Austrian dramatist, novelist, short story writer and critic, who dealt with the theme of illusion and reality in many variations. After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Schnitzler lost the cultural background of his work. Several of Schnitzler's plays and other writings about the decadent mood of fin de siècle Vienna have found their way onto the screen.

EIN BUCH SPRÜCHE
Ein Wahlspruch? Lange sinn' ich hin und her,
ja, Kinder, wenn die Welt so einfach wär'!
Ich brauche, wie ich mich beschränken mag,
doch ungefähr ein Dutzend jeden Tag.
Und wollt' ich je für morgen einen sparen,
dass er verjährt war, musst' ich stets erfahren.
So schreib' am besten ich "von Fall zu Fall"; -
doch leider gilt auch der nicht überall.

Arthur Schnitzler was born in Vienna, the son of Professor Johann Schnitzler, a distinguished Jewish throat specialist. At the age of 16, Schnitzler visited a prostitute and when his father found out, he showed his son an illustrated treatise on sexually transmitted diseases. Schnitzler started writing as a boy, with poetry that was published in a prominent newspaper. He also became a competent amateur pianist. Although his father disapproved of his literary aspirations, Schnitzler held him in high esteem; the title character of his comedy PROFESSOR BERNHARDI (1912), about old and new in the medical profession, is supposedly modelled on him. The play was suppressed until 1918 and caused outrage amongst anti-semites because of its portrayal of a Jew, who refuses to compromise his convictions. However, Schiltzer portrayed Bernardi as an unwilling martyr.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Schnitzler qualified for his own surprise in medicine at the University of Vienna in 1895 - he had spent more time with his plays and other writings than with his studies. At the same time Schnitzler had developed a keen interest in psychiatry, and his close acquaintance with Sigmund Freud, who was a few years older, led him to write a thesis on the hypnotic treatment of neuroses. Freud's envy of Schnitzler's apparently effortless insights into the workings of the mind is well known. In the early 1890s, he had started to write plays, which were first presented, in Czech, in Prague. Schnitzler gave up his hospital post and kept only a few private patients. With LIBELEI, produced at the Burgtheater in 1895, Schnitzler became famous all over Austria and Germany.

Like other Viennese writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals, Schnitzler spent hours talking with his friends in the unique world coffeehouses, enjoying at the same time a cup of coffee and perhaps a strudel. All epoch-making people knew each other. In Café Griensteidl Schnitzler met Hugo von Hofmannstahl and other colleagues, and sometimes traded mistresses. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, appeared later in the character of Leo Gowolsky in Schnitzler's autobiographical novel The Road to the Open, in which Georg, a gifted composer, begins a love affair with a singing teacher, Anna Rosner, and makes her pregnant. Georg, who could be seen as a portrait of the author himself, avoids commitments. Anna accepts his decision calmly - but perhaps this is not what happened in real life.

Schnitzler's early literary reputation was largely gained through his plays, starting from ANATOL (1893), about the "sexual neurasthenia" of a young man. His work, which was daring for his time, shows deep understanding of the unconscious and the subconscious - he has often been classified as the creative equivalent of his friend Sigmund Freud, who admitted in 1906 in a letter to Schnitzler, that he recognized his "double" in the author. Schnitzlser's stories of sexual intrigue and portrayals of women were well received by a faithful circle of readers. Although Schnitzler had a variety of mistresses, his experiences with Marie Reinhard between 1894 and 1899 influenced his writing most extensively.

DER REIGEN (1900, Hands Around, also known as La Ronde) is among Schnitzler's best-known dramas. It is a skilfully constructed play in ten dialogues, in which the characters are seen after coitus as well as before - love making is marked by asterisks in the written text. Beginning with the seduction of a Soldier by a Prostitute, each subsequent dialogue is related to its predecessor to form a cycle. The character number ten, the Count, makes love to the Prostitute, and closes the circle. Schnitzler's work caused one of the greatest scandals in the history of the German theatre and provoked anti-semitic riots in Berlin. A six-day obscenity trial resulted in an acquittal, but the author banned any performances of the play in Europe until after his death. Hands Around was not performed until 1920. The light-heartedly juxtaposed love-and-death theme inspired Max Ophuls's film La Ronde (1950). It was the second time the director had adapted a play by Schnitzler, the first being Liebelei (1931). Ophuls used in the film a "master of ceremonies", played by Anton Walbrook, who keeps La Ronde "moving" and directly addresses the audience. Ophuls refuses to judge his characters, he leaves this solely to the spectators.

