Book Reviews - Review 66

Else, the daughter of a distinguished Viennese lawyer, is on holiday with her aunt and cousin Paul in San Morino. She receives a telegram from her mother, who reveals that her father has embezzled money which he has thrown away on gambling and stocks. Her mother presses Else to ask a family friend, who is staying at the same hotel, to "lend" her father 30000 Guilders to pay off his debts, otherwise he faces prison.

The family friend, middle-aged sleazeball Herr von Dorsday, agrees to the request on condition that Else strip for him. Most of the latter part of the novella follows Else's thoughts as she agonises over whether to comply with his condition.

The sequence of events is conveyed through Else's internal monologue. It is a bleak, well-written and quite powerful story, but in my opinion not as good as it could have been. Several interesting themes are suggested, but none of them are fully brought out: the loneliness of the human condition; whether it is honourable to debase oneself for one's family; what we owe loved ones who are dishonourable and take us for granted; the tension between pride and the urge towards sexual profligacy. One could be generous and say that Schnitzler didn't want to hammer these things home; but I can't help thinking he rather couldn't be bothered stretching himself intellectually. Many German-language writers seem to exhibit this tendency.

That said, the novel is well-paced and is a skillful depiction of a mind in crisis.

The edition I read (Fischer) also contains two shorter stories,BlumenFlowers) andDer AndereThe Other). Neither of these struck me as particularly interesting.