SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIG AN, SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1923
Arthur Schnitzler's Fidelity
In this country, the custom of judg- ROBERT LOCKE form, in this country since aout 1915,
ing art by its conformity to conven- for you know Dr. Schnitzler is an
tional morality has prevented a very Austrian. Before the war, however,
wido~spreasl recognition of Dr. Arthtur there had been several editions of his
Schnitzler as the ptaywfright a n plays published.
Schntzled sry-thelaywrihtas.H"The Road to the Open", his only
splendid story-teller that he is. He full length novel has now been trans-
is one of the most subtle of living fated into English and Alfred A.
European writers. Yet, because there Knootf has facetiously bound it in
hovers over most of his work that black boards with cerise pasters.
which the Pilgrim Fathers would have (That for those who would like it to
considered a pnisono s miasma from match their draperies.) In this his
the most morbid swamps of life, his Anatol is name Baron George von
work is little known in this country. Wergethin. He is about twenty-five
Ansricos canot stontact wiat ata. when the story opens, is entirely
free from responsibilities. le is liv-
icensgt ttetsa so tsteerowling lag in an apartment in Vienna with
;houglut ntersat fsubjects; eseni] in brother and has decided on music
tough it is inthtetreast of thte erotic as a career; in which he has already
Ssychcoloy and unusual situations met with a rather gratifying amount
that ofer n author the best chances of success. But in Vienna he has
'or displaying the atelicacy of his art. more or less earned the accusation of
And it is in this that Schnitzcr ex- ,being an aristocratic dilletante. His
eels, asnbtion is not meagre, but in his
For ilhe most part his work is laid in soradir snthusiasm It slarls many
ad attout Vienna, anti ean thsere only pieces of work which he never has
on the stassen frequented by the very the time to finish. Even in the com-
upper stratum of Viennese society-- pay thati he frequents they talk of his
not the elegant high society, but one mythical sextette'.
authentically based on old culture. This trait of letting things go un-
The streets are plain and the houses finished seems, however, to be a com-
r. ther monotonously gray on the out- ,monon trait among his friends, most of
side. But within these houses await whom are authors or composers like
thes surprises of this 1d cutture. It himself. It is the spirit instilled by
is hero i pleasant 'at homes' that Vienna. Melodies came to him as he
problems of politics, music, art and I strolled through the suburbs alone,
letters are discussed. It is here that or as he cycled to nearby resorts with
the love affairs, In which Schnitziler's AR'I HUR SCHNITZLER t n am4lnions. One time it wsas the
work abounds, are lopsidedly carriet waves lapping on their shores and
on; always there is one deeply in love ,y Halser Davidson again when he and his companions
'-ile the trhee trifles accrdtng toI
the dictates of his (o hen whin the same magazine published one of ing", published last spring byThnomas were riding on a roller coaster, ". .
theost it ss urrise(stranghis. his short novels, "Doctor Graesler". I Seltzer, was the first of Schnitzler's They whizzed through the darkness
ttest irs ottcscios nangt, tm believe that "Casanova's Homecom-work that has been published, in bnk down and up again in the groaning
p__lses in our conscious minds, at coah tunder the black tree tops; and
times, but drive then, away for con- George managed to discover a
vention's sake. In fact, so rapidly do grtesque motif in time in the
we drive them away that we retain heavy rhythmic noise."
but faint inklings of them, until we 'a l e iHis life in Vienna seemed, however,
read of such characters as those ofat / most unsatisfactory. He could not
Schnitzler's. Their moral code is not ! ifinish his embryonic attempts to suit
ours; and so these strange impulses himself and the company in which Ie
more often remain to be transformed CHARLES T. ANDREWSS and one or two sympathetic friends
into action or speeh. It is this dis- were forced to spend a great deal of
play of ourselves, in part, which makes. . their time, frankly bored him.
Schnitzler a preeminent artist. No Near the New York state line in fessor at the University of Kansas,
matter whether he has two gentlenen Southern Vermont, where nearly every at Lawrence-the authoress's birth- found their tone to eacht other now
of the seventeenth century fighting a area of ground presents a mound Ot 0 placc-chancellor of the University of too familiar, now too formral, now too
.too famigisrpnowhtoo fhrmaldnow ts
sword duel, stripped stark of all their y rolling slope, where the verdre is Nebraska, and president of Ohio State facetious, now too sentimental: not
clothing, in the faintly yellow mist of heavy and rich in color, and white
ealymrnging, oh r fa ntlyyeawtt aad houses stay white for a long time; University; and in his latter years one of them seemed really free and
early morning, or a oer a n d where rural neighbors i white houses was librarian of Columbia University unembarrassed with the others,
daughter of modern Vienna disnss-h live fairly nea to each other and are in New York City. Consequently scarcely indeed with himself."
