"Life," Arthur Schnitzler famously said,"is what happens between love and death." This second collection of Schnitzler's prose fiction follows on Night Games,Margret Schaefer's earlier translation of the Viennese writer's tales,which won acclaim in the New Yorker and among critics generally. In Desire and Delusion,Ms. Schaefer has translated three of Schnitzler's greatest novellas-Dying,Flight into Darkness,and Fraulein Else. They reveal the depths of his 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. Acknowledged masterpieces all,these novellas span Schnitzler's entire career from 1895 to 1931. They testify to his stature as depth psychologist,a doctor-writer fascinated by illness and very much at home in what Susan Sontag has called "the country of the sick." In all these novellas,Schnitzler uses point of view,interior monologue,and stream of consciousness in a radically modern way reminiscent of Joyce and Proust,only earlier.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Ivan R Dee,IncISBN: 9781566635424Number of pages: 288Weight: 485 gDimensions: 232 x 157 x 20 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
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 The Instrumentalist This extraordinary portrayal of psychic shock and disintegration is,simply,one of the greatest modern short novels. Kirkus In Margret Schaefer's superb translations Arthur Schnitzler re-emerges as a riveting storyteller. - Sandra M. GilbertThese three dark novellas show Schnitzler's mastery as a guide to the neurotic,death-obsessed world of fin-de-siecle Vienna. - Robert AlterSchnitzler and Schaefer-a perfect marriage,made in Vienna. - Frederick Crews,University of California,BerkeleyOne reads the stories with suspense,pleasure,amusement.... (Schnitzler) can be read with pleasure and ease. The New York Times She is readable,relaxed and on the whole the best guide for English readers to the nondramatic works of the man whom Freud admired and held in awe as his literary doppelganger. - Peter Heinegg America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture Translator Margret Schaefer (offers a) concise and informative introduction.... Schnitzler's characters-abrim with sensibility,but devoid of common sense-seem so contemporary. New Haven Register Beautifully translated. Each novella offers rich examples of the darkly introspective and self-destructive stream of consciousness Schnitzler employed. - E. Wickersham,Villanova University CHOICE Clear and accessible versions of these haunting,riveting stories. Toronto Globe and Mail
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