10 De I. Keehne Hen H P
He is read,
ready 10 say,Enongh.
to satirize und exhlbit scolety's folbles
as long as mortal energy Will allow him.
In“ Daybrenk“ Schnitzler again makes
use of an episode to point his eriticism.
The title is suggested by the maln action
of the story, all of which takes place
on three different nights and achieves
its highest intent at daybreak. Willi
Kasda is the usual type of Austrian
army officer, an average young man
who likes Viennese nights, wine, wo¬
men, and song. He trifles with life,
it is a gay bubble, a bubble which
certainly must burst into nothingness
soon or late. To this young lieutenant
comes à casual acquaintance who asks
Willi to rescue him from the dis¬
grace which an embezzlement makes
imminent. Willingly, enough, Kasda
stakes his last few hundred gulden at
cards in order to raise the thousand
which his friend requires. The tide of
fertune ebbs and flows across the table
as Fate stands at the banker’s right. Al
one time Willi is thousands ahead. The
fever comes upon him; he stakes and
loses, and stakes again. At daybreak
he is ten thousand in debt. He turns
to his uncle for ald and linds that he
has given his fortune and property into
the care of his young wife with whom
Willl had a casual ampur in the past.
She refeses to help hirh, and he recalls
a daybreak when he left her ten gulden
out of kindness and walked but of her
room leaving behind an unappreciated
love. On a third daybreak she, in turn,
takes leave of him and drops a hundred
gulden note on Willi’s barrack’s table.
The desperate young lieutenant had ex¬
pected at least ten thousand. She sends
it to him later that morning, but Willi
had already shot himself rather than face
the disgrace of being expelled from the
army for fallure to pay his gambling
debts.
The story, you see, is simple enough.
It is not the detail of its action, but
rather the unmistakable innuendo that
sets it apart in the same manner in
which Schnitzler’s other novels have been
set apart. To read it is to read an indier¬
ment of soclety, or at least à certaln as¬
pect of it. At the same time the author
1
has Here given us, as in "Fraulein Lise,“
acharacter study in brilliant miniature.
Willi Kasada is not a figure of the novel¬
ist’s imagination but is one who treads
the path of the average young officer of
the late Franz Joseph’s army. Had he
accepted good fortune when it was ready
at hand, or had he, on a glamorous night,
recognized a true love when it shone in
the eyes of his companion of the evening,
the story in Daybreak“ would have ar¬
rived at a different conclusion. But
young lieutenants of Willi's type are still
too füll of the philandering spirit, of the
gambling urge, to stop for the moment to
view their advantage. The moment
passed and, as the poets have it, though
good fortune wear a forelock it is bald
behind. Once it has gone by, one may
never grasp it.
Of Schnitzler’s manner littie need here
be said. It has all been said before. H.
is as lucent and pleasant in his style as
Cover before, his story possesses à com¬
pactness and an evenness of unfolding
which marks the every story of Schnitz¬
ler. There is a naturalness so apparent
in his tale that one almost overlooks it,
so much does one take it for granted
after the first few pages. That is be¬
cause Schnitzler’s stories come from life,
from his actual experience as physiclan
and citizen of Austria’s gay Vienna.
Above all, the author’s manner is mature.
But as we have just noted, all chis has
ebeen said by countless others and we
Eshall leave Daybreak“ to the reader for
his own appreciation.
S. H.
#
Gapbreak
Schmialer a wete novel
abeut gambling and women
W
D## il as goed us flie ollers?
Mead ihe verdhiel of ihe hust
ihree nepleiders.
Schnitzler packs into 200slight
pages what few novelists
achieve in 400.—Harry Hansen
We could no more quit read¬
ing it before ge had finishedit
than say: Well this is my last
hand,'when we were aterrißie
loser.-F. P.A.
Its energy, its beauty, is that
of Fräulein Else“ and“ Ber¬
trice.“ It gave me a kick such
as I haven't had from books
since Rhapsody.“
— Philadelphia Public Ledger
204 pages-Price 81.50
Sinon G achuser - Gbli#
„
579
From Tux INnzn SAncrun of
SIMON and SCHUSTER
Publiahers 37 West 57th Street. Neu Vork
(D/A/A'rbis summer Tiie Roving
Inner Sanctum spent memorable hours
in SCIINTTZLER’'S enehanted gurden on
Sternwartestrasse, and tonight we ure
there again, on wings of song and on
pages of prose such as only Aurnon
ScHNITzLER can write.
(A/2/2) Daybreat is the latest novel¬
ette in the series launched hy Pthat
opal Hawlessly eut,?’ Fraulein Else, and
carried forward by Beatrice, None Bul
ihe Brave, and Rhapsody—even the
titles carry the nuance and lure of
Vienna.
