Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando. The Tragic Demise of a Faithful Court Official. Riverside, Calif.: Ariadne Press, 1997. 144 pp. $14.50, paper, ISBN 978-1-57241-035-0.

Reviewed by Geofrey C. Howes

Published on HABSBURG (November, 1997)

Fritz Herzmanovsky-Orlando (1877-1954) was satirist with a bent for witty, often outrageous de‐ an amateur, but not amateurish, author and scription and an ear for the sparkling vacuity of graphic artist who retired as an architect in Vien‐ society conversation. na in 1917 for health reasons. He resettled in Mer‐ As Veeder notes in his afterword, Herz‐ an (Merano) in South Tyrol, where he spent the manovsky considered this novel the frst of an rest of his life writing and drawing. His best- "Austrian Trilogy" that was to run from the early known work, Der Gaulschreck im Rosennetz nineteenth century to the mid-1960s (p. 138). The (1928), a portrayal of the lower aristocracy in Vi‐ other two novels, Maskenspiel der Genien (Mas‐ enna around 1830, is presented here as The Trag‐ querade of the Spirits) and Scoglio Pomo oder ic Demise of a Faithful Court Official in a spirited Rout am Fliegenden Hollaender (Scoglio Pomo, or and faithful translation by David A. Veeder, one of Disaster on the Flying Dutchman), were not pub‐ the very few American scholars working on this lished by Herzmanovsky and have not been trans‐ eccentric Austrian novelist and playwright. lated. They do appear in Torberg's edition, as well The Tragic Demise of a Faithful Court Official as in volumes 2 and 3 of the planned ten-volume is one of only two works that Herzmanovsky pub‐ edition of Herzmanovsky's works edited by the lished in his lifetime, both in the twenties, but the Brenner-Archiv that began to appear in the Resi‐ noted Austrian writer Friedrich Torberg reintro‐ denz Verlag in 1983. Der Gaulschreck im Rosen‐ duced him to the reading public in the late ffties netz appears in volume 1 of that edition (1983). by editing his collected works in four volumes. A The Tragic Demise of a Faithful Court Official further one-volume version of this edition and a takes place during the reign of Francis I, some‐ two-volume paperback edition published in Ger‐ time after the Congress of and apparently many in the early seventies by Ullstein testify to before Beethoven's death in 1827, for the compos‐ the author's continuing appeal, the reasons for er is mentioned as being alive (p. 15). It tells the which are clear after reading only one or two story of the Court Secretary Jaromir Edler von pages: Herzmanovsky is a funny, charming Eynhuf, who is employed by the Imperial Court H-Net Reviews

Drum Depot and devoted to his position and his The anachronism of writing a novel in the emperor with a single-minded intensity. For in‐ 1920s about imaginary, insignifcant events of the stance, although he is more attracted to Annerl 1820s--this is not a historical novel in any strict Zisch, he would rather marry the daughter of the sense--raises the question, particularly for sub‐ retired Court Dwarf Zumpi because of better so‐ scribers to the HABSBURG list, whether this novel cial and professional prospects. Indeed, in spite of is of interest to historians. There are, after all, his tall, lanky fgure, his secret dream has always plenty of contemporary and historical accounts of been to be a Court Dwarf, so that he could be near Biedermeier Vienna. Still, this modest novel deliv‐ the Emperor, "always having His illustrious atten‐ ers a sense of life in the imperial and royal city tive ear, always being permitted to cheer him up" before 1848 that is based not only on vivid imagi‐ (p. 41). Eynhuf's ultimate tribute to the monarch, nation, but also on scrupulous historical inquiry. however, will be a collection of baby teeth, "the As Veeder writes, citing research by Hubert Reit‐ largest and most complete in the entire Empire" terer and Susanna Kirschl-Goldberg: "Interesting‐ (p. 11) arranged in a tableau in the form of a nu‐ ly, as bizarre as much of Herzmanovsky's picture meral commemorating the anniversary of the Em‐ of this Old may seem to the reader, virtu‐ peror's accession to the throne. ally every fantastic character, outlandish bureau‐ This is where the plot gets underway, for Eyn‐ cratic ofce, weird locale and strange historical huf needs one more tooth to complete his tableau. event can be documented in fact" (p. 139).[1] Having determined that it must be an especially We are ushered into a world in which titles beautiful tooth from the momentarily most-cele‐ and rank mean everything, and therefore every‐ brated diva of the Viennese stage, Miss Hoell‐ one has title and rank. We read of the "Royal and teufel, he begins to plot how to gain possession of Imperial Supreme Candle-Snufer Cleaner" (p. 2) this prize. With advice from his friend Grosskopf and "Court Dwarf First Class," which corresponds he decides he must use the anonymity of the car‐ to the military rank of major (p. 5). At one point nival mask to approach the actress--in fact, he Eynhuf considers taking the job of Commander of must dress as a huge butterfy so that he can se‐ the "Imperial Christmas Creche Watch," which cretly issue his delicate request in the shelter of would entail three days of work per year and a his wings. This absurd and expensive stratagem summer residence, but "admittedly with few ends in disaster, including but not limited to the prospects for advancement" (p. 76). This is also a wind blowing the hapless butterfy down the world hypersensitive to fads and fashions, where street, startling the nags for hire, which lends the a popular confection that goes under the name novel its catchy but obscure original title: "The "Bear's Dung" inspires a competitor to come out Horse Spook in a Snare of Roses." "Snare of Roses" with a (less successful!) knockof called "Chicken refers to Miss Hoellteufel's costume as a bouquet Doo-doo" (p. 17). Conversations about actresses of roses, and to the fact that in the course of their and socialites seem more important than the oc‐ brief encounter Eynhuf falls desperately in love casional historical event that wedges its way into with her. The rest of the novel relates how Eyn‐ the busy awareness of this stratum of society that huf's obsessive attempts to attain the actress lead by virtue of birth has very little of importance to him into the lower reaches of Viennese society, do, and lots of time to talk about it. put him out of favor with his superiors, and ulti‐ Particularly charming, but also informative, mately send him on the run from the police. He f‐ are the descriptions of Viennese locales and social nally meets a disgraceful end marked by horribly habits. Upper-class apartments, a confectioner's poetic justice. shop, the Christmas market, a carnival ball, vari‐

