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The Road to Darkness (Empire of the Senses)
From the back "The Road to Darkness contains two decadent and highly controversial Daniel Jesus (first published in 1905) and Severin (first published in 1914)." Contains Daniel Jesus, Severin's Road to Book One, Severin's Road to Book Two, The Ghost of the Jewish Ghetto Translated from the German to English by Mike Mitchell.
- GenresFictionGerman Literature
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1905
130 people want to read
About the author
Paul Leppin
19 books22 followersPaul Leppin (27 November 1878, Prague (Prag, Praha), Royal Bohemia, Austria – 10 April 1945, Prague, Bohemia, Bohemia & Moravia/3rd Czechoslovakia) was a 20th-century Bohemian writer of German language, who was born and lived in Prague.
Although he wrote in German, he was in close contact with Czech literature. He translated Czech books and wrote articles on Czech literature. He was also an editor of two literary periodicals, Frühling and Wir.
Although he wrote in German, he was in close contact with Czech literature. He translated Czech books and wrote articles on Czech literature. He was also an editor of two literary periodicals, Frühling and Wir.
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March 11, 2017Oy.
More to come, but you have to really be into Decadent fiction to want to read the first novella in this book, Daniel Jesus (which sort of crosses the line a bit out of my personal comfort zone readingwise), but Severin's Road to Darkness, the second novella, is just brilliant.
More soon.
More to come, but you have to really be into Decadent fiction to want to read the first novella in this book, Daniel Jesus (which sort of crosses the line a bit out of my personal comfort zone readingwise), but Severin's Road to Darkness, the second novella, is just brilliant.
More soon.
April 4, 2019
Two novellas of Prague decadence. Any good? Well, yeah, but you kind of have to like Decadent writing to enjoy them.
"Daniel Jesus," the first offering, is one of those "put everything down on the page" eruptions of decadent writing. What I mean is that what with the title and us starting off the story with him, you'd thing Daniel Jesus (wealthy and dissolute hunchback) would be our main character. But he isn't, really, it's just that he's the center of a moral whirlpool of characters in Prague, which the narrative then jumps among, from one to the other, before finishing up at a debauched party presided over by Daniel.
Daniel Jesus finds himself bored with his usual rounds of indulgence (like the thoroughly uninspiring orgy he just attended) and dreams of grander decadence as he suffers demented hallucinations of sadism and bloodshed, prowling the Prague nightlife, moving among his associates and equals. Through him we meet a number of people in his febrile orbit, most of them pulled down into the gravity of his corruption. These include: young Baron Sterben (who once bought a gypsy maiden, Hagar, and kept her as his passionate lover until Daniel Jesus drove her from the Baron's house with a whip. Sterben entertains sadistic fantasies of women now), Anton (a fiery preacher who worries about Daniel's soul and shelters Hagar, though now she lusts after him), Margaret (Anton's wife who secretly, shamefully and inexplicably lusts after Daniel), Joseph (Anton's loutish criminal son, who Daniel keeps on retainer in case he needs the uses of a man with no scruples), Countess Regina (who desires the amoral actor Valentin and entertains Daniel and Sterben at her home), the countess' 13 year old daughter Martha Bianca (who - upon hearing Daniel's sadistic tale of his rejection of a young girl, Valeska, whom he seduced - decides that Baron Sterben should ravish her), and Marietta (a young religious visionary discovered by Anton in a small village, who brings messages from the Virgin Mary and who wants to save Joseph's soul). All (or almost all) of these characters are simmering cauldrons of sin, repression, shame and lust, ready to boil over at any moment (and barely in need of Daniel Jesus' nudging).
Daniel Jesus himself reminded me a bit of Claudius Ethal from Monsieur De Phocas, in that he gathers around himself various debauched and morally dubious characters seemingly in order to tip them over the edge at his whim, and so derive amusement from the result. During the course of this novella there will be a suicide, someone will die in paroxysms of pleasure due to a weak heart, someone will go insane, a husband will betray her wife, men will treat women horribly (and, keeping with the themes of shame and degradation, that seems to be what some women want), an innocent soul and a lost soul will escape (the scenario and the narrative - one of the best moments), a bitter and hard-won lesson about love and life will be learned, and it will all culminate with an orgiastic party of naked dancers at Villa Jesus, with the hunchback reigning over all. Sadism, masochism and religious fervor & sublimation abound, all moving through the cobbled streets, shadowy alleys and drink-besotted basement rathskellers of old Prague.
