Define Out Of Books La Ronde
| Title | : | La Ronde |
| Author | : | Arthur Schnitzler |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 108 pages |
| Published | : | January 1st 1982 by Methuen Publishing (first published 1903) |
| Categories | : | Plays. Drama. Classics. European Literature. German Literature. Theatre. Fiction |
Arthur Schnitzler
Paperback | Pages: 108 pages Rating: 3.69 | 1100 Users | 57 Reviews
Narration Conducive To Books La Ronde
To today's reader, The Round will pass for a series of more or less funny and uninteresting sketches. However, if the dialogues do not blow to the ceiling, we can quickly detect the main motif of the piece: a taboo-free social critique of Viennese society at the end of the 19th century - even if the vein is essentially comic. And in the case of The Round, the context of the piece is at least as important as the piece itself. The round - of which you may be familiar with the film adaptation of Max Ophuls - is organized in ten sketches, each featuring two characters, a woman and a man, in a different district of Vienna each time.The characters turn around, the woman usually pretends to repel the man's advances - but it may be the other way around - and they end up sleeping together. The thing is symbolically represented by a dashed line, which inevitably reminds us of a censored text. And censored, this one was, and not just a little! In short, after this line of dashes summarizing the sexual act, the dialogue between the two characters resumes, then they leave. the reader understands without difficulty that all this will be without consequences and that the two people, love protests (who often come back) or not, will not see each other again (except the married couple) and will move on. Saynese: we keep one of the two characters of the past sketch, another appears, and everything starts again: we turn around, we play the fierce, or layer together, we promise to see each other again, and hop, next sketch, on the same pattern. In ten variations in total. You will understand that it is the form that Schnitzler gave to the piece that makes it effective and interesting.
For all these characters exchange their roles and texts constantly, while travelling through all the districts of the city, from the most unfamed to the richest: the social partitioning perfectly in place in Vienna in 1896 (the date of writing of the play) flies to pieces. The geography imposing the separation of classes is undermined, women do or say the same thing as men, prostitutes the same as bourgeois or aristocrats, using dialogues that constantly repeat, in a loop, the same words "I'm not the type to do this," "Do you love me?", "Yes, I love you," You remind me of someone," "Let's see each other very soon," etc. It is these repetitions and constant exchanges that make this piece a social critique, more overtly comic than acerbic. However, we do not bend with laughter when reading it, especially since today it has lost part of its satirical effectiveness.
Yet... when it was written in 1896-97, it was downright unthinkable to have it played and even to have it edited, and Schnitzler had it published for his friends in 1900 on an author's account in 200 copies. Not even intended to be sold, it was already blithely appalled, and then again in 1903 when it was officially published. Then it was banned in 1904. Let's not even talk about the premiere in Berlin in 1921, which triggered many anti-Semitic slurs and two trials, the second of which ended with an autodafé. Vienna was more lenient with a simple ban on representation for a year...
This proves that what may seem at first glance a simple adornment says many things about his time and that it would be a shame to miss out. But we will certainly talk about it with the biography of a famous Viennese painter...
Particularize Books In Favor Of La Ronde
| Original Title: | Reigen - Zehn Dialogue |
| ISBN: | 0413495302 (ISBN13: 9780413495303) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Austria |
Rating Out Of Books La Ronde
Ratings: 3.69 From 1100 Users | 57 ReviewsRate Out Of Books La Ronde
Deliciously precise and witty language conveying sharp satire, but not without compassion. A slim volume, it would be dwarfed by the apparatus on fin-de-siècle Vienna which I, as an uninformed but interested reader, sometimes found myself wishing for.This has potential as a performance but it could also be a disaster. The story is interesting with some imagination.
To today's reader, The Round will pass for a series of more or less funny and uninteresting sketches. However, if the dialogues do not blow to the ceiling, we can quickly detect the main motif of the piece: a taboo-free social critique of Viennese society at the end of the 19th century - even if the vein is essentially comic. And in the case of The Round, the context of the piece is at least as important as the piece itself. The round - of which you may be familiar with the film adaptation of
Potentially very interesting, but a lot of the impact will really depend on the actors and actresses involved. There's loads left to the imagination when it comes to character interaction, so it could be either a disaster or really good. It's definitely easy to understand why this play caused such a scandal.. very interesting if just for that. It's just that I felt the text was rather plain, and that made it more boring to read than it would be to watch.ETA: On reread this made a lot more sense
The apocryphal saying "Everything in the world is about sex, except sex, sex is about power" could stand as a review for Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen. No wonder this was seen as quite scandalous in early 20th century Vienna! And the scandal is not the sex and the symmetry of the partner change, with characters acting out the sex act (conveniently covered in a line of dashes in each scene) in dance moves until the cycle of sex closes and we meet the first character again in the last scene.The
Witty, incisive, but seldom do the characters assume a fully human formwith the exception of the actress and the count, two quite real people who round out the cycle beautifully.
Highly entertaining and still relevant in our days, at least partially.
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