The second
The Second is a story by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler . It first appeared - posthumously - in January 1932 in the Vossische Zeitung , Berlin .
A second is assigned to notify the widow of a slain duelist , but instead has a brief erotic liaison with her.
content
A second remembers the seventh duel, in which he assisted as a young man and which he particularly remembers.
Several years earlier: After the affair of Eduard Loiberger and the wife of a Uhlan officer became known, the betrayed husband called Loiberger to a duel. Loiberger instructs two acquaintances, Doctor Mülling and the nameless narrator, to second him. He does not tell his young wife Agathe about the scheduled duel. This will take place just two days later; Loiberger is killed and the narrator is assigned to bring the tragic news to Agathe. He visits Agathe in her villa near Ischl , but instead of telling her about her husband's death, he accepts her invitation to dinner. The young second remembers that the young woman gave him encouraging looks and gestures several times in the past. He realizes that she assumes his appearance is purely to take advantage of her husband's absence. The two spend the afternoon together, and it is implied that they are sleeping together. He then has a confusing dream in which he, Agathe, her dead husband and he meet in different places; the dream ends with Loiberger trying to drown the second. After waking up, Agathe thanks him for the time spent together, but tells him to leave. The narrator, still unable to report what happened, tries in vain to persuade her to choose him. At that moment, Mülling and a friend of Agathes arrive. Mülling brings the news of Loiberger's death. Agathe immediately makes arrangements to travel to the dead man, her young lover is forgotten.
Years later, the second meets Agathe, who has since remarried. She looks at him openly, but gives him no sign of recognition.
background
The second was Schnitzler's last completed literary work, on which he wrote from 1927 until the end of his life. Michaela L. Perlmann, on the other hand, describes the story as unfinished.
expenditure
- Arthur Schnitzler: Meistererzählungen, Diogenes, Zurich 2002, 256 pages, paperback, ISBN 978-3-257-21016-3
Web links
- The second on Zeno.org
Individual evidence
- ^ Overview of Arthur Schnitzler's stories with publication dates on Zeno.org, accessed on October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Nikolaj Beier: Above all I am: Judaism, acculturation and anti-Semitism in Arthur Schnitzler's life and work, Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3835302556 , p. 504.
- ↑ Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler, Metzler Collection, Vol. 239, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-476-10239-4 , p. 3.