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The Resource "Our famous guest" : Mark Twain in Vienna, Carl Dolmetsch

"Our famous guest" : Mark Twain in Vienna, Carl Dolmetsch

Creator
Summary
  • Fin-de-siecle Vienna was a special place at a special time, a city in which the decadent abandon of the era commingled with dark forebodings of the coming century. The artistic and intellectual ferment of the Austrian capital was extraordinary: Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schnitzler, Theodor Herzl, Gustave Klimt, and Ludwig Wittgenstein were but a few of the figures who lived and worked there. And, in September 1897, into the very midst of this heady milieu,
  • came America's most famous citizen, Mark Twain. Although most of Twain's biographers have mentioned his Viennese sojourn (occasioned by his daughter Clara's musical studies), it has remained an unexplored hiatus in his career. Partly because of impressions created by Twain himself, the twenty months he spent in Vienna are often dismissed as uneventful and unproductive. In "Our Famous Guest" Carl Dolmetsch shows the truth to be otherwise. Upon his arrival Twain found all
  • the doors of the celebrity-mad city, from its literary cafe's to its aristocratic salons, flung wide open to him. The aging writer imbibed freely of Vienna's atmosphere, and the result was a final, astonishing surge of creativity. Among the thirty works that came, either whole or in part, from Twain's Austrian visit were the Socratic dialogue What Is Man?, the "Early Days" section of his Autobiography, Book I of Christian Science, the classic short story "The Man That
  • Corrupted Hadleyburg," the polemical essay "Concerning the Jews," and, most important, a major portion of the manuscript cluster known as The Mysterious Stranger. As Dolmetsch notes, conventional wisdom about Twain attributes the "bitter pessimism" of these late writings to such factors as his personal bereavements and financial reversals. Rejecting this view as grossly oversimplified, Dolmetsch argues that the transformation in Twain's outlook and writing style owe much
  • to the cultural currents he encountered abroad, above all in Vienna. He suggests that Twain was especially responsive to a peculiarly Viennese blend of nihilism and hedonism and to the "impressionistic" style favored by its writers. In locating these influences, Dolmetsch portrays a Mark Twain far more cosmopolitan and urbane than previous biographical studies have allowed. Through meticulous research in Viennese newspaper reports as well as in Twain's own journals and
  • writings, Dolmetsch reconstructs the writer's visit in breathtaking detail. The narrative sparkles with accounts of Twain's shrewd manipulation of the Viennese press, his involvements in the city's musical and theatrical life, the attacks he endured from anti-Semitic journalists, and even his futile attempts to obtain marketing rights to two inventions by a Polish engineer. In one particularly intriguing chapter Dolmetsch ponders the riddle of Twain's association with
  • Freud (who was then virtually unknown outside of Vienna) and their congruent fascination with the relationship between dreams and "reality." An invaluable addition to Twain scholarship, "Our Famous Guest" is equally compelling for the glimpse it offers of a vanished world
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xviii, 362 p.
Contents
  • Mark Twain and Vienna
  • Wanderjahre
  • Zeitungskrieg!
  • Witness to history
  • "Leschy"
  • "The most beautiful theater in the world"
  • "Choice people"
  • Concerning the "Jew" Mark Twain
  • "Lay down your arms!"
  • The Austrian Edison
  • Home thoughts
  • Diogenes in Vienna
  • City of doctors, city of dreams
  • Auf wiedersehen!
Isbn
9780820314587
Link
https://archive.org/details/ourfamousguestma00dolm
Instance
Label
"Our famous guest" : Mark Twain in Vienna
Title
"Our famous guest"
Title remainder
Mark Twain in Vienna
Statement of responsibility
Carl Dolmetsch
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • Fin-de-siecle Vienna was a special place at a special time, a city in which the decadent abandon of the era commingled with dark forebodings of the coming century. The artistic and intellectual ferment of the Austrian capital was extraordinary: Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schnitzler, Theodor Herzl, Gustave Klimt, and Ludwig Wittgenstein were but a few of the figures who lived and worked there. And, in September 1897, into the very midst of this heady milieu,
