Researchers Find Lost Arthur Schnitzler Novella Später Ruhm in Cambridge

Lost Arthur Schnitzler Novella Found in Cambridge

The Zsolnay publishing house announced the discovery and scheduled the publication of the novella for May 17. The story serves as a portrait of the literary bohemia in Vienna at the turn of the century. According to the Zsolnay Verlag, the work is being published 120 years after it was created.

Historical Context and Preservation

Arthur Schnitzler, a prominent narrator and dramatist of the Wiener Moderne born in 1862 and deceased in 1931 in Vienna, wrote Später Ruhmin 1894. This was one year after he wroteAnatoland one year beforeLiebelei,the work that marked his professional breakthrough. The novella was written in the same year as the storySterben, in which Schnitzler experimented with the internal monologue.

The text survived due to efforts to protect Schnitzler’s legacy from the National Socialists. Following the “Anschluss” of Austria, Schnitzler’s son, Heinrich, managed to save his father’s estate and transport it to Cambridge with the assistance of a British consul in Vienna and an English student. This rescue was critical as Schnitzler, a Jewish writer who anticipated the theories of Freud in world literature, was among the authors whose books were burned by the Nazis.

Author’s Perspective and Literary Merit

While the Zsolnay Verlag described the find as a sensationelle Entdeckung and an early masterpiece, other perspectives suggest a more modest assessment. Konstanze Fliedl, the Germanist and president of the Wiener Schnitzler-Gesellschaft, stated that the novella was not actually lost but had long been known to literary researchers and accessible at the Cambridge University Library.

The author’s own views on the work were mixed. In his 1894 diary, Schnitzler wrote that the novella scheint nicht übel gelungen and noted einige sehr gute Stellen. However, he did not count the text among his greatest achievements. According to the publishers, Schnitzler had originally intended the text for publication in the magazine Die Zeit but ultimately decided against it, fearing that the effect of the novella would be lost if it were split into serialized installments.

Publication Details

The upcoming publication of Später Ruhm includes a postscript by researchers Wilhelm Hemecker and David Österle. In this section, they detail the history of the text, including its creation and its adventurous journey to Cambridge to avoid Nazi seizure.

Literary critics describe the novella as a balance between comedy and melancholy, focusing on the hidden longings of old age for appreciation and youthful lightness. While it provides a new text from a major Austrian author, critics note that it does not reach the stature of Schnitzler’s more famous works, such as Lieutenant Gustl or Spiel im Morgengrauen.