FROM A LENGTHY ESSAY IN “THE FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG.”
Wedekind's dramas are reminiscent of the pre-Shakespearian stage. But often enough one may recall Shakespeare himself.——But we do not wish to fall into the error of that unstable enthusiasm which always makes comparison with the very greatest when only something remarkable is in question. The aim of these lines is not to hail Wedekind as the Messiah of the drama, nor as the John of a coming Messiah. For all I care, he might be the devil himself. Only one thing is certain: he is a power without his like among us, and where such a power has worked once it produces after results. Power releases power. With this drink in their bodies the public will not long continue to support either lyrical lemonade on the stage nor the dregs of dramatic penury.
This poet, this artist is at the same time a knower of life. One cannot be mistaken! This is no joke. Behind all this swarm of jumping, dancing, tumbling, contending, inflamed, agitated discourse; behind all this pushing, roaring, foaming, gargling, flood of action, stands intuition of the world, stands the sense of life, as made manifest in the thoughts of Wedekind. It is no tearer, no eradicator, no falterer, who in this frightfully beautiful bustle of passion and inevitableness has given a picture of his own dissoluteness. He is a poet-animal trainer, who knows and rules his beasts. A man—if you please.
LIST IN BELLES-LETTRES
Published by BROWN BROTHERS
LAFAYETTE BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA
THE AWAKENING OF SPRING. By Frank Wedekind. A tragedy of childhood, dealing with the sex question in its relationship to the education of children. A new edition just out. Cloth, gilt top, deckle edge, $1.25 net. By mail, $1.35. “Here is a play which on its production caused a sensation in Germany, and can without exaggeration be described as remarkable. These studies of adolescence are as impressive as they are unique.”—The Athenæum, London.
THE CREDITOR. By August Strindberg. Translated from the Swedish by Francis J. Ziegler. A psychological study of the divorce question by the greatest living Scandinavian dramatist. Cloth, $1.00 net; postage, 8 cents. “Fordringsägare” was produced for the first time in 1889, when it was given at Copenhagen as a substitute for “Fröken Julie,” the performance of which was forbidden by the censor. Four years later Berlin audiences made its acquaintance, since when it has remained the most popular of Strindberg's plays in Germany.
A DILEMMA. By Leonidas Andreiyeff. Translated from the Russian by John Cournos. Cloth, 75 cents net; postage, 7 cents. A remarkable analysis of mental subtleties as experienced by a man who is uncertain as to whether or not he is insane. A story that is Poe-like in its intensity and full of grim humor. “One of the most interesting literary studies of crime since Dostoieffsky's Crime and Punishment.”—Chicago Evening Post.