"Daniel Jesus" wasn't amazing or anything, as it felt a bit too briefly sketched (the story is least interested in its titular character), but might serve as a good taster of the more extreme ends of European decadence. And, as I said, it really is a good example of that "all or nothing" ethos.
"Severin's Journey Into Darkness" is more interesting. Severin, a middle-class clerk in Prague, is plagued with ennui at his boring, redundant job and a sense that life does not measure up to the frenetic and absolute worldview of fictions he has read. Charismatic Severin also moves callowly and callously among his romantic and sexual conquests, never feeling love but only a kind of contempt for Zdenka (a woman who really loves him, in a near-masochistic way), Karla (an ex-singer and now arm-candy for wealthy debauchees) or Suzanna (daughter of his associate, who ends up pregnant with his child). Driven by his disatisfaction, Severin befriends antique bookseller Lazarus Kain (father of Suzanna) who shares Severin's taste for female company, sells pornography on the side, and is his introduction to wealthy decadent Dr. Konrad (who is burning the candle at both ends, and at whose party he meets Karla) and wealthy philosophy student Nikolaus (worldly, reputed to be a murderer - which Severin finds exciting - and supplier to the young man of an untraceable poison, in case he should entertain the whim of murder). Following the suicide of Konrad, Suzanna's revelation of her pregnancy, and Severin's near-attempt at a pointless murder, he suddenly snaps and returns, repentant, to Zdenka, seemingly a changed man. A number of months later we rejoin Severin, fulfilled and happy in a life with Zdenka. But a number of changes await on the horizon, which lead to his eventual recidivism. Severin's illegitimate child is dead, Lazarus is broken, the season changes from Summer to Autumn, and with it comes a return of Severin's lust - in this case for beautiful and indifferent Mylada, who sings at a popular nightclub run by Karla and her new lover, secretive philosophical nihilist Nathan Meyer. Mylada takes Severin as her lover, and then rejects him, leading to a downward spiral of desperation and, much like Nikolaus before, Meyer takes Severin under his wing, revealing his desire to slowly corrupt the city through his debauched tavern, while offering Severin a variety of small bombs in case he is interested in sowing chaos more quickly...
I dug this. Severin is a much more interesting character, and the focus not just on decadent Prague, but on the whole city (the people, the architecture, the religious icons), as well as the tracking of the ups and downs of Severin's psyche, seemed more like a real novel (instead of a fevered wallow like "Daniel Jesus"), even if it was a still a Decadent one. Definitely a good read!
"Daniel Jesus," the first offering, is one of those "put everything down on the page" eruptions of decadent writing. What I mean is that what with the title and us starting off the story with him, you'd thing Daniel Jesus (wealthy and dissolute hunchback) would be our main character. But he isn't, really, it's just that he's the center of a moral whirlpool of characters in Prague, which the narrative then jumps among, from one to the other, before finishing up at a debauched party presided over by Daniel.
Daniel Jesus finds himself bored with his usual rounds of indulgence (like the thoroughly uninspiring orgy he just attended) and dreams of grander decadence as he suffers demented hallucinations of sadism and bloodshed, prowling the Prague nightlife, moving among his associates and equals. Through him we meet a number of people in his febrile orbit, most of them pulled down into the gravity of his corruption. These include: young Baron Sterben (who once bought a gypsy maiden, Hagar, and kept her as his passionate lover until Daniel Jesus drove her from the Baron's house with a whip. Sterben entertains sadistic fantasies of women now), Anton (a fiery preacher who worries about Daniel's soul and shelters Hagar, though now she lusts after him), Margaret (Anton's wife who secretly, shamefully and inexplicably lusts after Daniel), Joseph (Anton's loutish criminal son, who Daniel keeps on retainer in case he needs the uses of a man with no scruples), Countess Regina (who desires the amoral actor Valentin and entertains Daniel and Sterben at her home), the countess' 13 year old daughter Martha Bianca (who - upon hearing Daniel's sadistic tale of his rejection of a young girl, Valeska, whom he seduced - decides that Baron Sterben should ravish her), and Marietta (a young religious visionary discovered by Anton in a small village, who brings messages from the Virgin Mary and who wants to save Joseph's soul). All (or almost all) of these characters are simmering cauldrons of sin, repression, shame and lust, ready to boil over at any moment (and barely in need of Daniel Jesus' nudging).