2 H-Net Reviews ous districts and suburbs, the Prater amusement Observations of an Imperial Civil Servant on the park, and streets and cafes are described in some Last Judgment and the Accompanying Loss in Fis‐ detail and in an afectionate tone that moves be‐ cal Liquidation Fees" (p. 109), whose fnancial re‐ tween the teasing and the sardonic. Behaviors like sponse to Armageddon resonates with Jura the fxation on music and theater, the composing Soyfer's The End of the World, where "the of occasional verse, Sunday cofees, Imperial bu‐ prospect of destruction proves to be the best reaucratic customs, the Biedermeier mania for boom for business yet."[2] Eynhuf's reaction to collecting, amateur chamber music, customs at being bested by the bourgeois butcher Wuerstl (p. theaters and balls, and exaggerations of dress and 78) resembles the paranoid desperation of Schnit‐ address are all here. The world of the minor aris‐ zler's Lieutenant Gustl in his cloakroom struggle tocracy is presented as a slightly daft, highly styl‐ with a baker. A display of stufed canaries that ized, and ultimately trivial milieu. looks almost alive (p. 102) and the leitmotif of the Things become less trivial, however, as Eyn‐ baby-tooth collection would ft into Gerhard huf's descent begins. The farcical but genial por‐ Roth's Reise ins Innere von Wien (Voyage to Inner‐ trait of the leisure class of Biedermeier Vienna be‐ most Vienna), which explores the generalized mu‐ comes a journey into gypsy shops, kitchens, back seum mentality of the Austrian capital. These re‐ alleys, and brothels, as our hero seeks a love po‐ semblances do not place Herzmanovsky in the lit‐ tion and cynically woos Hoellteufel's chamber‐ erary league of Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, or Musil, maid to get near her mistress. A date with the but they do place him in their social milieu and maid, which he cannot refuse, takes him on Pente‐ historical context. cost Sunday to the Volksprater, which Herz‐ Veeder's translation maintains the correct manovsky describes with wry humor but no con‐ tone of hyperbole and near-hyperbole that Herz‐ descension. Further class diferences arise as Eyn‐ manovsky uses to mock his characters' afecta‐ huf and his fellow aristocrats have to share their tions, usually without crossing the line himself. world with the wealthy but boorish bourgeois en‐ The intentional rhetorical overuse of adjectives trepreneurs such as the "Smoked-Meat King" can easily get excessive, but here it merely adds to Wuerstl (pp. 64-65). While refraining from any our amazement at this grotesquely self-indulgent sort of political statement, Herzmanovsky makes world. Veeder maintains the sense of fun that is it clear that the petit bourgeois is the cake upon essential to Herzmanovsky's text, and he nearly which the aristocracy and nouveaux riches have always passes the test of a good translation: that it the privilege of leading their whipped-cream exis‐ is convincing as literature in the target language. tence. There are two aspects of the original German There are curious echoes of motifs we've seen that are unfortunately untranslatable: Viennese elsewhere in , which indicates dialect and names, which usually have broad, not infuence, but the consistency of certain satirical signifcance. Since American English themes in Habsburg and Austrian society. Thus lacks a dialect that is at once both (socially) upper- the pointless commemoration of the emperor's class and (grammatically) substandard, the de‐ anniversary recalls the Parallel Campaign in lightful idiom of Eynhuf and his acquaintances is Robert Musil's Man Without Qualities. The rescue lost. I suppose one could have used an occasional of a young archduke as the ticket to social position British upper-class double negative to render this, (p. 40) is reminiscent of Trotta's saving the emper‐ but then it would have sounded like Wodehouse or at Solferino in Joseph Roth's Radetzky March. A and not like Herzmanovsky, and the efect would bureaucrat publishes a monograph "Melancholy still be missing. Veeder wisely does not translate

