Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929)

Hofmannsthal is probably best known as the librettist for Richard Strauss. His single most famous prose work is likely the Lord Chandos Letter which is collected here with a number of his stories. The Lord Chandos Letter purports to be a letter from Chandos to Francis Bacon explaining why he has given up writing. Briefly put, he has concluded that language is unable to adequately express the human experience. Written in 1902, I can see why it is very important in intellectual history, but although a fascinating piece of writing, I didn’t particularly “enjoy” it. The stories collected with it in my book ranged from the downright weird to the excellent. Most are haunting in some way, all are quite impressionistic. Regardless of story, the protagonists generally live in some sort of dream world always accompanied by an undefinable sense of foreboding and dread.… (more)

I can only rate three stars because nothing other than Lord Chandos Letter itself, actually only 10% of the book, spoke to me. It is a letter to a friend explaining why words no longer can express anything he sees or feels, so he decides to abandon words altogether. There is a certain irony to the "story" itself in that he expresses beautifully in the letter itself what he means and why he will abandon language completely and withdraw from society.

Two of the other stories, particularly the profound "An Incident in the Life of Marshall de Bassompierre." and "Cavalry Story." really spoke to me. The form of most of the stories is a sort of stream of consciousness surrealism; interesting but somewhat dull unless you're into that sort of thing.

It's a slim nyrb volume but I would recommend taking it in small bites to let it sink in. I tended to read each story in one sit down each.

Whenever I go back and re-read my reviews they look like they were written by someone who doesn’t really understand the English language. Brain to hand seems to be short circuited.… (more)