La Ronde E-Book

Arthur Schnitzler

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding. La Ronde is the famous 'daisy-chain' play of sexual coupling, set in Vienna in the 1890s. The play is a series of ten scenes depicting couples in different sexual liaisons. Each of the ten characters appears in two adjacent scenes, forming an endless chain of sexual links across all the layers of Viennese society.

Leseprobe

DRAMA CLASSICS

LA RONDE

by

Arthur Schnitzler

translated and introduced byStephen Unwin and Peter Zombory-Moldovan

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Arthur Schnitzler: Key Dates

Characters

La Ronde

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931)

Arthur Schnitzler was born in Vienna on 15 May 1862, the eldest child of Louise and Professor Johann Schnitzler, a distinguished laryngologist. His maternal grandfather, Philip Markbreiter, had also been a doctor, and Arthur was expected to follow in their footsteps. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna and served as an army medical officer for a year. He took up a junior clinical post at the Vienna General Hospital and edited a medical journal founded by his father.

His interest in medicine was limited from the outset, and after his father’s death in 1893 he confined himself to private practice. He was, however, drawn to the emerging science of psychiatry and wrote a paper on speech loss and its treatment by hypnosis. His interest in Sigmund Freud’s exploration of the unconscious mind also informs much of his literary work.

With anti-Semitism on the rise in Vienna from the 1880s, Schnitzler – who dismissed all religion as dogma – was never allowed to forget his Jewish ancestry. His circle of friends included many of the great literary figures of the day. He corresponded with Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Brandes and Hugo von Hofmannstahl, among many others. He visited London, Paris and Berlin, and called on Henrik Ibsen in Norway in 1896.