Carl Sternheim by Burghard Dedner (review)

Book Reviews243 development of Russian prose style. This is unfortunate since Bunin is known precisely for his superb craftsmanship. Connolly demurs from the task, citing the difficulties of working with translated materials. Perhaps this will be the subject of another study; one hopes so, for what Connolly does say about Bunin's style (in the section concerning Sukhodol for instance) is astute and to the point. While Connolly's presentation is well written and engaging, his method (which he rarely abandons) of reviewing the contents of the various works and pointing out their message tends to become monotonous. This quibble aside, Connolly's book is a welcome addition to Bunin scholarship. It is surely the best introduction for the general reader to this important author. ANNE NETICK College of William and Mary BURGHARD DEDNER. Carl Sternheim. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. 169 p. Although highlysuccessful in Germany, Carl Sternheim, agifted playwright and storyteller, remains little known outside his own country. His work is now being brought to the attention of the English reader by Dedner's very informative, workmanlike monograph in Twayne's World Authors Series. While most of the discussion focuses, rightly, on Sternheim's dramas — which receive a largely nonsatirical, quasi-anarchistic interpretation — this study does not neglect the fascinating (often underrated) novellas that had a notable impact on expressionistic prose. The book has one annoying flaw; it occasionally lapses into labored locutions and unidiomatic English. After describing (in the opening chapter) Sternheim's formative phase, with particular emphasis on his vitalism and aestheticism, Dedner introduces (in chapters 2-5) the most characteristic pre-World War I dramas. Although the tragedy Don Juan (1909) turned into something ofa monstrosity, it was the first of the early plays to attract attention. However, it was in comedy that Sternheim, a keen observer of poses and mannerisms in social interaction, achieved his greatest triumphs: the depiction of the petty bourgeois in Die Hose (1911), the battle of money and sex in Die Kassette (1911), the comedy of social climbing in Bürger Schippel (1913) and Der Snob (1914). The playwright saw Wilhelmine society, according to Dedner, as "a belated ancien régime, ... as a society characterized by a competitive struggle between the aristocracy and the middle classes" (77). In later dramas (such as 1913 and Tabula rasa) Sternheim went beyond the limits of the comic genre and of middle-class society; he began to advocate a general cultural revolution. The author's hedonistic vitalism found full expression in his novellas (the subject of the book's penultimate chapter). Life in these stories is depicted (usually in starkly concentrated language) as a vast energy system for individual exploitation. Dedner devotes the last chapter to Sternheim's postwar years (1919 to 1942), when the increasingly isolated writer went in search of new "anti-authoritarian" heroes. However, his postwar plays, which include Der entfesselte Zeitgenosse, Das Fossil, Oskar Wilde and Die Schule von Uznach, show a theatrical talent in decline. On the whole, Dedner 244Rocky Mountain Review manages to make his subject stimulating, even when he does not break new interpretative ground. RUDOLF KOESTER University of Nevada, Las Vegas GÉRARD DEFAUX, ed. Montaigne: Essays in Reading. Yale French Studies, 64. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. 308 p. Montaigne: Essays in Reading is the most recent in a series ofcritical works that have appeared in the wake ofthe quadricentennial ofthe 1580 publication of Montaigne's Essais. This collection limits itself to reader-response criticism , gathering in one volume the ideas of a formidable group of internationally known structuralists and post-structuralists: Starobinski, Rigolot, Todorov, Compagnon, Tournon, and others. Yet, to the credit of the editors, the collection includes one article by a graduate student, reflecting an effort, however small, to encourage fresh ideas and young scholars. These essays in reading do indeed bring new insights into often discussed essais (such as "Des Cannibales," "De la Phisionomie," "Apologie pour Raymond Sebond," and "De l'Expérience), illustrate the importance of traditionally ignored essais (Essais 1: 1, 5, and 6), and illuminate some essays long considered puzzling or difficult ("Du Repentir" and "Des Boiteux"). The four essays that comprise the Theoretical Prolegomenon or Part I of...