SOLDIER: There isn't a soul about, you know.
PARLOURMAID: Let's go back where there are people.
SOLDIER: We don't need people, Miss Marie, we need ... ha ha ...
PARLOURMAID: But Mr Franz, I beg you, for God's sake... if only I'd realized... oh, oh ... come on then ...
* * * *
SOLDIER: [blissfully happy]: Dear God, one more... ah ...
PARLOURMAID: I can't see your face.
SOLDIER: What's my face got to do with it?
(from La Ronde, adapted by John Barton, from a translation by Sue Davis, 1982)

Schnitzler's fiction is considered more important than his plays. In STERBEN (1895), depicting a dying man, he gave an example of an early "stream-of-consciousness" technique. 'Leutnant Gustl' (1900), a short story, was considered an insult to the whole Army and is thought to have cost Schnitzler his officer's rank - Schnitzler was removed from the reserve list of the Austrian Medical Corps. The protagonist is a poor young officer is unable to satisfy his "honor" after he has been insulted by another man, a master baker. Gustl's suicidal thoughts are told through the interior monologue. DER WEG INS FREIE (1908, The Road to the Open) depicts a composer, who has real gifts but lacks drive. Central themes in this work are anti-Semitism and the ending of a romantic relationship. FRÄULAIN ELSE (1926) is a monologue of a girl forced to show herself in the nude to his father's friend because of her family's debts. Living up to a daughter's duty, she yields to this demand but then commits suicide.

TRAUMNOVELLE (1925, Rhapsody: A Dream Novel) was adapted for the screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1999. "Overlong, and flawed, but still compelling, with two megawatt star performances," wrote Leonard Maltin in his Movie & Video Guide (2000). "Nudity is plentiful, but the European version is even more graphic." Schnitzler makes a parallel between sexual fantasies and real life. Doctor Fridolin's wife Albertine reveals to him one morning her dream, in which secret sexual desires come into the light. Fridolin finds the confession disturbing. He visits a house where he nearly participates in orgies, but is then forced by two men to leave the place. Now it is Fridolin's turn to reveal his adventure or dream to Albertine. He starts to understand his wife from a new basis. The end of the novel is open both to the renewal and the break-up of the marriage.

Most of Schnitzler's later years, spent in a luxurious villa overlooking Vienna, were devoted almost entirely to writing. After the Hapsburg monarchy had collapsed, Schnitzler shifted from playwriting to fiction. His social-political criticism was veiled, and once he said: "Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief." The suicide of his married daughter in 1930 was a great shock to the author and he never fully recovered from it. Schnitzler died on October 21, 1931, in Vienna. His works were banned by the Nazi party in Germany, and also in Austria. In 1933, when Joseph Goebbels organized book burnings in Berlin and other cities, Schnitzler's works were thrown into flames along with those of other Jews - Einstein, Marx, Kafka, Freud, and Stefan Zweig.

For further reading: A Companion to the Works of Arthur Schnitzler by Dagmar C. G. Lorenz (2003); Schnitzler's Century: The Making of Middle-Class Culture, 1815-1914 by Peter Gay (2001); Political Dimensions of Arthur Schnitzler's Late Fiction by Felix W. Tweraser ; Arthur Schnitzler's Late Plays: A Critical Study by G. J. Weinberger (1997); Arthur Schnitzler and the Discourse of Honor and Duelling by A.C. Wisely (1996); Vienna: Image of a Society by B. Thompson (1990); Arthur Schnitzler and Politics by A.C. Roberts (1989); Dekadenz im Werk Arthur Schnitzlers by A. Fritsche (1974); Arthur Schnitzler by G. Badman (1973); Arthur Schnitzler by R. Urbach (1973); Arthur Schnitzler: A Critical Biography by M. Swales (1971); My Youth in Vienna by A. Schnitzler (1971); Studies in Arthur Schnitzler ed. by H.W. Reichert and H. Salinger (1963); Arthur Schnitzler by S. Liptzin (1932)