  • came America's most famous citizen, Mark Twain. Although most of Twain's biographers have mentioned his Viennese sojourn (occasioned by his daughter Clara's musical studies), it has remained an unexplored hiatus in his career. Partly because of impressions created by Twain himself, the twenty months he spent in Vienna are often dismissed as uneventful and unproductive. In "Our Famous Guest" Carl Dolmetsch shows the truth to be otherwise. Upon his arrival Twain found all
  • the doors of the celebrity-mad city, from its literary cafe's to its aristocratic salons, flung wide open to him. The aging writer imbibed freely of Vienna's atmosphere, and the result was a final, astonishing surge of creativity. Among the thirty works that came, either whole or in part, from Twain's Austrian visit were the Socratic dialogue What Is Man?, the "Early Days" section of his Autobiography, Book I of Christian Science, the classic short story "The Man That
  • Corrupted Hadleyburg," the polemical essay "Concerning the Jews," and, most important, a major portion of the manuscript cluster known as The Mysterious Stranger. As Dolmetsch notes, conventional wisdom about Twain attributes the "bitter pessimism" of these late writings to such factors as his personal bereavements and financial reversals. Rejecting this view as grossly oversimplified, Dolmetsch argues that the transformation in Twain's outlook and writing style owe much
  • to the cultural currents he encountered abroad, above all in Vienna. He suggests that Twain was especially responsive to a peculiarly Viennese blend of nihilism and hedonism and to the "impressionistic" style favored by its writers. In locating these influences, Dolmetsch portrays a Mark Twain far more cosmopolitan and urbane than previous biographical studies have allowed. Through meticulous research in Viennese newspaper reports as well as in Twain's own journals and
  • writings, Dolmetsch reconstructs the writer's visit in breathtaking detail. The narrative sparkles with accounts of Twain's shrewd manipulation of the Viennese press, his involvements in the city's musical and theatrical life, the attacks he endured from anti-Semitic journalists, and even his futile attempts to obtain marketing rights to two inventions by a Polish engineer. In one particularly intriguing chapter Dolmetsch ponders the riddle of Twain's association with
  • Freud (who was then virtually unknown outside of Vienna) and their congruent fascination with the relationship between dreams and "reality." An invaluable addition to Twain scholarship, "Our Famous Guest" is equally compelling for the glimpse it offers of a vanished world
Biography type
individual biography
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1924-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Dolmetsch, Carl
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
PS1334
LC item number
.D6 1992
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Twain, Mark
  • Twain, Mark
  • Twain, Mark
  • Twain, Mark
  • Americans
  • Authors, American
  • Americans
  • Authors, American
  • Literature
  • Manners and customs
  • Travel
  • Vienna (Austria)
  • Vienna (Austria)
  • Wien
  • Österreich
  • Austria
Label
"Our famous guest" : Mark Twain in Vienna, Carl Dolmetsch
Link
https://archive.org/details/ourfamousguestma00dolm
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-352) and index
Contents
Mark Twain and Vienna -- Wanderjahre -- Zeitungskrieg! -- Witness to history -- "Leschy" -- "The most beautiful theater in the world" -- "Choice people" -- Concerning the "Jew" Mark Twain -- "Lay down your arms!" -- The Austrian Edison -- Home thoughts -- Diogenes in Vienna -- City of doctors, city of dreams -- Auf wiedersehen!
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xviii, 362 p.
Isbn
9780820314587
Isbn Type
(alk. paper)
Lccn
91045834
Other physical details
ill.
System control number
  • (OCoLC)25009551
  • (OCoLC)ocm25009551
Label
"Our famous guest" : Mark Twain in Vienna, Carl Dolmetsch
Link
https://archive.org/details/ourfamousguestma00dolm
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-352) and index
Contents
Mark Twain and Vienna -- Wanderjahre -- Zeitungskrieg! -- Witness to history -- "Leschy" -- "The most beautiful theater in the world" -- "Choice people" -- Concerning the "Jew" Mark Twain -- "Lay down your arms!" -- The Austrian Edison -- Home thoughts -- Diogenes in Vienna -- City of doctors, city of dreams -- Auf wiedersehen!
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xviii, 362 p.
Isbn
9780820314587
Isbn Type
(alk. paper)
Lccn
91045834
Other physical details
ill.
System control number
  • (OCoLC)25009551
  • (OCoLC)ocm25009551

Subject

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