Ernst Weiss: Life, Works, and Legacy of a Czech Literary Master and Friend of Kafka, 1892–1940 by Pamela S. Saur (review)

Franz Kafka has, for the most part, been the most overwhelming figure in the German literary realm of Prague. However, in the past twenty years, the discovery, or rather rediscovery, of Prague authors continues to expand. The addition of research on Ernst Weiss is certainly a plus for the expansion of scholarly work on Prague German literature. Weiss, a contemporary as well as a friend of Kafka, has until now remained a largely unknown figure. Saur presents the reader with a solid comparison of the style and themes of Kafka and Weiss while also emphasizing and analyzing Weiss’s influence on Kafka’s writing as well as the symbolism and meaning in his various novels.

At the beginning of the work, Saur compares and contrasts the themes and styles of Kafka and Weiss, emphasizing that although the two writers were contemporaries, each was also his own man. “Overall, with the exception of his more exclamatory and passionate Expressionist texts, Weiss’s writing, when compared to Kafka’s, was more realistic, more detailed and more reflective of real places and real events of European history in Weiss’s lifetime. Weiss’s writings lack the intriguing but frustrating mystery for which Kafka is known, as well as the general, universal and timeless appeal and relevance that this mystery and lack of particularity bestows upon Kafka’s texts” (15). In addition, Saur presents the parallels that Weiss has with another historical figure of the time, Sigmund Freud. For example, Weiss’s fascination with animal themes is well discussed, especially in the section entitled “Animal Drives and Biological Forces.” It is in this area that the scholar of Prague German literature can see not only the Freudian concepts come to light in Weiss’s work but also the comparisons to Kafka’s animal themes in such works as The Metamorphosis and A Hunger Artist. Further, as Saur explains, “Weiss is one of many European men of his generation whose views on gender issues are said to have been influenced by the Viennese theorist Otto Weininger, author of Sex and Character” (91). Using Weiss’s animal-themed work Nahar, Saur shows how Weiss handles the 1920s-era theories on women, with his ability to use the Bible, animal imagery, psychological analysis, and early feminist ideas to question women’s physical and animal nature within the sexual realm. In addition to his interest in the female and society, Weiss, like Kafka, also concentrated on the father-son relationship. However, Weiss had less autiobiographical material to work with, according to Saur, as Weiss lost his father when he was four years old. In the chapter “Fathers and Sons,” Saur presents a good explanation of Freud’s work on the subject and uses the analysis to further explain Weiss’s Aristocrat, which is certainly marked by a different and more positive take on the father-son relationship than in Kafka’s numerous works, which often show the father’s disdain for and resentment of the son.

Perhaps the most useful material on Weiss appears at the beginning of the work, in the chapter “Autobiographical Elements.” It is here that the reader finds the most compelling comparisons between Kafka and Weiss. One almost feels sorry for Weiss not being a better-known author, but he simply did not have a Max Brod to stand behind his work and expand his popularity. However, Weiss is indeed an author who is deserving of more attention in his own right. He tackles themes on religion, science, morality, and history. In the chapter “Drug Addiction,” Saur discusses The Prison Doctor, a work that alludes to the economic turmoil and growing anti-Semitism in the 1930s. This is one of Weiss’s most compelling works, in that it represents the sickness of society not only in terms of the destruction of society via drugs but also via hatred of...