3 H-Net Reviews the outlandish but always credible German thing like a small-scale version of Alfred Kubin's names, but this means that their comic efect is Die andere Seite (The Other Side), where, howev‐ lost. Hoellteufel, Zisch, Wuerstl, Grosskopf, Pa‐ er, the mounting grotesquery leaves the realm of radeyser, and von Unklar would not be convinc‐ humor and ends in a disturbing apocalyptic vi‐ ing as Helldevil, Hiss, Weenie, Bighead, Tomayto, sion in an exotic anti-Shangri-La. Herzmanovsky and Unclear, yet for better or worse their silliness is able to achieve his minor revelation without go‐ is lost on the reader who knows little German. ing any farther out of Vienna than Mariahilf, and On the other hand, the translator could have it is correspondingly less shattering, but trouble‐ retained two instances of malapropism. "Komple‐ some nonetheless. Another parallel between tativisch" (sic) could have become something like Herzmanovsky and his lifelong friend Kubin is "complentative" instead of the unexceptional the fact that both illustrated their own books. It is "contemplative" (p. 23); and "Refmativisimus" therefore too bad that only two of Herz‐ (sic) might have been "rheumatiz" or "rheumati‐ manovsky's amusing drawings appear in the cism" instead of the correct "rheumatism" (p. 85). translation, but reproducing the twenty-seven The word "bashkille" for "Bastille" (p. 17) is cor‐ plates with sufcient quality would likely have rectly preserved as a demonstration of the histori‐ made the book inordinately expensive. Also like cal illiteracy of the aristocrats, but it should have Kubin's unique novel, Herzmanovsky's seems to been capitalized so the reader could immediately convert most who read it into solid fans. catch the reference. It should be noted that this translation is But these are just a few details in a fne trans‐ based on Torberg's edition, and it contains chap‐ lation. The following passage from the Carnival ter titles that Torberg supplied. Susanna Kirschl- chapter shows how Veeder can handle the chal‐ Goldberg has produced a version more faithful to lenge of a bizarre plot, linguistic complexity, and a Herzmanovsky's manuscripts, which restores style that is almost, but not quite, overcome by some particularly extravagant language,[3] but stiltedness: this has remained a scholarly version, and Veeder was right to translate the much more familiar Laboriously the butterfy steered his way to‐ one. ward this gleaming sun [Hoellteufel] and was nearly at his destination. Then suddenly some‐ Anyone who is at all interested in Vienna and thing terrible happened. From out of the throng of the Habsburg Empire since Maria Theresa will at masks leaped the beautiful Helena Kollokotronis least enjoy this book, and probably learn some‐ with her dark page-boy locks, her puckish charm thing as well. Herzmanovsky's novel, through attractively complementing the disguise of a sil‐ David Veeder's translation, ofers a sense of physi‐ very pretzel-boy, and abruptly jumped up and sat cal and social detail that may be the next best astride Eynhuf's shoulders before he could indig‐ thing to a movie flmed in the streets of pre-March nantly fend her of. Joyously shouting, she Vienna. And for all its period atmosphere, the spurred him onward with her shimmering high novel's plot, with its social climber who is so ob‐ heels and steered him delightedly around by the sessed with one perceived advantage that he antennae. Behind him popped champagne corks, abandons all other advantages, could be trans‐ the clouds of perfume and bright fashing of jew‐ planted without much modifcation into a script els totally bewildering his senses" (p. 65). of the television situation comedy Seinfeld (except that its "tragic" ending would not lead very well Such broad humor does not take away from into next week's episode). This is meant as a com‐ the novel's increasing seriousness, which ends in pliment to a book that is lively, funny, well plotted, Eynhuf's death. Thus The Tragic Demise is some‐

4 H-Net Reviews and ultimately poignant, in addition to being his‐ torically interesting. It deserves its place in Ari‐ adne's ever-growing Austrian translation series. Notes: [1]. See Hubert Reitterer, "Oesterreichische Geschichte im Werk von Fritz von Herzmanovsky- Orlando," Oesterreich in Geschichte und Literatur 30 (1986), pp. 275-284; Susanna Kirschl-Goldberg, "Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando: Wien als Fik‐ tion und Realitaet," Literatur und Kritik, pp. 191-192 (1985), pp. 60-72. [2]. Horst Jarka, "Introduction," The Legacy of Jura Soyfer, ed. and trans. by Horst Jarka (Montre‐ al: Engendra Press, 1977), p. 29. [3]. Susanna Kirschl-Goldberg, "Kommentar," Der Gaulschreck im Rosennetz. Roman, vol. 1 of Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Saemtliche Werke in zehn Baenden (Salzburg: Residenz, 1983), pp. 143-233. Copyright (c) 1997 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the re‐ viewer and to HABSBURG. For other permission, please contact and .

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Citation: Geofrey C. Howes. Review of von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Fritz. The Tragic Demise of a Faithful Court Official. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. November, 1997.

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