Old Vienna Ad Absurdum
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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 Geoffrey 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 Vienna 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, insignificant 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 Austria 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 office, 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-Snuffer 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 butterfly 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 butterfly 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!) knockoff 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 affectionate 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 coffees, 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 stuffed 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 differences arise as Eyn‐ manovsky uses to mock his characters' affecta‐ 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.