Late Fame prominently
features the literary circle
“Enthusiasm,” a parody
of real-life circles like
Jung Wien (Young
Vienna), which met at
Café Griensteidl and
counted Schnitzler
himself among
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CAT17_Anz_Metropole_WLan_210x135_RZ.indd 1 22.02.17 13:41
actually wrote something). “They
assuredly had a tremendous
amount of talent between them,”
Saxberger observes. “Work, how-
ever, was something they actually
did very little of.”
If the mockery of Jung Wien
(Young Vienna) provides the jest,
Saxberger is the heart of Late
Fame. “He had the feeling that he
had long since forgotten about
himself,” Schnitzler writes of this
sad figure stuck in a bureaucratic
job. In the company of “Enthusi-
asm” he comes back to life – a little
arrogant and pompous, perhaps,
but reinvigorated and aware of op-
portunities missed.
“He almost felt that he was
growing younger. A new era of his
life seemed to have begun and
from time to time he was a little
disconcerted to think of the previ-
ous empty years, which now
seemed very distant.”
NO FOOL LIKE AN OLD FOOL
Tragedy follows triumph. When
“Enthusiasm” decides to put on an
evening of recitals, Saxberger is
asked to produce a new poem. He
returns to the well and finds it dry.
His talent was fleeting; he was not
destined for the poet’s life. The
performance itself becomes a bit-
tersweet nadir: Selections from
Wanderings are well received,
while Saxberger comes to realize
what an “old fool” he had been “to
associate himself with this circle
of young people among whom he
simply did not belong.”
This parting blow is eased, with
Saxberger given the final say, in a
masterfully crafted novella that
will amuse writers as much as
those who think so little of them.
Late Fame is also a windfall to
Schnitzler’s many admirers, all
the more precious because it was
unexpected.