Bachelors: Novellas and Stories [Hardcover]

Arthur Schnitzler (Author), Margret Schaefer (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2006

Scarcely anyone understands the psychology of men's relationship with women—in all its complexity, ambivalence, and frequent perversity—better than the turn-of-the-century Viennese writer and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler. Like Vienna itself, birthplace of much of twentieth-century thought in art, philosophy, and psychology, Schnitzler's sensibility is profoundly modern, even postmodern. He probes and records the illusions and delusions, the dreams and desires, the split between the social self and the inner self that are characteristic of the self-alienated man of his time—and ours. In Margret Schaefer's third collection of newly translated fiction from Schnitzler, we find him focusing a clear and unforgiving eye on the minds of men who desire, fantasize about, and try to relate to women. Young or old, they are all bachelors—a young officer (Lieutenant Gustl), a socially desirable lawyer (The Murderer), a middle-aged physician (Doctor Graesler), an aging roué (Casanova's Homecoming). All are looking for women. Yet these are not love stories. Although Schnitzler's topic is relationships, his theme here as elsewhere is isolation—and the losses, fears, self-doubts, and self-absorption that make it inescapable. For no matter how much social and erotic contact the men in these tales have with women, in the end they cannot escape their own terrifying aloneness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Four gloomy tales of male vanity and self-deception by Viennese author Schnitzler (1862–1931) form the third volume (after Night Games and Desire and Delusion) of his work brought out by Ivan R. Dee and Schaefer (who provides a sketchy preface). "The Murderer," the first and shortest tale, concerns a comfortable Viennese lawyer who lives by himself and who truly desires a wife and companion, but can't bear the thought of being emotionally restricted. He abandons her to run off with a tart whose passion drives him, in turn, to despair and worse, before returning to Vienna a year later for a shocking encounter with his past love. Similarly, in "Doctor Graesler," the eligible provincial doctor meets a suitable mate, Sabine, who has studied nursing and hopes to be his colleague, yet his agonized hesitation prompts him first to destroy another woman's life before returning to face Sabine and ask for her love. "Lieutenant Gustl" is a messy stream-of-consciousness narrative by a hare-brained young officer saved at the last moment from having to fight a duel; "Casanova's Homecoming" finds the aging lothario attempting desperately to engineer his final, bittersweet conquest. The prose feels heavy and dated, but Schnitzler remains a psychologically fascinating writer. (Sept.)
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Review

An undervalued genius. (John Simon )

In Margret Schaefer's superb translations, Arthur Schnitzler reemerges as a riveting storyteller. (Sandra M. Gilbert )

Schnitzler really can see into souls and give voice to the chaos he finds there. (Leo Carey New Yorker )

The tales of Arthur Schnitzler—especially as rendered in Schaefer's clear, uncluttered translations—are many suggestive, allusive, and dreamlike things. (Chris Lehmann Washington Post Book World )

A fine selection of a crucial body of work, well worth rediscovering: humane, satirical, and magnificent. (Village Voice )

Each piece is as clear as a bell...in its penetrating analysis of male ambiguities, perversities, and psychology....An excellent collection. (Midwest Book Review )

Psychologically fascinating. (Publisher's Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee; Tra edition (August 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566636116
• ISBN-13: 978-1566636117
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprises on Every Page: A Terrific Collection!!!!!, January 13, 2008

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A Reader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bachelors: Novellas and Stories (Hardcover)

I came across this book almost by accident while browsing the Amazon website one evening; Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931)--a Viennese Jew who, like his near contemporaries Alfred Döblin and William Carlos Williams, doubled as a practicing physician as well as an avant-garde writer--is an author whose name I was familiar with but whose work I had never before read. There was something magical about this collection that compelled me to pick it up and read it cover-to-cover almost instantly. It was well worth my time to do so: every one of these brief narratives is compelling, distinct, entertaining, and demonstrative of Schnitzler's literary talents and psychological insights.

Particularly noteworthy among the four stories included in this collection are "Casanova's Homecoming," the longest and arguably most moving of these selections, which re-imagines the legendary 18th century adventurer as a spiritual autobiography of the author himself as a middle-aged, depressed, failed philanderer; as well as "Lieutenant Gustl," a devastating parody of the provincial chauvinism and petty narcissism of the Austrian military class. This latter narrative was a "success de scandale" when it first appeared, and now counts as the first experiment (published originally in 1900) in stream-of-consciousness narration to appear in German. All of these stories are grouped under the theme of "bachelors" and as such they capture the rootlessness, dislocation, spiritual malaise, and sexual discontent of Viennese life at the turn of the 20th century. Their arrangement here also offers suggestive parallels between this era in Austrian social history, for which Schniztler is arguably THE representative literary figure--not for nothing did the venerable historian Peter Gay title his recent summary of 19th century culture "Schnitzler's Century"--and our contemporary malaise and pessimism at the turn of the 21st.

As much as this book calls attention to Schnitzler's indelible literary achievements, equal credit in this instance goes to his translator, Margret Schaefer; this is one of at least four collections of Schnitzler's work that Schaefer has published, and she deserves much appreciation for her devotion to this important writer's work as well as the skill and elegance of her translations. To the extent that Schnitzler may someday be recognized by English readers to be the equal of Rilke, Mann, or Kafka--distinct from them all but as essential in his contribution to modern German-language literature--this will be thanks to Schaefer's indefatigable work on his behalf.

This is a book that can be enjoyed and should be read by anyone, but particularly by readers, devotees, and students of the crucial period of "proto-modernism" that occurred in world literature between the late 1880s and the beginning of World War I. If you are familiar with the work of Flaubert, Chekhov, and Robert Musil, you will like Schitzler, and would be advised to start with this exemplary collection. He stands in the forefront of the pioneering ranks of global modernism--other candidates would include Brazil's Machado de Assis, the Yiddish writer Dovid Bergelson, the Hebrew writer Yosef Haim Brenner, the Italian Italo Svevo, and the Swiss-German Robert Walser--all of whom with similar techniques but unique worldviews have paved the way for the canon of modernism that includes James Joyce, Marçel Proust, and Virginia Woolf. This is the bridge connecting 19th century modernity with the 20th century and beyond; Arthur Schnitzler is the first link in this chain.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection of short works, Bachelors narrows the focus with skill and outlines bachelor concerns with precision., November 6, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bachelors: Novellas and Stories (Hardcover)

Margret Schaefer here translates and gathers new novellas and stories from Arthur Schnitzler, whose works offer penetrating insights into the male psyche. No ordinary collection of fiction, each piece is as clear as a bell, as sparkling as a jewel in its penetrating analysis of male ambiguities, perversities, and psychology. An excellent collection of short works, Bachelors narrows the focus with skill and outlines bachelor concerns with precision.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch