atter's work is the mutual lack of understanding between successive
generations, and this lack tends with significant frequency to assume
the form of a father's opposition to a son's choice of profession.

This conflict cannot have lasted very long, however, for the younger
Schnitzler proved quickly successful in his purely literary efforts.
The "Anatol" sketches attracted a great deal of attention even while
appearing separately in periodicals, and with their publication in book
form, which occurred almost simultaneously with the first performance
of "A Piece of Fiction" at a Viennese theater, their author was hailed
as one of the most promising among the younger men. From that time he
has been adding steadily to his output and his reputation. When his
collected works were issued in 1912, these included four volumes of
plays and three volumes of novels and stories. Since then he has
finished another play and two volumes of prose sketches.

It is rare to find an author turning with such regularity from the epic
to the dramatic form and back again. And it is still more rare to find
him so thoroughly at home and successful in both fields. In
Schnitzler's case these two parallel veins have mutually supported and
developed each other. Time and again he has treated the same theme
first in one form and then in another. And not infrequently he has
introduced characters from his plays into his stories, and vice versa.
A careful study of his other works would undoubtedly assist toward a
better understanding of his plays, but I do not regard such a study
essential for the purpose. It is my belief that Schnitzler has given
himself most fully and most typically in his dramatic authorship, and
it is to this side of his creative production I must confine myself
here.

* * * * *

"Anatol" is nothing but seven sketches in dramatic form, each sketch
picturing a new love affair of the kind supposed to be especially
characteristic of Viennese life. The man remains the same in all these
light adventures. The woman is always a different one. The story is of
the kind always accompanying such circumstances--one of waxing or
waning attraction, of suspicion and jealousy, of incrimination and
recrimination, of intrigue and counter-intrigue. The atmosphere is
realistic, but the actuality implied is sharply limited and largely
superficial. There is little attempt at getting down to the roots of
things.