Reviews for Lieutenant Gustl

The average rating for Lieutenant Gustl based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-26 00:00:00 Travis Schatz It was an act of bravery to write a short story on the cowardice of an Austrian lieutenant and the absurd honour code that was generally followed in Vienna during the Fin de Siècle. Even more courage was needed to make it a satire, written in an early example of an inner monologue. The story focuses on Lieutenant Gustl, who believes he has been insulted by an exchange of unpleasantries with a baker in the opera. As a result he thinks that he has to commit suicide for failing to immediately challenge the offender. The hope that nobody witnessed the situation leaves him a loophole to slip through with his "honour" intact in public, though, and he postpones his suicide several times during the following hours. You are what others see! By coincidence, the baker dies during the night, and Gustl is restored to life. Apart from displaying the Austrian military's insane honour code, its open antisemitism, its misogyny and lack of humour, the story most importantly delivers proof that honour is an empty word for most people, aiming at securing a position in society rather than at living according to certain principles because one is convinced of their general validity. You are what others see! As Schnitzler bravely displayed the cowardice of a lieutenant, he was attacked by Austrian patriots afterwards and ironically stripped of his military status for "failing to react honourably" to these attacks - which means that he failed to engage in a duel because of his satire on the meaninglessness of duelling. If his story didn't offer enough evidence of the Austrian military stink, the reality check afterwards certainly did - more effectively than the author would have been able to describe it in a fictional account. Thomas Bernhard and his fellow inner monologue ranters have a heap of material to draw from, both regarding literary role models and historical sources for rage! Schnitzler is pure brilliance!

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-23 00:00:00 Paul Alves I read this wonderful story (novella) in a collection of stories/novellas titled, "Five Great German Short Stories" (edited and translated by Stanley Appelbaum). I wrote my review of each of the five stories for that collection, but wanted to add a brief comment regarding Schnitzler's work here… I gave this novella 5 stars. If I could give it a higher rating I would. I loved it. So clever! The reader is in the head of Lieutenant Gustl over the space of I would say 13 hours…say from 7 pm one evening to 8 am the next morning. When I say in the head I mean in the head. You are privy to every last thought that runs through this German officer's head. Appelbaum says this work "is outstanding as perhaps the first important interior-monologue, or stream-of-consciousness, story in European literature, preceding precedes Ulysses by some 2 decades". I just read "Dubliners" by Joyce and loved it and in my review, I said I was scared to read him because of Ulysses and that I would never understand Joyce. Good God, this was written so well I might consider reading Ulysses!!! 🙃 Just a few comments that I wrote down as I was reading… • Lt. Gustl goes to a concert and wants his coat at the end and he gets in a dust-up with the baker and baker tells him if he doesn't behave he'll take his saber and break it. • Baker calls him a fool. • So Gustl is humiliated and wants to commit suicide. • However he has a duel tomorrow. • He seems like a hot-head!