New-York tribune., 1920-12-26


HNHE influence Of Fyodor Dos-
q toievsky is plainly visible in
q this long. cumbersome. melo-
dramatic, bizarre, mystical.
sensual novel. The author revels in
psychopathic characters There are
strange. violent contrasts Of saintli-
ness ard bestiality. eroticism and
asceticism, beauty and filth. Wasser-
mann IS obsessed with consuming
hatred for whatever is normal. conven-
tional, respectable. Like Dostoievsky
he takes fierce delight in creating
scenes where the snug, everyday pro-
p-iecies of life are challenged, scoffed
at. pillorled. He has pity for the Grim
inal, but not for the Pharisee.
After the Russian Pattern
Christian Wahnschaffe, the hero, is
cut after the Russian pattern. A
~ea th.' young nan, handsome, cul-
tured. highly aesthetic in his tastes,
quite indifferent to human pain and
suffering, he suddenly experiences an
inner transformation which complete
~ alters his spiritual nature. He casts
of his wealth with disgust and aver
sion. He finds q prostitute in the
streets, loathson'e. diseased deserted
He takes her to an apartment in the
siums OF Berlin and nurses her with
tender care and divine pity worthy Of
st. Francis. He accustoms himself to
formerly hateful sights and smells and
sounds. He endures the hsrdships of
medieval snchorite. And through
every trial he preserves the sweetness,
the poise, the serenity Of his soul.
Types likes Christian Wahnschaffe are
common enough in the Middle Ages.
They are seldom encountered in our
uioderu sophisticated civilization, ex-
cept in Holy Russia, where the fame
IF apostolic and medieval Christ an
'aith still burns brightly. In his later
'hs.se Wahnschaffe strongly suggests
Jostoievskys Prince Myshkin.
There is a marked disparity in real
site effect between the first and Sec
ad volumes of the novel In the first
ook the author attempts to depict
Genes oI European upper class life,
nd he Is not always successful There
re Incidents that seem exaggerated,
rtiiclal, unnatural. But in the second
,!ume, when he describes the poores,
uarters Of Berlin, he fairly comes into
is own. He knows thess districts,
Shere poverty-stricken clen and women
md children are herded together in
'qualor, ravaged by disease almost
lriven to seek livelihood in crime and
hame. And his grisy pictures are
4rawn with terrible, driving power.
In the creation Ct one character
Wassermann goes outside the sphere Of
mis- great Russian master. Dostoievsky
never envisaged a woman so graceful,
0 exquisite, so instinct with poetic
harm as Eva Sorel, the dancer who
.irst attracts Wahnschafe, and whom
e puts aside, along with all other
sorldly van ties. after his change Of
aeart. About her personality the au-
thor constantly heaps up elements OF
exotic fascination. The most brillian.
men - Europe fall under her nys-
terious spell. She becomes the ME
tress of a Russian grand duke. and
finally, magniticently beautiful to the
last, she ie slain oy hand OF rebellious
sailors.
The novel contains many characters
and innumerable episodes. Its dramatic
quality il often intensified by a swift
shifting of scene. Christian in his
Berlin garret; q mighty actor hen
pecked by his wife and sinking in-o
intellectual decline. the friendless
deathbed Of spenithrift speculate.
These images, and many others, pass
before your eyes with Kaleidoscope
rapidity.
The European Library
The Worlds Illusion is doubly wei
come because it is tho forerunner of
new series Of books 10 be published