[…]
As regards Anatol, we need have no misgivings in establishing Schnitzler’s literary indebtedness, for
we can summon our own author as a witness. To Carl Marilaun he stated in an interview66 that, without any intention of contributing anything
of value to the comedy literature of his native country, he wrote a scene which to
himself seemed quite unimportant, naming the chief character Anatol in recollection of agreeable Parisian comedies. In those days, he added, he did
not know that an author was obliged to have an original note of his own. »Der
Einakter, dem ich dann noch einige folgen ließ,« he is quoted as saying, »war nichts
weiter als eine Lesefrucht. Heute weiß ich, daß er von der Menge französischer
Novellen und Komödien, die ich
damals las und sah, in gerader Linie abstammte.«
[…]
