AN UNHAPPY GENIUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN UNHAPPY GENIUS.

The life of a genius is commonly believed to be unhappy, partly because, uu no man may live to himself, tho genius, if ho is "horn before his time,' , is misunderstood and may be maligned. fn "Tho CJooseman" (Allen and Unwin), Jacob Wussenua.il has written of tho struggles, hardships and lovo affairs of a young musician in Nuremhurg in the nineteenth century. Daniel, the musician, is unusual from boyhood and ho suffers for it throughout iris life. Firefc his parents scorn hie musical ambitions, and when ho grows up he finds nobody who understands him, and only two — sisters—who are in full sympathy with him. Ho marries the sietcrs in turn, but poverty, mischance, the enmity of his associates and, above all, his own untractable temperament, combine to hamper his career and embitter him. The atmosphere of this novel ie gloomy, almost without relief. Even a. genius who fell short of the first rank might be expected to find periods of happiness, but of these there is scarcely a hint iu Daniel's life. The lesser characters, especially the mean-spirited ones, are all convincingly alive, and the story is carefully constructed and thoroughly written, but the mieeries of the central character are so acute and protracted as to bo almost unbearable. Nearly 300,000 copies of "The Gooseman" are reported to have been sold, which may go to show how different are tho temperament and tastes of the German reader from thoec 1 of the British.