V

The Reliable Press Clipping Bureau
ALBERT ROMEIKE & CO.

INCORPORATED
26 Warren Street
New Vork Clty
CLIPPING FROM
M
Sophisticated
Romantics
LITTLE NOVELS.
By Arthur SchnitzlerWet
York.Ainlon and Schuster..
32.50.
Reviewed by
BABETTE DEUTSCH
Arthur Schnitzler
OST of the ten stories that
make up this little book very
the creatures and the victims of their he imagines, is now thinking him a com¬
Av Aclearly “date.“ It is not only
non thief, though the idea of rifling the#
little lusts, people who are relieved from
because of the style of the ladies’ coif¬
pockets of strangers is scarcely as nasty
the pressure of economic necessity to no
fures, nor yet the fact that they drive
as the thought that Carlo has robbed his
purpose. But whereas Hemingway's
to the ball in carriages rather than mo¬
characters are sick with the knowledge
blind brother. It will be impossible tog
tors. Nor is it owing to the leading
explain the theft to the magistrate: its#
of their own frustrated existence and
themes: the frailty of women, the head¬
actual motivation is too plausible. Just
his tales vivid with disgust, Schnitzler’s
long passion of men—themes which were
when Carlo's wretchedness seems as im-
characters live in an atmosphere per¬
a commonplace when Cleopatra flour¬
penetrably black as the darkness in
versely enticing as the taint in gamy
ished and a familiar jest to Potiphar’s
which Geronimo walks the blind man
meat.
servants. These tales date because of
drops the guitar, stretches out his arms
the viewpoint that is implicit in them
and kisses Carlo on the mouth. That#
But if there is something old-fash¬
and that scems somehow as remote as
moment sets back the clock for poor
icned, and so slightly unreal, about most
the waltzes of Strauss, the warm¬
Carlo; the world becomes a place in
of these stories, all of them are skill¬
skinned luscious models of Stuck, the
which, jail or no jail, blind beggar or
fully written and are as easy to read as
fabulous gayety of pre-war Viienna.
Viennese coffee is to drink. Several
no such thing, one can live with courage
touch upon the supernatural, and han¬
and contentment. His brother ie re¬
To describe the viewpoint in two
stored to him, his lifelong saerifice rec¬
die this unlikely motif in a felicitous
words would be to call it sophisticated
ompensed, his peace made whole. In
and thrilling fashion. Schnitzier does
romanticism. Sex is the guiding force
masterly work when h. treads the bor¬
spite of the fact that Geronimo's thought
in the lives of the quite trivial people
processes are not made as clear as is
derline between truth and fantasy: the
with whom the story-teller concerns
desirable, the tale is a lovely fabrication,
reader is no less exhilarated than con¬
bimself, but though they commit mur¬
dceply moving and full of vigor and
fused by being made to breathe alter¬
der and shoot themselves because one
tenderness. It is the one story in thei
nate gusts of air from two alien unl¬
woman is more fascinating or one man
book that deals with common folk, ands
verses.
more attractive than another, the thing
curiously enough, the author makes thems
that drives them lacks the terrible sig¬
more credible and certainly much mor
The finest piece in the collection is a
nificance that it has for a writer like
touching figures than any of his par#
story about à blind beggar and his
D. H. Lawrence, and one feels that all
sion-ridden barons, sculptors and barris#
brother that, except for its happy con¬
these bullets and all this blood are like
ters. However seductive the world in
clssion, might have come from the pen
the cigarettes that used to be manufac¬
which those gentlemen so gracefullg#
of Maupassant, and. that stands quite
tured for ladies—disguised by a faint
move, however rough and dismal th
axart fromthe rest of the volume. Carlo.
flavor of violets. There is nothing here
world of blind Geronimo, one is gratein##
an Italian peasant boy, accidentally
of elemental fury. of animal urgency.
blided his brother Geronimo with his for the glimpse into that more honcst
Not that the stories are lacking in the algun when both were small, and eser pigce.