La Ronde
by Arthur Schnitzler
Buy on AmazonLa Ronde is a play in which ten people form an unwitting interpersonal circle with their secret sexual relationships. It was written by Arthur Schnitzler in 1897 and was controversial at that time. It scrutinizes the sexual morality and class ideology of its day through successive encounters between pairs of characters. By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses class boundaries. Printed privately in 1900, it was not publicly performed until 1920, when it provoked strong reactions. The play's two titles – in German Reigen and in French La Ronde – refer to a round dance, as portrayed in the English rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses.
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"Another highly significant Austrian writer is Arthur Schnitzler. Most people have either read or seen his stage plays. Freud regarded him as his Doppelgänger . He said Schnitzler had put his (Freud’s) ideas into fiction. Schnitzler is very acute on the louche side of Viennese life. There was massive repression, officially, on sexual desire, which naturally had to find an outlet—Vienna was the city with the most prostitutes in Europe."
Austria · fivebooks.com