one and only, the "special" one, with all the attendant possessiveness, jealousy, and insecurity, is universal to men and women no matter one's station in life. It's easy to see why it was such a scandal in fin-de-siècle Austria, with the suggestion that adultery and impurity are more common than was thought—perhaps even omnipresent and inevitable. Such a suggestion is shocking and disturbing; however, at the same time, it was a move of daring, courageous realism on Schnitzler's part. He probably wanted to wake up the bourgeoisie from their dogmatic slumber and get them to see what they were avoiding.
The third play, Countess Mitzi, pursues similar themes, although I thought it tried to fit in too much into too short a space; Schnitzler wanted to pack as many plot switches at the end as he could.
Casanova's Homecoming I skimmed through mostly, as I didn't find it too interesting; I locked in for the ending, which was, however, pretty gripping. Two men sword fight, literally and almost figuratively. Casanova insightfully remarks, "There are women who would pay a high price for the spectacle!'" (237). #yaoi
Lastly, Lieutenant Gustl is an early instance of stream-of-consciousness prose. "Dujardin did it first!" "No, Tolstoy did it first!!!" All very well. It's an early instance. It was pretty funny and reminded me of the man from underground quite a bit.
May 16, 2008
I'm still struggling with this one, given the language barrier.
August 18, 2010
NOT A REVIEW, Copyright 1930 D.C. Heath. Has class notes & Der blinde Geronimo und sein Bruder
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews