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Cargando... Desire and Delusion: Three Novellaspor Arthur Schnitzler
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I jumped on this one after reading Night Games, the excellent compilation of short stories also translated by Margaret Schaefer, but I was pretty disappointed. The first two novellas really drag - one of them is about a man going mad, the other one about a man dying, and they read like lesser existentialist novels. Thankfully "Fraulein Else" redeemed the book, but if you're just starting with Schnitzler I highly recommend you choose the other collection. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. At first, it seemed as though the stories were going to be of the straightforward "rich people and their problems" genre, but with a little patience, transformed into paranoid, anxious tales of the afflicted and obsessed. Schnitzler was orginally an Austrian doctor with a love of literature and writing, and at some point during his life, writing became his main profession. He also lived at a strange time during the history of Austria; a time whe...more I was pleasantly surprised by this book. At first, it seemed as though the stories were going to be of the straightforward "rich people and their problems" genre, but with a little patience, transformed into paranoid, anxious tales of the afflicted and obsessed. Schnitzler was orginally an Austrian doctor with a love of literature and writing, and at some point during his life, writing became his main profession. He also lived at a strange time during the history of Austria; a time when dying was "sexy" and even a "youthful" endeavor. He captures the nation's preoccupation with death, but interjects his physician's resistance to ending one's life through his skilled storytelling. While the characters may seem a little flat, their neuroses never fail to entertain. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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Dying, Flight into Darkness, and Fraulein Else reveal the depths of Schnitzler's psychological and moral understanding of life as well as the masterful storytelling techniques that immerse the reader into the very center of his characters' thoughts and emotions. The tales of Arthur Schnitzler--especially as rendered in Margret Schaefer's clear, uncluttered translations--are many suggestive, allusive, and dreamlike things. But they are most certainly not the work of a period writer. --Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)833.8Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Later 19th century 1856–1900Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Fraulein Else is a story of illness told through the form of interior monologue. Written in the heights of the modernist movement, Arthur Schnitzler used a stream of consciousness style to provide an unmediated glimpse into the interior life of a young woman. In his sympathetic portrayal of a young woman's life he provides a portrait that rivals that of Molly in Ulysses or the titular Mrs. Dalloway in Virginia Woolf's famous novel. Through the audible thoughts of a nineteen-year-old girl Schnitzler reveals what she dares not speak aloud and what her bourgeois society does not want to hear.
In the novella Schnitzler portrays a vital, high-spirited, and sensual young woman named Else who spends her days playing tennis and exchanging idle conversation with her Cousin Paul (on whom she has a secret crush) and Cissy, a married socialite who is having an affair with Paul. Else's carefree and self-centered holiday takes an abrupt turn, however, when she receives an urgent letter from her mother with the news that Else's father is about to suffer financial embarrassment. He owes 30,000 guldens, an amount he must raise immediately. Else's mother has discovered that Herr Von Dorsday, an old family friend, is staying at the same hotel as Else. In her letter, Else's mother pleads with her daughter to approach Von Dorsday for a loan.
Humiliated by this turn of events, Else nonetheless flirtatiously broaches the subject of a loan with Von Dorsday, sensing his attraction to her. He agrees on the condition that Else allow him to see her nude. Else, torn between loyalty to her family and the repellent task before her, considers her situation from every angle, her hysteria rising - despite a dose or two of veronal taken as a sedative - as she nears the appointed hour. In her manic state, Else veers between comedy and melodrama, and her decision sets the stage for a final moment of self-awareness that is both inevitable and shocking.
Importantly, Schnitzler was familiar with the theories of Sigmund Freud and used this knowledge to create a brilliant portrait of a classic adolescent female hysteric, likely modeled on those patients that made Freud famous. Even the title of the novel, Fraulein Else, hints at similar titles that one could find in Freud's case histories. Another stylistic technique that I particularly enjoyed was the inclusion of sections from Carnaval by Robert Schumann to intensify the emotions of Else in the climactic scene of the novella. Doing so suggests that Schnitzler had confidence that his readers would be familiar with Schumann's music as the cultural elite of Vienna undoubtedly were. This is a classic of modernism that retains its interest for contemporary readers. The many adaptations on stage and for the cinema are a testament to its continuing popularity. ( )