SELECTED WORKS:

• EPISODE, 1889
• ANATOLS HOCHZEITSMORGEN, 1890
• ALKANDIS LIED, 1890
• DIE FRAGE AND DAS SCHICKSAL, 1890 - Ask No Questions and You'll Hear No Stories (tr. by W. Chambers, in Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 12, 1903-04)
• DAS ABENTEUER SEINES LEBENS, 1891
• DENKSTEINE, 1891
• WEINACHTSEINKÄUFE, 1891
• ANATOL, 1893 (play) - Anatol (trans. Frank Marcus) / Anatol (translated by William-Alan Landes) / Anatol; Living Hours; The Green Cockatoo (translated by Grace Isabel Colbron) - films: 1921, The Affairs of Anatol, dir. by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson; 1962, dir. by Otto Schenk; 1995, Un jour, ce soir là, dir. by Laurent Boulanger, starring Jean-Pierre Lorit, Mireille Perrier
• ABSCHIEDSSOUPER, 1893 - A Farewell Dinner (tr. by H. Granville-Barker, in Reading Drama, 1950)
• AGONIE, 1893
• DAS MÄRCHEN, 1894 (play, prod. 1893)
• LIBELEI, 1895 (play) - The Game of Love (tr. by C. Mueller, in Masterpieces of the Modern Central European Theater, 1967) / Playing with Love (trans. by P. Morton Shand) / Light ó Love (tr. B. Morgan, in Twenty-five Modern Plays, 1953) - films: 1927, dir. by Jacob Fleck and Luise Fleck, screenplay by Herbert Juttke; 1933, Une histoire d'amour, dir. by Max Ophüls, starring Abel Tarride, Magda Schneider, Simone Héliard, Gustaf Gründgens; 1958, Christine, dir. by Pierre Gaspard-Huit, starring Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Micheline Presle
• STERBEN, 1895 - Dying (tr. by Anthea Bell)
• DIE ÜBERSPANNTE PERSON, 1896
• HALBZWEI, 1897
• FREIWILD, 1898 (play) - Free Game (tr. 1913) - film 1928, dir. by Holger-Madsen, screenplay by Herbert Juttke, Georg C. Klaren
• PARACELSUS, 1898 - Paracelsus (trans. by G.J. Weinberger)
• DIE FRAU DES WEISEN, 1898
• DER GRÜNE KAKADU, 1899 - The Green Cockatoo (tr. E. Van der Meer, in Plays for the College Theater, 1934) / The Green Cockatoo (trans. S.H. Landes) / The Duke and the Actress (tr. 1910) / Anatol; Living Hours; The Green Cockatoo (translated by Grace Isabel Colbron) - film 1963, dir. by Michael Kehlmann
• DAS VERMÄCHTNIS, 1899 (play) - The Legacy (tr. 1911, in Poet Lore)
• DER GRÜNE KAKADU; PARACELSUS; DIE GEFÄHRTIN: DREI EINAKER, 1899 (plays) - The Green Cockatoo and Other Plays (tr. 1913)
• DER REIGEN, 1900 (play, prod. 1920) - Hands Around (tr. 1920) / Couples (tr. 1927) / The Dance of Love (trans. Keene Wallis) / Merry-Go-Round (trans. Frank and Jacqueline Marcus, 1953) / La Ronde (trans. Frank and Jacqueline Marcus; C. Mueller, in Masterpieces of the Modern Central European Theater, 1967) / The Round Dance (tr. E. Bentley, in Themes of Drama, 1973; also trans. in The Round Dance and Other Plays, 1982) - Piirileikki (suom. Heikki Salojärvi) - films: 1950, dir. by Max Ophuls, starring Simone Signoret, Anton Walbrook, Simone Simon, Danielle Darrieux, Odette Joyeux, Isa Miranda, Gérald Philipe; 1964, dir. by Roger Vadim, starring Jean-Claude Brialy, Marie Dubois, Jane Fonda, Claude Giraud, Anna Karina; 1973, dir. by Otto Schenk; 2007, Berliner Reigen, dir. by Dieter Berner
