All I Have To Do Is Dream...

It's time to leave the ruins of post-war Cologne now, and the German Literature Month Tour Bus is making another long journey south, this time returning to Austria over the next couple of days to peruse two classic pieces of short writing.  Yes, it would have made for a shorter trip if this stop had been scheduled after our last visit to Vienna - we apologise for the inconvenience...

*****
Back in August, during my own month of German-language reading, I read a couple of novellas by Arthur Schnitzler (Leutnant Gustl & Fräulein Else), psychological tales providing insights into the minds of the protagonists and the wider Austrian society alike.   I had been intending to return to Schnitzler at some point, and the current event seemed like a fitting opportunity to read one of his most famous works, Traumnovelle (Dream Novella) - perhaps best known in English for providing the basis of Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut...

The story takes place over two days in late-nineteenth-century Vienna, where we meet Fridolin, a successful doctor, and his younger wife Albertine.  The couple appear at first glance to be a happily-married couple with a beautiful young daughter, but appearances, as we know, can be deceiving.  Beneath the urbane, civilised surface, both Fridolin and Albertine harbour repressed sexual desires, urges which they will attempt to satisfy in very different ways.

While the younger Albertine, sexually naive at the time of her marriage, is starting to lose herself in dreams and fantasies of other lovers, her husband is tempted to do much more.  In a night of unusual occurrences, the opportunity arrives to betray his wife and give in to his desire to experiment sexually.  However, the following day, everything is seen in a very different light...

The premise sounds risqué and highly sexually charged, and this is the impression I had before reading Traumnovelle; the truth, however, is that events are (for the most part), a lot less explicit than I had expected.  In reality, it is the possibility, the promise, of sexual activity which is tantalisingly portrayed; Schnitzler is actually far more concerned with what's going on inside the heads of our (relatively reserved) friends than in any bedroom antics they may get up to.

Fridolin, despite all his bluster and macho bravado, actually comes across as a little boy on an awfully big adventure.  We are told most of the story through his eyes, and (naturally) the women he meets all appear to see something special in him, whether it's the daughter of his recently deceased patient, the lady of the night he encounters or the mysterious stranger at a very exclusive party (the kind where clothing is - at least late in the evening - strictly optional...).  However, in the cold, rather wintry, light of day, his allure is not quite as obvious.

In fact, the reader is led to believe that he has no intention of philandering and is merely jealous of his wife's nocturnal fantasies.  The couple agree at the start of the novella to be honest with each other (to a fault!), so why is Fridolin so upset with Albertine for revealing her little sexual dreams?  Well, I'm afraid I'm not qualified to go deeper into that area (especially while we're in Vienna!), so I'll just leave the couple where the book finishes, a little closer than they were before, but perhaps also a little farther apart.

If you want tense, ambiguous writing, with excellent descriptions of the shadowy side of Viennese culture, this is definitely one to try.  It's a book to devour in a single sitting; just don't expect to come away with all the answers that quickly.  I'm hoping to return to Traumnovelle for another try soon as, like Schnitzler's other stories, it may need a second reading for the writer's intentions to fully sink in...

Mostly in the Mind

Time to move on now, and it's a fair gallop down through the mountains, across the border and into Vienna, the beautiful Austrian capital.  It's time to meet another famous G-Lit writer - and a couple of his wonderful creations...

*****
First, we're off to a concert, where we are privileged enough to be allowed to see into the mind of a late-19th-century Austrian soldier, Leutnant Gustl (Lieutenant Gustl).  In Arthur Schnitzler's thirty-page story, the reader is caught within the stream of consciousness of the pompous, misogynistic, anti-Semitic young lieutenant as he leaves the concert hall and takes a night ramble through the empty streets of Vienna.  Having been insulted by a civilian, he feels himself compelled to erase the blot on his honour by putting a bullet through his brain, a decision which is turned over and over in his mind during the lengthy night.

The story is a wonderful example of stream-of-consciousness, one of the first of its kind in German literature and a pointer to the works of later writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.  More than this though, Leutnant Gustl is an excellent satirical piece, poking fun at the old-fashioned, snooty world of the Imperial army, bursting the bubble of those who looked down on civilians and their mundane, non-military existence.  The story apparently caused quite a stir in the imperial capital (remember: at the time - 1900 - The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was one of the major world powers), and Schnitzler was reprimanded for daring to cast aspersions upon the honour of the army.  Whether an exaggerated satire or an insightful exposé, it's certainly a very interesting tale.

*****
Schnitzler was to return to this technique of internal monologue twenty-four years later when writing the second of the novellas in this book, Fräulein Else (Miss Else).  Else is a nineteen-year-old Austrian woman without any particular occupation, drifting from hotel to hotel in the company of some wealthy relatives.  When she receives a telegram from her mother, requiring her to ask a family friend for some money (without which her father may go to prison), she feels oppressed and betrayed.  Yet this is nothing compared to her feelings on making the request.  Herr Dorsday, a middle-aged gentleman, agrees to the request - but only on one, extremely demeaning condition...

The crux of the story then, as with our old friend Gustl, is the maelstrom of thoughts whirling around the young woman's mind as she decides whether or not to comply with Dorsday's condition, one minute deciding to throw caution to the wind, the next considering whether to beg for release, unable to commit to any one thought for more than a few seconds.  Fräulein Else, however, is twice as long as the earlier tale, and at least twice as complex.  Where the reader is encouraged to mock the puffed-up officer and is rarely that concerned over his eventual fate, Else is a much more sympathetic figure, and we can appreciate her dilemma - and her feelings towards the people who have put her in this awful position.

Another difference between this story and the first one is that there is much more interaction between Else and the outside world.  The majority of Gustl's tale takes place in his head with only two short conversations with outsiders; however, in Else's case, not only do we eavesdrop on several important conversations (and, at the same time, read the thoughts which often contradict her words), at the end of the story we are also able to hear people talking about her.  These conversations then give a slightly different slant to the tale, forcing us to revise our opinions about Else and, perhaps, throwing an element of doubt into play.

When you mention Vienna, the name which comes to mind is that of a certain psychoanalyst, and while Schnitzler was not a follower of Freud, it is clear that these two stories, especially the style adopted, owe something to the idea of psychoanalysis.  Fräulein Else, especially, is a treasure trove for anyone looking to pore over the workings of a troubled mind, with ominous dreams, barely suppressed parental issues and swings between sexual embarrassment and a desire to show her body off to the world.  It's clear that her family and society in general, who have made Else what she is, have a lot to answer for...

*****
Two stories, totalling around eighty pages, but the thinness of the book belies the intensity of the writing.  A comparison with Woolf is apt, especially where Fräulein Else is concerned, and I'm already a big fan of Schitzler's writing.  I think I'll be making a return trip to Vienna very soon :)