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


ian, Danish and Swedish, Dutch and
English.
Physician, Lecturer, Dramatist.
I'm October, 1879, returned to Pesth,
with the intention OF settling down
there as a medical man. 1 had now
a certain reputation. The financial re-
suits of my first two or three months
We're simply astounding. But [ was
disguised with the social life there,
and the number of hypocrites [ met,
Germans who pretended not to speak
German, but slammed to be Hungar-
ians, lending themselves to a lie, a
national lie. No German can live in
Pesth unless he acts this lie; without it,
no social intercourse is possible. You
find yourself in a drawingroom in a
German family. Everybody is speak
ing German. Suddenly a sham Mag
var is announced. Everybody pretends
to be Magyar, and talks Hungarian.
1t disguised me, and drove the away
on a lecturing tour. My lecture We're
prepared by walking about with my
central idea in my mind, thinking out
deductions and Illustrations. My eX-
perienceS as parliamentary reporter
helped me to speak. [ have a natural
gift for public speaking. You see,
have the advantage of being very
short-sighted, so that large audiences
do not intimidate me, because L can't
see them. All / see is a. few heads in
the front row of the stalls, and it is to
those / address myself. l usually pick
out one of these, and hammer away at
what am saying, until his counter
anee shows me that he has understood
and is convinced. When, owing to the
front row of stalls being too far away,
could see nobody, got muddled,
spoke long and clumsy phrases, in fact,
made a mess of it My Faust and
success. After I HAD delivered it in
Frankfort, l received invitations from
III German towns to come and lecture.
L could only accept few, but for years
afterwards | had to refuse invitatio
AS a lecture, spent part of 1873 and
the autumn of 1879. l used to receive
from $50 to SIS a lecture, and all found,
and here again was able to save
money.
I'm 1880 1 returned to Paris, and de-
cided to fix, myself there. / continued
my medical studies, and took my doc
tors degree in 1882. In the meantime.
had been working on a book which I
had commenced to write in Pesth, as
something to make ne forget the peo-
pie amongst whom l was living This
book was based on the notes 7 had
taken during my travels, and appeared
under the title of From the KremIin
TO the Alhambra, which of all nv
books is the one which has been the
least attacked-a circumstance" added
Nordau, which perhaps does not plead
IN its favor. 1t appeared in two VOL
umes, and has gone through twenty
three editions. In the interval between
my first and second books, I wrote a
volume of short stories, published un-
der the title of Soap Bubbles.
II forgot to say that whilst I was in
P'esth, on my return from my lectur-
ing tour, that is to say in 1874 year
Of great activity, I wrote two plays
One of these was in collaboration with
Ferdinand Gross. 1t was played in va
rious towns, but I never saw it per-
formed. The other was never PLAYED
IN German, but was pirated and
played in Swedish. In 1880, [ wrote
Paris Under the Third Republic"
This book is now in it's fourth edition
the first three editions having been ex,
hausted in the first year of publica-
ton.
The Book That Established His
Fame.
During the next two years" contin-
ued Max Nordau, ST published nothing.
but in 1882 and 1888 l wrote nv Con
ventional Lies''
1t was this book which firmly estab-
lished Max Nordau's reputation. not
only as an author but as philoso-
pher. 1t has had great success: hay-
ing, indeed, been the German hook
which has been sold in the greatest
number. Up till now, more than $4,000
copies have been taken up of the Ger
man edition. 1t has been translated
into every European language, and if
has formed the basis of a whole chan
ter of contemporary literature. About
this much discussed book, more than
ten voluminous books have been writ
ten, some supporting the authors the
ulent vigor.
Nordau's Fine Manuscript.
THE manuscript of this book" said
Nordau, handing me q. thin volume of
manuscript, neatly bound in cover,
will show you what was my concen-
tration of spirit, whilst I was writing
1t. The whiting is exceedingly fine; on
some pages it is almost microscopical.
The printed book consists of 420 pages;
the manuscript book ONLY contains sew