g lliyme ca young very neighborly indeed, has been Dorothy Canfield grew up in the at- Then his interest was attracted by
men, it is all timately connected s s gmosphere of the university, and a young Jewess who had a goodly
wit otrsexes Tht i las geatstsituated for several generations past'
with ourselves. That is his greatest the home of the Canield family; and especially of the college faculty; and knowledge and talent in music. They
value,!on a mountain slope but a few miles thias atmosphere is breathed through met at the Ehrenberg's where he had
He is best known inthscountry from the old Canfield homestead is much of her fiction, particularly that been carrying on a mild flirtation with
for his "Affairs of Anatol", which has the home of MIrs. Dorothy Canfield carefully written novel, "The Bent Fraulein Else, while accompanying
been rather brilliantly paraphrased Fisher known among the neighbors Twig." The subsequent authoress at- her singing.
byisrarvilknHankea.oIgatheosieigofbofsthe
by Granville Barker. It consists of of the township as a wife and mother tended college at both Nebraska and This love affair, as the thread of
light and colorful little dialogues be- and public-spirited citizen, as well as Ohio State, being graduated from the the story, weaves in and out amongst
ttween Anatol, a young man of wealth y latter institution in 1899. Five years many discussions of art, politics,
Anstolby her broader reputation as novelist
and culture, and various women. Each , ' later she received the degree of Ph.D music and Zionism. This last ques-
is but an exquisite moment in which educator, travelb, and occasional lee- from Columbia University, and in 1921 tion, especially, is tse topic of much
Anatol obeys his ims:pulses. A large To' the degree of D.Litt. from Middlebury discusion, for a good many of the
proportion of all of his work has a some twelve miles, an even College in Vermont. characters are Jews. And the peculiar
character sinilar to Anatol hut dif- shorter distance of historicR Bening- It will be seen that Dorothy Canfield' psychology of the Jew, as brought out
ferently named and of different ages. ton Is the country home of the is above all else a scholar and a phil- by the book, keeps the subject of their
We see him in. "Playing at Love", in familiar New England poet who has osopher. She is most extensively more or less imaginary persecution
which he is stripped of his super- made his residence In Ann Arbor dot- educated. Heir to a superior intellect uppermost in their minds, especially
filiily tss afrg oensid o mng most of the past year anal a hal. and the best traditional New England among the older ones. This nature is
frivolous love affair, on one side of It is out of the circustance that these refinement, rectitude, and patriotism, brought out by an episode which oc-
chich was a serious passion while artists are "neighbors" in Vermont, her paternal training and scholastic curted at a cafe in a sutburb, when a
on the other buta desire for diversion. that the people of Ann Arbor are to education were tempered by the member of a cycling club came across
In, "Casanova's Homecoming", he is be afforded the pleasre of hearing Bohemian tastes of her artist-novelist to greet George and a couple of
an old man, living and sustaining a Dorothy Canfield speak in Hill audi- mother and by the prevalent cordial friends, one of whom was a Jew.
surprising virility on the memories toaium Tuesday night. For this c- air of the open, unpolished West; and The Jew asked if the club was Chris-
of an earlier splendor, inent novelist does not lecture regu- they were further broadened and en- tian Socialist or National German and
Although mostt of Schnitzler's work larly. It happens that she will visit hanced by extensive travel and re- was answered that they made no dis-
has been in the form of plays, the most the West to deliver the William Vanh- sidence in the eastern states and in tinction. But that inbred nature made
smccessful in this country 'being, "Pro- an Moody commemoration lecture at Europe. She seemed to revolve ac- Josef, the Jew, retort, "Come, come,
fessor Bernhardi", he has written the University of Chicago, and we are tively among these threa widely it is perfectly obvious that your club
short stories, short novels and one fortunate in having her stop with us separated worlds. In Europe she was is not tainted by a single Jew. Why,
full length novel which has, at last, while in the neighborhood. especially at home in France, where one notices that a mile off." This Jew-
been translated for us. Several of Dorothy Canfield will feel at home a number of relatives reside; but she I ish question in Austria, where it as-
hir short stories have been published in the presence of a university audi- visited other sections of the continent sasmses political dimaencions. ;is not
in the Dial during the last few years. ence, for her father, Dr. James H1. and isles, and gradually added to her entirely a new strain for Schnitzler;
And during the past summer months Canfield, was for many years a pro- (Continued on Page Eight) (Continued on Page Five)