• LEUTNANT GUSTL, 1901 - None But the Brave (tr. 1926)
• FRAU BERTHA GARLAN, 1901 - Berta Garlan (trans. G.J. Weinberger) - Rouva Berta Garlan (suom. Seere Sario)
• DER SCHLEIER DER BEATRICE, 1901 (play)
• SYLVESTERNACHT, 1901 - film 1978, Silvesternacht - Ein Dialog, dir. by Hajo Gies, Douglas Sirk, starring Hanna Schygulla, Christian Berkel
• LEBENDIGE STUNDEN, 1902 (plays, includes Die Frau mit dem Docke, Die letzten Masken, Literatur, Lebendige Stunden) - Living Hours (trans. Grace Isabel Colbron, in Chief Contemporary Dramatists, 1921)
• DIE FRAU MIT DEM DOLCHE, 1902
• LEBENDIGE STUNDEN, 1902
• DIE LETZTEN MASKEN, 1902 - Viimeiset naamiot: yksinäytöksinen näytelmä (suom. Kasimir Leino)
• LITERATUR, 1902 - Literature (tr. A. Coleman, in German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1913-1914) - Kaksi kirjailijaa: yksinäytöksinen huvinäytelmä (suom. Kasimir Leino)
• DER PUPPENSPIELER, 1903
• DER TAPFERE CASSIAN, 1904 - Gallant Cassian (tr. 1914)
• DER EINSAME WEG, 1904 (play) - The Lonely Way (tr. E. Björkman) / The Lonely Way (tr. J. Leigh, in Representative Modern Dramas, 1936) / The Lonely Way (tr. by Margret Schaefer, Jonathan Bank, in Arthur Schnitzler Reclaimed, 2005)
• DIE GRIECHISCHE TÄNZERIN, 1905
• ZUM GROSSEN WURSTEL, 1905
• DER RUF DES LEBENS, 1906 (play)
• MARIONETTEN, 1906 (plays, includes Der Puppenspieler, Der tapfere Cassian, Zum grossen Wurstel; rev. version of Der tapfere Cassian, music by Oscar Sraus, 1909) - Gallant Cassian (tr.1914)
• ZWISCHENSPIEL, 1907 (play) - Intermezzo (translated by Edwin Björkman)
• DÄMMERSEELEN, 1907
• KOMTESSE MIZZI; ODER, DER FAMILIEENTAG, 1908 (play) - Countess Mizzie (translated by Edwin Björkman) - film 1975, Komtesse Mizzi, dir. by Otto Schenk, starring Christine Ostermayer
• DER WEG INS FREIE, 1908 - The Road to the Open (translation by Horace Samuel) / The Road to the Open (trans. Roger Byers)
• DIE VERWANDLUNGEN DES PIERROT, 1908
• DER JUNGE MEDARDUS, 1910 (play) - film 1923, dir. Michael Curtiz (Mihaly Kértesz), screenplay by Ladislaus Vajda
• DER SCHLEIER DER PIERRETTE, 1910 (music by Ernst von Dohnanyi)
• DAS WEITE LAND, 1911 play) - The Vast Domain (tr. 1923) / Undiscovered Country (English version by Tom Stoppard) / Far and Wide (tr. by Jonathan Bank, in Arthur Schnitzler Reclaimed, 2005) - film 1987, dir. by Luc Bondy, starring Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Wolfgang Hübsch, Barbara Rebeschini
• MASKEN UND WUNDER, 1912
• DIE HIRTENFLÖTE, 1912
• Viennese Idylls, 1913
• PROFESSOR BERNHARDI, 1912 (play) - Professor Bernhardi (tr. by Mrs. Emil Pohli) / Professor Bernhardi (tr. L. Borell and R. Adam, in Famous Plays of 1936, 1936)
