Schnitzler Collection · Psychological Fiction
A young woman. An impossible ultimatum. One shattering night in the Italian Alps — told entirely through her own unravelling thoughts.
About the Book
Fräulein Else is a 1924 novella of extraordinary psychological intensity. While vacationing at a luxury resort in the Italian Alps, nineteen-year-old Else receives an urgent letter from her mother revealing her family's impending financial ruin and possible imprisonment. She must turn to Herr von Dorsday, a wealthy family acquaintance, for help. His proposition — to view her naked in exchange for saving her family — forces Else to confront impossible choices between family duty, personal dignity, and survival.
Set against the backdrop of 1920s society, this compelling story exposes the moral bankruptcy of the upper classes and the impossible positions in which young women were often placed. Through Else's interior monologue, Schnitzler creates an intimate portrait of a young mind in crisis, capturing the psychological complexity of sexual politics and social pressure with remarkable insight and sensitivity.
The narrative unfolds entirely through Else's stream of consciousness, allowing readers unprecedented access to her thoughts, fears, desires, and moral struggles. Herr von Dorsday emerges as an embodiment of patriarchal power and moral corruption, while Else's absent parents represent the decay of Viennese bourgeois society. A must-read for fans of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Stefan Zweig.
One of the most daring explorations of female consciousness in 20th-century literature.
Ovid Publishing Group Edition
Ovid Publishing Group Edition
The Three Essays
About the Author
Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist and one of the most prominent figures of the Vienna Modernism movement. Born in Vienna to a distinguished Jewish family, Schnitzler trained as a physician — a background that profoundly shaped his literary preoccupations with the inner life, desire, and moral complexity.
His works were consistently controversial for their time, offering frank depictions of sexuality, the unconscious, and the human psyche that challenged the rigid social norms of fin-de-siècle Austria. Schnitzler pioneered the use of the interior monologue in German-language literature, influencing writers across Europe and earning the deep admiration of Sigmund Freud, who called him a "colleague" in psychological insight.
His plays and novellas — including Reigen, Traumnovelle, and Leutnant Gustl — provoked censorship, riots, and official condemnation. They also secured his legacy as one of the most important European writers of the early 20th century. His works remain widely read and adapted today.
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