The Lonely Way—Intermezzo—Countess Mizzie: Three PlaysSchnitzler, Arthur
General
The Lonely Way—Intermezzo—Countess Mizzie: Three Plays
Schnitzler, Arthur
German drama -- Translations into English
He was also continuing his studies, which almost from the start seem to
have turned toward the psychic side of the medical science. The new
methods of hypnotism and suggestion interested him greatly, and in 1889
he published a monograph on "Functional Aphonia and its Treatment by
Hypnotism and Suggestion." In 1888 he made a study trip to England,
during which he wrote a series of "London Letters" on medical subjects
for his father's journal. On his return he settled down as a practicing
physician, but continued to act as his father's assistant. And as late
as 1891-95 we find him named as his father's collaborator on a large
medical work entitled "Clinical Atlas of Laryngology and Rhinology."
There are many signs to indicate uncertainty as to his true calling
during those early years. The ensuing inner conflict was probably
sharpened by some pressure exercised by his father, who seems to have
been anxious that he should turn his energies undividedly to medicine.
To a practical and outwardly successful man like the elder Schnitzler,
his own profession must have appeared by far the more important and
promising. While there is no reason to believe that his attitude in
this matter was aggressive, it must have been keenly felt and, to some
extent at least, resented by the son. One of the dominant notes of the
latter's work is the mutual lack of understanding between successive
generations, and this lack tends with significant frequency to assume
the form of a father's opposition to a son's choice of profession.
This conflict cannot have lasted very long, however, for the younger
Schnitzler proved quickly successful in his purely literary efforts.
The "Anatol" sketches attracted a great deal of attention even while
appearing separately in periodicals, and with their publication in book
form, which occurred almost simultaneously with the first performance
of "A Piece of Fiction" at a Viennese theater, their author was hailed
as one of the most promising among the younger men. From that time he
has been adding steadily to his output and his reputation. When his
collected works were issued in 1912, these included four volumes of
plays and three volumes of novels and stories. Since then he has
finished another play and two volumes of prose sketches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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