8vo. 235 pages. Original publisher’s brown cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover, decorative patterned endpapers. Printed in Austria.
First edition, inscribed by Arthur Schnitzler in June 1928 to Clara Katharina Pollaczek, his companion during the final phase of his life. The inscription reads: “Meinem Bob in schweren Tagen zur Erleichterung und Erhebung vom Dichter. 7. Juni 1928.”
Provenance: Presented by Schnitzler to Clara Katharina Pollaczek; later in the library of Dr. Nahum Goldmann (1895–1982), with ownership stamp noted in the scholarly documentation; thereafter in an important private collection of modern Jewish literature.
Condition: A very attractive copy in the original publisher’s cloth. Exterior with light rubbing and handling wear, minor fraying and softening at the spine ends and corners, and a few marks to the rear cover. Gilt bright. Internally clean and sound, with the decorative endpapers well preserved. Inscription clear and fully legible.
History & Legacy
Addressed to Pollaczek by her intimate nickname, “Bob,” the inscription gives this copy unusual documentary and biographical significance. More than a presentation copy, it opens directly onto Schnitzler’s private life in the late 1920s. Pollaczek, writer and journalist, occupied a central place in his emotional and intellectual world during these years, and their relationship remains one of the most revealing lenses through which to view his later life and work.
Best known as one of the major literary voices of fin-de-siècle Vienna, Schnitzler was renowned for his psychological acuity and his explorations of desire, memory, performance, and moral ambiguity. While many readers encounter him through Traumnovelle, later adapted by Stanley Kubrick as Eyes Wide Shut, Buch der Sprüche und Bedenken reveals a more distilled and reflective side of the author. Composed of aphorisms and fragments rather than narrative prose, it is a late work, intimate in tone and philosophical in spirit.