Daniel Jesus himself reminded me a bit of Claudius Ethal from Monsieur De Phocas, in that he gathers around himself various debauched and morally dubious characters seemingly in order to tip them over the edge at his whim, and so derive amusement from the result. During the course of this novella there will be a suicide, someone will die in paroxysms of pleasure due to a weak heart, someone will go insane, a husband will betray her wife, men will treat women horribly (and, keeping with the themes of shame and degradation, that seems to be what some women want), an innocent soul and a lost soul will escape (the scenario and the narrative - one of the best moments), a bitter and hard-won lesson about love and life will be learned, and it will all culminate with an orgiastic party of naked dancers at Villa Jesus, with the hunchback reigning over all. Sadism, masochism and religious fervor & sublimation abound, all moving through the cobbled streets, shadowy alleys and drink-besotted basement rathskellers of old Prague.
"Daniel Jesus" wasn't amazing or anything, as it felt a bit too briefly sketched (the story is least interested in its titular character), but might serve as a good taster of the more extreme ends of European decadence. And, as I said, it really is a good example of that "all or nothing" ethos.
"Severin's Journey Into Darkness" is more interesting. Severin, a middle-class clerk in Prague, is plagued with ennui at his boring, redundant job and a sense that life does not measure up to the frenetic and absolute worldview of fictions he has read. Charismatic Severin also moves callowly and callously among his romantic and sexual conquests, never feeling love but only a kind of contempt for Zdenka (a woman who really loves him, in a near-masochistic way), Karla (an ex-singer and now arm-candy for wealthy debauchees) or Suzanna (daughter of his associate, who ends up pregnant with his child). Driven by his disatisfaction, Severin befriends antique bookseller Lazarus Kain (father of Suzanna) who shares Severin's taste for female company, sells pornography on the side, and is his introduction to wealthy decadent Dr. Konrad (who is burning the candle at both ends, and at whose party he meets Karla) and wealthy philosophy student Nikolaus (worldly, reputed to be a murderer - which Severin finds exciting - and supplier to the young man of an untraceable poison, in case he should entertain the whim of murder). Following the suicide of Konrad, Suzanna's revelation of her pregnancy, and Severin's near-attempt at a pointless murder, he suddenly snaps and returns, repentant, to Zdenka, seemingly a changed man. A number of months later we rejoin Severin, fulfilled and happy in a life with Zdenka. But a number of changes await on the horizon, which lead to his eventual recidivism. Severin's illegitimate child is dead, Lazarus is broken, the season changes from Summer to Autumn, and with it comes a return of Severin's lust - in this case for beautiful and indifferent Mylada, who sings at a popular nightclub run by Karla and her new lover, secretive philosophical nihilist Nathan Meyer. Mylada takes Severin as her lover, and then rejects him, leading to a downward spiral of desperation and, much like Nikolaus before, Meyer takes Severin under his wing, revealing his desire to slowly corrupt the city through his debauched tavern, while offering Severin a variety of small bombs in case he is interested in sowing chaos more quickly...
I dug this. Severin is a much more interesting character, and the focus not just on decadent Prague, but on the whole city (the people, the architecture, the religious icons), as well as the tracking of the ups and downs of Severin's psyche, seemed more like a real novel (instead of a fevered wallow like "Daniel Jesus"), even if it was a still a Decadent one. Definitely a good read!
September 20, 2012
sublime decadence. Morbid beyond the star of redemption and infinitely sensitive, this is cool stuff for fans of Meyrink, Heym, Trakl - and another highly readable and accurate translation by Mike Mitchell.