(D22) That life and love ure games
ot chance is the underlying iden of
Daybreak.
(TOhch ro save a friend from n
gambling episode and financial dis¬
grace Lieutenant Willi himself be¬
Comes involved in a debt ten times as
great and, in desperation, turns to his
uncle's young wife who had played a
part in a casual amour of the past;
there is a situation of SchNirzLEn and
Vienna all compact, and the story
develops to its elimax before the
sccond Daybreak.
(2 0∆) From Schnrrzunn's house
The Roring Sanctum went to the Bee¬
thoven section of Vienna to meet
Fnanz WearEL, author of Verdi, a
Novel of the Opera, Goat Song, Juurez
and Marimilian and The Man Wio
Conquered Death.
(DADor Tie Man Who Conquered
Death we shall not speak here, con¬
tenting ourselves with this quotation—
the total review—from HxnschEnn
Buickzun of The Neu Vork Evening
Post:
FnaNz Waarzf., the young Viennese author
of Verdi, A Norel ofthe Opera, which Simon
ANb Scnusren insist is one of the great
overlooked books of thotimes, has done a
gripping short novel in The Man Who Con¬
quered #ath, published by the same firm at
81.50. is is a novelette with the unre¬
Ienting power of a good short story, a bitter
therne handled with sure effectiveness.
An old doorkeeper who has lost his joh
takes out insurance which will pay his wife
a pittance if he reaches the age ofsixty-five,
and for this reason he hangs onto life with
a terrible determination long after the
should be dead. Ilis struggle for the goal in
the face of these odds has in it the very
essense of drama, and the ending, when,
after beating death, the old man is left a
mere heap of bones, is tremendous.
Vou will search a long time for a book of
this compass any more moving than The
Man Wio Conquered Death.
(ADD) Pity, Says WILLIAN A. DRAkR,
istheoutstandingattribute of WERFEL’s
renius:It is the moment of sublimity
=hich comes into being when one
person, in the shock of atragic instant,
abandons his own security in com¬
miseration for the peril of another; the
whole-spirited response to a generous
conception of life, which recognizes the
identity of all living creatures in the
embrace of nature
(D/2) Poor sal“ copy perhaps, but
true talk.
—ESSANDESS
2
He is read,
ready 10 say,Enongh.
to satirize und exhlbit scolety's folbles
as long as mortal energy Will allow him.
In“ Daybrenk“ Schnitzler again makes
use of an episode to point his eriticism.
The title is suggested by the maln action
of the story, all of which takes place
on three different nights and achieves
its highest intent at daybreak. Willi
Kasda is the usual type of Austrian
army officer, an average young man
who likes Viennese nights, wine, wo¬
men, and song. He trifles with life,
it is a gay bubble, a bubble which
certainly must burst into nothingness
soon or late. To this young lieutenant
comes à casual acquaintance who asks
Willi to rescue him from the dis¬
grace which an embezzlement makes
imminent. Willingly, enough, Kasda
stakes his last few hundred gulden at
cards in order to raise the thousand
which his friend requires. The tide of
fertune ebbs and flows across the table
as Fate stands at the banker’s right. Al
one time Willi is thousands ahead. The
fever comes upon him; he stakes and
loses, and stakes again. At daybreak
he is ten thousand in debt. He turns
to his uncle for ald and linds that he
has given his fortune and property into
the care of his young wife with whom
Willl had a casual ampur in the past.
She refeses to help hirh, and he recalls
a daybreak when he left her ten gulden
out of kindness and walked but of her
room leaving behind an unappreciated
love. On a third daybreak she, in turn,
takes leave of him and drops a hundred
gulden note on Willi’s barrack’s table.
The desperate young lieutenant had ex¬
pected at least ten thousand. She sends
it to him later that morning, but Willi
had already shot himself rather than face
the disgrace of being expelled from the
army for fallure to pay his gambling
debts.
The story, you see, is simple enough.
It is not the detail of its action, but
rather the unmistakable innuendo that
sets it apart in the same manner in
which Schnitzler’s other novels have been
set apart. To read it is to read an indier¬
ment of soclety, or at least à certaln as¬
pect of it. At the same time the author
1
has Here given us, as in "Fraulein Lise,“
acharacter study in brilliant miniature.
