The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-18

enty-six pages. Some of the pages of
manuscript gave eight printed pages.
Nordau sends all his manuscript as
it is written, off to the printers, and
has it sent back as soon as the work
has been composed He then has the
complete manuscript bound up into
volume, joining the "takes" into which
the original pages have been cut, with
pieces of stamp-edging. He can tell
by the look of his writing what degree
of concentration of spirit Ie had
reached whilst writing such or such a
passage. THE Parodoxes,'' which he
wrote in 1884, is a printed volume of Ala
pages. The manuscript is contained in
sixty pages.
This book, like the Conventional
Lies has been translated into every
language. Personally, L consider it the
best book l have ever written. II did
not sell as we'll as Conventional Lies
however. Up till now, think $4,000
copies have been bought. In 1885
published a selection of my Paris let
tiers to the papers. In the meanwhile,
L was occupying myself with the study
OF neuropathology, to which I was first
initiated by Professor Ball, whose lee
lures at St AIMS I attended for
years"
Nordau as Novelist.
Max Nordau wrote his first novel in
1887 1t is entitled The Century's
Disease"
This was a study in the form of a
novel, in two volumes, of the madness.
the pessimism which are the charac-
teristics of the latter part of this CEN
fury. My hero is a pessimist, a mod
ern Hamlet, for Hamlet, in my opinion,
was nothing but a neuropath.''
This book has also been translated
fob
nothing" says Nordau. "a bad book
may attract universal attention, and a
good book may be entirely passed over
L cannot congratulate myself on the
publication of my first novel. for it
poisoned two years OF my life. 7 had
submitted the manuscript to a pub
ilsner from Leipzig, who called on me
IN Paris, and asked me for it, and he
literally stole it, ran off to Germany.
published it and managed to sell four
thousand copies at So before l could
assert my rights. He then absconded
without paying me a penny. 1t was
not. accordingly till 1891 that I pub
fishing my next book. This was a sec
ond novel entitled The Comedy of
sentiment which describes the loves
OF a couple who are duping both one
another and themselves" 1t was fol-
lowed in 1892 by a volume of short
stories called 'Soul-Analvses. of
which many versions have since been
issued.
"DeEeneratiOn'' and How Nordau
Came to Write 1t.
Then came Degeneration origin
ally published in two volumes 1t was
written from December, 1891. to Anril
1898, with steady, regular work. The
manuscript, you see consists of 330
pages, OF not too small writing. What
chiefly prompted me to write this book
was that l. was irritated at being al
ways spoken about as The Author of
conventional Lies hate being nailed
TO a specially and said to myself that
would disassociate myself from the
speclalty winch was associated with
my name.
Degeneration has raised up in
Vulnerable enemies to me T had
proof OF this by the way in which the
critics in Berlin dealt with nv plav
The Right to Love- which I wrota
after Degeneration and dedicated IN
my excellent friend, Madame Novikofr
Day after day they attacked it in their
papers, and performances, succeeded
N kllllnS 1t In Berlin at least. 1t was
played with better success in seven or
eight other German tonws and was
also very favorably received in MiIwaT-
kee, Where 1t was performed in Ger
man. My object in writing it was once
more, to disasssociate my name from
the fresh speciality which people were
associating with my name. Peonle
We're speaking about me as a philoso-
phical writer. I wanted to show them
that I could write plays also
i was not discouraged nv tba 20
ception of my Right to Love and in
1894 wrote play called The Bail, #
was produced at the Leasing theatre
in Berlin, on the 31st of October. AZ,
ter the third act I was called seven
times before the curtain. I did NOT
hear among all the applause one single
sound of disapproval, although the an
diences at the Leasing theatre are no.
toriously hard to please. 1t was. in a
word, very great success, and after
the last curtain the author was much
embraced. But my enemies had not
forgotten Degeneration and next
twenty out of twenty-five pa
pers declared that no such filth had
ever beer served up on a German
stage. I did not read these notices my
self, indeed, never read any criti-
cisms of my work, but my friends
- fo1 mo NH.