Long considered one of Arthur Schnitzler's greatest accomplishments, Professor Bernhardi brings together its author's treatment of anti-Semitism, an important social problem in Austria then and now, and his penetrating study of its title character. A difficult, complex hero in the mold of Ibsen's Thomas Stockman, Bernhardi is made to suffer from the reaction to his ethical, humane decision to ease a dying girl's suffering, by people whose principles are not always as high as his own. The Comedy of Words treats a favorite theme of Schnitzler's, the misuse of language, while Fink and Fliederbusch stands out as one of the few genuine and enduring comedies in German literature.