May 2, 2025
Gustav Meyrink
Arthur Schnitzler
Leo Perutz
Arthur Schnitzler
Leo Perutz
January 31, 2017
Cruelty, sex and debauchery, and the search for meaning
This is an odd and disturbing little book that illuminates existential angst as distorted through a sexual lens. There are two novellas. The first, Daniel Jesus, is about (in his words) a hunchbacked dwarf whose immense wealth allows him to seek out experiences to rouse him out of his crippling ennui. Naturally, the only experiences up to the task involve cruelty, sex and debauchery. There’s also a dark, fiery theme of counter-religion (Madonna/whore concepts, perverse rituals, purity themes, etc.) just to complicate things.
The second novella, a two-parter, is Severin’s Road to Darkness. Severin is (compared to a Daniel Jesus) a relatively normal young man gripped by relatively normal ennui. Rather than embracing the darkness, he runs from it, bounding from lover to lover — and hurting each cruelly but mostly unintentionally, and ultimately due to his own weaknesses — to avoid facing his personal existential terror. He also flirts with suicide, kills a pet raven and fathers at least one child whom he abandons.
This book is a tough read but he does an exquisite job of capturing the mood (not sure if it was real, of course) of a dark and decadent pre-World War One Prague and of tapping into the often paralyzing angst of modern existence.
“Her love was blown away like dandelion seeds in the later-summer storms. But it left the poison of sadness in her soul, that great, never-ending sadness which only comes once in our lives, when our best days are gone, never to return.”
“The monotonous sameness of the days made his hands tremble. A leaden weariness gnawed at his temples and he pressed his eyeballs back into his skull until they hurt.”
“Since he had grown up and begun to earn his living, blank, bare walls had risen around him, blocking his view. Everywhere he looked he was surrounded by the stupefying routine of the everyday world.”
It’s a challenging book, and not for everyone, (“Anton, your wife is in the Villa Jesus, in bed with the rich humpback, kissing his hump as it were a crucifix.”), but it serves as a reminder (occasionally perverse) that the search for meaning, for experiences that jolt us out of our resting doldrums, is a constant in the human experience. And not even wicked orgies can ever completely fill that emptiness.
This is an odd and disturbing little book that illuminates existential angst as distorted through a sexual lens. There are two novellas. The first, Daniel Jesus, is about (in his words) a hunchbacked dwarf whose immense wealth allows him to seek out experiences to rouse him out of his crippling ennui. Naturally, the only experiences up to the task involve cruelty, sex and debauchery. There’s also a dark, fiery theme of counter-religion (Madonna/whore concepts, perverse rituals, purity themes, etc.) just to complicate things.
The second novella, a two-parter, is Severin’s Road to Darkness. Severin is (compared to a Daniel Jesus) a relatively normal young man gripped by relatively normal ennui. Rather than embracing the darkness, he runs from it, bounding from lover to lover — and hurting each cruelly but mostly unintentionally, and ultimately due to his own weaknesses — to avoid facing his personal existential terror. He also flirts with suicide, kills a pet raven and fathers at least one child whom he abandons.
This book is a tough read but he does an exquisite job of capturing the mood (not sure if it was real, of course) of a dark and decadent pre-World War One Prague and of tapping into the often paralyzing angst of modern existence.
“Her love was blown away like dandelion seeds in the later-summer storms. But it left the poison of sadness in her soul, that great, never-ending sadness which only comes once in our lives, when our best days are gone, never to return.”
“The monotonous sameness of the days made his hands tremble. A leaden weariness gnawed at his temples and he pressed his eyeballs back into his skull until they hurt.”
“Since he had grown up and begun to earn his living, blank, bare walls had risen around him, blocking his view. Everywhere he looked he was surrounded by the stupefying routine of the everyday world.”
It’s a challenging book, and not for everyone, (“Anton, your wife is in the Villa Jesus, in bed with the rich humpback, kissing his hump as it were a crucifix.”), but it serves as a reminder (occasionally perverse) that the search for meaning, for experiences that jolt us out of our resting doldrums, is a constant in the human experience. And not even wicked orgies can ever completely fill that emptiness.
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