• FRAU BEATE UND IHR SOHN, 1913 - Beatrice (trans. Agnes Jacques) - Rakkauden virvatulia (suom. Opri Mattila)
• VIENNESE IDYLLS, 1913
• DIE GRIECHISCHE TÄNZERIN, UND ANDERE NOVELLEN, 1914
• KOMÖDIE DER WORTE, 1915 (includes Stunde des Erkennens, Grosse Szene, Das Bacchusfest) - The Hour of Recognition, The Big Scene, The Festival of Bacchus, in Comedies of Words and Other Plays (tr. 1917)
• The Lonely Way, Intermezzo, Countess Mizzie, 1915 (translated by Edwin Björkman)
• FINK UND FLIEDERBUSCH, 1917 (play)
• Comedies of Words and Other Plays, 1917 (trans. Pierre Loving)
• DOKTOR GRÄSLER, BADEARTZ, 1917 - Dr. Graesler (tr. E.C. Slade) - film 1991, Mio caro dottor Gräsler, dir. by Roberto Faenza, starring Keith Carradine, Miranda Richardson, Kristin Scott Thomas
• CASANOVAS HEIMFART, 1918 - Casanova's Homecoming (translated by Eden and Cedar Paul) / Casanova's Return to Venice (translated by Lisa Barea) / Casanova’s Journey Home and Other Late Stories (translated by Norman M. Watt) - films: 1980, Il Ritorno di Casanova, dir. by Pasquale Festa Campanile; 1992, Le Retour de Casanova, dir. by Edouard Niermans, starring Alain Delon
• DIE SCHWESTERN; ODER, CASANOVA IN SPA, 1919 (play)
• The Shepherd's Pipe and Other Stories, 1922 (tr. by O.F. Theis)
• DER MÖRDER, 1922
• DIE DREIFACHE WARNUNG, 1924
• FRÄULEIN ELSE, 1924 - Fräulein Else (tr. R.L. Simon) / Fräulein Else: A Novelette (trans. F.H. Lyon) - films: 1928, dir. by Paul Czinner, starring Elisabeth Bergner, Albert Bassermann, Albert Steinrück; 1946, El Ángel desnudo, dir. by Carlos Hugo Christensen
• KOMÖDIE DER VERFÜRUNG, 1924 (play)
• DIE FRAU DES RICHTERS, 1925
• TRAUMNOVELLE, 1925 - Rhapsody: A Dream Novel (trans. Otto P. Schinnerer) - Tohtori eksyy erotiikkaan (suom. Kalle Väänänen) / Unikertomus (suom. Oili Suominen) - TV film 1969, dir. by Wolfgang Glück, screenplay by Wolfgang Glück, Ruth Kerry; 1989, Ad un passo dall'aurora, dir. by Mario Bianchi; 1999, dir. by Stanley Kubrick, starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman
• DER GANG ZUM WEIHER, 1926 (play)
• Beatrice and Other Stories, 1926
• SPIEL IM MORGENGRAUEN, 1927 - Daybreak (trans. William A. Drake) - film 1931, dir. by Jacques Feyder, starring Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Jean Hersholt
• BUCH DER SPRÜCHE UND BEDENKEN, 1927
• DER GEIST IM WORT UND DER GEIST IN DER TAT, 1927 - The Mind in Words and Actions (tr. 1972)
• THERESE: CHRONIK EINES FRAUENLEBES, 1928 - Theresa (trans. William A. Drake)
• Little Novels, 1929 (trans. Eric Sutton)
• IM SPIEL DER SOMMERLÜFTE, 1930 (play)
• FLUCHT IN DIE FINSTERNIS, 1931 - Flight into Darkness (trans. William A. Drake)
• TRAUM UND SCHICSAL, 1931
• Viennese Novelettes, 1931 (with illustrations by Kurt Wiese)
• DIE KLEINE KOMÖDIE, 1932
