Arthur Schnitzler: Flowers. Historical-critical Edition

Arthur Schnitzlers story Blumen was written 1893/94 and first published in the Viennese literary jour- nal Neue Revue. The protagonist, a first-person narrator, recounts in a diary-like style the monthly flower deliveries from his former lover which surprisingly arrive even after her death. By rearrang- ing and revising the material and text of the first version, Schnitzler slightly diminished the morbid atmosphere, which persists until the end even despite an attempted rational explanation. Only when the narrators present lover arrives with a fresh bunch of spring flowers the ghostly gloom dissolves. Since 2010 the historical-critical edition of Arthur Schnitzlers early works is realized in the course of meanwhile two FWF-projects (P 22195-G20 and P 27138-G23), headed by Konstanze Fliedl. Blumen will be the tenth volume in print (and e-book), but it will be the first also to be provided in open access mode. Following the principles of genetic editing, the critical edition of Blumen presents all bequeathed manuscripts as full-size facsimiles with transcriptions. The highly complex genesis of the text Schnitzler rearranged a great part of it by shifting about several passages is described in detail. The edition also provides a print text, based on the first print of 1894, with a display of all textual variants up to the last version, revised by the author. Among the variations are serious and disturbing mistakes, some of them still handed down by currently available editions, which mostly derive from the publishing house S. Fischer or are based on its editions. While in the manuscript and still in the first print, the flowers from the dead lover are described as keine Grüße aus dem Jenseits, the meaning of this scene is twisted right around after the first edition of 1898, which states contrarily: Es sind Grüße aus dem Jenseits. This error has been corrected in the critical edition. Further inevitable and minimal changes are registered in a list of editorial emendations. Additionally, the edition contains a commentary, which provides most of all historico-cultural information and explanations of Austrian-specific as well as foreign-language or obsolete terms. The appendix again presents the transcription of the first handwritten version (without facsimiles), namely in the reconstructed genetic order prior to Schnitzlers rearrangement. Hence, this process of revision gets more comprehensible. Thus, it is possible to retrace the genesis of this text exactly for the first time. Open-access of Blumen in a reliable edition would significantly increase the reach and dissemination of Arthur Schnitzlers work.