Fräulein Else: A German “Novelle” by Will B. and Wyatt J.

Will visited the Rubenstein Rare Books Library a few weeks ago to examine an original copy of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Fräulein Else, published in 1924. The book is small, with a worn green cover and a gold stamp with the letters “PVZ” – a mark of the Austrian publishing house Paul Zsolnay Verlag, where “Verlag” is the German word for publisher. The publishing house was founded in 1923 by Paul Zsolnay and quickly became a successful business during the interwar period, but struggled under the censorship laws of Nazi Germany and was shuttered by the Gestapo in 1939. The company was taken over by Karl H. Bischoff Verlag during the Second World War and is now owned by Carl Hanser Verlag, based in Munich.

Opening the book, we see that the formatting is mostly the same as our edition, with slight modifications from the original version in italics and spacing in order to clarify the presence of different speakers. However, there are a few key differences. In the original manuscript, there are occasional numbers printed on the bottom of the page (ex: 4*)that seem to be either marking specific pages or referencing an appendix. Strangely, I could find no clues to these numbers in the original version – there is no appendix or glossary of any kind. The original version also has, printed in the space where one might expect to find a dedication, the German phrase “Erstes bis elftes Tausend,” meaning from the first to the eleventh thousand. I have no idea what this means. If it somehow refers to the contents of the manuscript, one might wonder if there is a section missing, but no, the “DAS ENDE” printed on the last page serves as an unambiguous conclusion. Strange!

This short story, clocking in at over 100 pages bound in a hard cover, might better be categorized as a novella. This is more apparent given its German origins and the German concept of the Novelle, translated into English as novella. This word carries a certain idea of structure in the German that is lost in the English. When I think of a novella I think mostly of a certain sized piece of work, somewhere in between a short story and a novel, say roughly between 30 and 150 pages. In the German this idea of a Novelle is less about the length of the story and rather about the content. A Novelle centers around one specific event or situation only, contains a shocking turning point (Wendepunkt in German, which literally translates in math as an inflection point, and otherwise means a pivot/turning point), and has no real length restrictions. We can see this structure in Fräulein Else. The story takes place in a singular night, centering around the issue of Fräulein Else’s father’s debt, and her interaction with Herr Von Dorsday that provides the main conflict. The shocking twist comes when Fräulein Else drinks the poison in her delirious state and dies.

Examining the physical book might raise a few questions rather than clarifying others, butthe German text and roots of the work provide a unique lens through which to view the work and gives rise to a new understanding of the pattern and structure itself.

[The small number is so the bookbinder/publisher knew to put the pages in order (not related to textual content) and the “Erstes bis elftes Tausend” is the print run.]