Willi Kasada is not a figure of the novel¬
ist’s imagination but is one who treads
the path of the average young officer of
the late Franz Joseph’s army. Had he
accepted good fortune when it was ready
at hand, or had he, on a glamorous night,
recognized a true love when it shone in
the eyes of his companion of the evening,
the story in Daybreak“ would have ar¬
rived at a different conclusion. But
young lieutenants of Willi's type are still
too füll of the philandering spirit, of the
gambling urge, to stop for the moment to
view their advantage. The moment
passed and, as the poets have it, though
good fortune wear a forelock it is bald
behind. Once it has gone by, one may
never grasp it.
Of Schnitzler’s manner littie need here
be said. It has all been said before. H.
is as lucent and pleasant in his style as
Cover before, his story possesses à com¬
pactness and an evenness of unfolding
which marks the every story of Schnitz¬
ler. There is a naturalness so apparent
in his tale that one almost overlooks it,
so much does one take it for granted
after the first few pages. That is be¬
cause Schnitzler’s stories come from life,
from his actual experience as physiclan
and citizen of Austria’s gay Vienna.
Above all, the author’s manner is mature.
But as we have just noted, all chis has
ebeen said by countless others and we
Eshall leave Daybreak“ to the reader for
his own appreciation.
S. H.
#
Gapbreak
Schmialer a wete novel
abeut gambling and women
W
D## il as goed us flie ollers?
Mead ihe verdhiel of ihe hust
ihree nepleiders.
Schnitzler packs into 200slight
pages what few novelists
achieve in 400.—Harry Hansen
We could no more quit read¬
ing it before ge had finishedit
than say: Well this is my last
hand,'when we were aterrißie
loser.-F. P.A.
Its energy, its beauty, is that
of Fräulein Else“ and“ Ber¬
trice.“ It gave me a kick such
as I haven't had from books
since Rhapsody.“
— Philadelphia Public Ledger
204 pages-Price 81.50
Sinon G achuser - Gbli#
„
579
From Tux INnzn SAncrun of
SIMON and SCHUSTER
Publiahers 37 West 57th Street. Neu Vork
(D/A/A'rbis summer Tiie Roving
Inner Sanctum spent memorable hours
in SCIINTTZLER’'S enehanted gurden on
Sternwartestrasse, and tonight we ure
there again, on wings of song and on
pages of prose such as only Aurnon
ScHNITzLER can write.
(A/2/2) Daybreat is the latest novel¬
ette in the series launched hy Pthat
opal Hawlessly eut,?’ Fraulein Else, and
carried forward by Beatrice, None Bul
ihe Brave, and Rhapsody—even the
titles carry the nuance and lure of
Vienna.
(D22) That life and love ure games
ot chance is the underlying iden of
Daybreak.
(TOhch ro save a friend from n
gambling episode and financial dis¬
grace Lieutenant Willi himself be¬
Comes involved in a debt ten times as
great and, in desperation, turns to his
uncle's young wife who had played a
part in a casual amour of the past;
there is a situation of SchNirzLEn and
Vienna all compact, and the story
develops to its elimax before the
sccond Daybreak.
(2 0∆) From Schnrrzunn's house
The Roring Sanctum went to the Bee¬
thoven section of Vienna to meet
Fnanz WearEL, author of Verdi, a
Novel of the Opera, Goat Song, Juurez
and Marimilian and The Man Wio
Conquered Death.
(DADor Tie Man Who Conquered
Death we shall not speak here, con¬
tenting ourselves with this quotation—
the total review—from HxnschEnn
Buickzun of The Neu Vork Evening
Post:
FnaNz Waarzf., the young Viennese author
of Verdi, A Norel ofthe Opera, which Simon
ANb Scnusren insist is one of the great
overlooked books of thotimes, has done a
gripping short novel in The Man Who Con¬
quered #ath, published by the same firm at
81.50. is is a novelette with the unre¬
Ienting power of a good short story, a bitter
therne handled with sure effectiveness.
An old doorkeeper who has lost his joh
takes out insurance which will pay his wife
a pittance if he reaches the age ofsixty-five,
and for this reason he hangs onto life with
a terrible determination long after the
should be dead. Ilis struggle for the goal in
the face of these odds has in it the very
essense of drama, and the ending, when,
after beating death, the old man is left a
mere heap of bones, is tremendous.
Vou will search a long time for a book of
this compass any more moving than The
Man Wio Conquered Death.
(ADD) Pity, Says WILLIAN A. DRAkR,
istheoutstandingattribute of WERFEL’s
renius:It is the moment of sublimity
=hich comes into being when one
person, in the shock of atragic instant,
abandons his own security in com¬
miseration for the peril of another; the
whole-spirited response to a generous
conception of life, which recognizes the
identity of all living creatures in the
embrace of nature
(D/2) Poor sal“ copy perhaps, but
true talk.
—ESSANDESS
2