• DIE MÖRDERIN, 1932 - The Murderer (tr. by Margret Schaefer, in Bachelors: Novellas and Stories, 2006)
• DIE GLEITENDEN, 1932
• ANATOLS GRÖSSENWAHN, 1932
• Reigen, The Affair of Anatol and Other Plays, 1933 (tr. G.I. Colbron)
• ABENTEURERNOVELLE, 1937
• ÜBER KRIEG UND FRIEDEN, 1939
• FLUCHT IN DIE FINSTERNIS, UND ANDERE ERZÄHLUNGEN, 1939
• AUSGEWÄHLTE ERZÄHLUNGEN, 1950
• DER BRIEFWECHSDEL. ARTHUR SCHNITZLER-OTTO BRAHM, 1953 (ed. by Oskar Seidlin)
• MEISTERDRAMEN, 1955 (plays)
• GEORG BRANDES UND ARTHUR SCHNITZLER, 1956 (ed. by Kurt Bergel)
• GROSSE SZENE, 1959
• DIE ERZÄHLENDEN SCHRIFTEN, 1961 (Gesammelte Werke, 2 vols.)
• DIE DRAMATISCHE WERKE, 1962 (Gesammelte Werke, 2 vols.)
• HUGO VON HOFMANNSTAHL-ARTHUR SCHNITZLER BRIEFWECHSEL, 1964 (ed. by Therese Nickl and Heinrich Schnitzler)
• ERZÄHLUNGEN, 1965
• SPIEL IM MORGENGRAUEN, UND ACHT ANDERE ERZÄHLUNGEN, 1965
• DAS WORT, 1966
• APHORISMEN UND BETRACHTUNGEN, 1967 (Gesammelte Werke) - Some Day Peace Will Return (ed. and trans. Robert O. Weiss)
• JUGEND IN WIEN: EINE AUTOBIOGRAPHIE, 1968 (ed. by Therese Nickl and Heinrich Schnitzler) - My Youth in Vienna (trans. Catherine Hutter)
• MEISTERERZÄHLUNGEN, 1969
• FRÜHE GEDICHTE, 1969
• ZUG DER SCHATTEN, 1970 (ed. by Françoise Derre)
• LIEBE, DIE STARB VOR DER ZEIT: EIN BRIEFWECHSEL: ARTHUR SCHNITZLER-OLGA WAISSNIX, 1970 (ed. by Therese Nickl and Heinrich Schnitzler)
• DER BRIEFWECHSEL A.S.s MIT MAX REINHARDT UND DESSEN MITARBEITERN, 1971 (ed. by Renate Wagner)
• The Correspondence of Arthur Schnitzler and Raoul Auernheimer, 1972 (edited with introd. and notes by Donald G. Daviau and Jorun B. Johns)
• Vienna 1900: Games with Love and Death, 1973
• DILLY, 1975
• HUGO VON HOFMANNSTAHL: CHARAKTERISTIK AUD DEN TAGEBÜCHERN, 1975
• RITTERLICHKEIT, 1975
• ENTWORFENES UND VERWORFENES, 1977
• The Little Comedy and Other Stories, 1977 (foreword by Frederick Ungar)
• The Letters of Arthur Schnitzler to Hermann Bahr, 1978 (edited, annotated, and with an introd. by Donald G. Daviau)
• ARTHUR SCHNITZLER: SEIN LEBEN, SEIN WERK, SEINE ZEIT, 1981
• A.S.s TAGEBUCH 1909-1912, 1981 (ed. by Peter M. Braunwort and others)
• BRIEFE 1875-1912, 1981 (ed. by Therese Nickl and Heinrich Schnitzler)
• The Round Dance, and Other Plays, 1983 (translated with an introduction by Charles Osborne)
• Plays and Stories, 1983 (edited Egon Schwarz; foreword by Stanley Elkin)
• Three Late Plays, 1992 (trans. G.J. Weinberger)
• Professor Bernhardi and Other Plays, 1993 (translated by G.J. Weinberger; afterword by Jeffrey B. Berlin)
• Paracelsus and Other One-Act Plays, 1995 (translated by G.J. Weinberger; afterword by Herbert Lederer)
• Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas, 2001 (trans. Margret Schaefer, foreword by John Simon)
• Selected Short Fiction, 2003 (trans. J. M. Q. Davies)
• Bachelors, 2006 (translated by Margret Schaefer)