Significant Moments: Part 14

"What must the sleepless nights of such a person be like? What occupied his thoughts?"
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Thursday, July 20, 1871).
He muttered without realizing what he was saying, and completely beside himself:
Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago.
You are not one of them . . . you and your tribe . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
He shook his head.
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime.
You are not one of them . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
And he left, . . .
Emile Zola, Germinal.
. . . clamping his teeth on his cigar . . .
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime.
Wagner . . .
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
(as though suddenly making up his mind)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . jumped up from the . . .
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
. . . table, . . .
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
. . . turned on his heel and walked away.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Anyone seeing . . .
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
. . . Wagner’s face . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . . at this moment . . .
Wilkie Collins, The Evil Genius.
. . . would have thought that all the painters had failed to portray the face of Mephistopheles.
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
There was a moment's silence. Then the uproar began.
Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago.
"Yes, yes, he's right!"
Emile Zola, Germinal.
Wagner's anti-Semitism? Despicable. Horrible. Unacceptable.
Daniel Barenboim, The Great Composers: Wagner.
"Oh yes, it's terrible, absolutely terrible."
J. Moussaieff Masson, Final Analysis.
As a musician, too, he was only what he was in general: he became a musician, he became a poet because the tyrant within him, his actor's genius, compelled him.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
I prefer to say that the man who has given us what he has musically lies certainly outside my range of understanding.
George Steiner, The Great Composers: Wagner.
. . . could anyone be quite sure of understanding such a man?
Franz Kafka, The Trial.
"What? Doesn't this mean . . . ?"
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
. . . mean it doesn't make me bitterly, bitterly disturbed, ill at ease[?] . . .
George Steiner, The Great Composers: Wagner.
To be sure . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
But that—to put it very vulgarly, if I may: that's my problem, and not his.
George Steiner, The Great Composers: Wagner.
Enough! Enough!
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
You do not know who Wagner is: a first-rate actor.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
Excuse me, but . . . I've often heard it said that an actor could give lessons to a preacher.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
O nonsense!
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
True, a trace of the old idealist tradition of the writer as teacher or prophet and preacher has clung to me. But I . . .
Hermann Hesse, Reflections.
Never mind.
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.
I place this perspective at the outset: Wagner's art is sick. The problems he presents on the stage—all of them problems of hysterics—the convulsive nature of his affects, his overexcited sensibility, his taste that required ever stronger spices . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
On ze contrary . . . !
Otto Rank, quoted in E. James Lieberman, Acts of Will.
To a well-prepared dish each ingredient is important down to the last pinch of salt. But this is not to say that each of the ingredients is of equal importance—
Bryan Magee, Aspects of Wagner.
Wagner's music is one of, as they say in the Law Court—it's Exhibit A.
George Steiner, The Great Composers: Wagner.
It may be time for his admirers to consider rescuing what is valuable in . . .
Gertrude Himmelfarb, Judging Richard Posner.
. . . Wagner’s music . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
. . . from the extravagances of the master himself.
Gertrude Himmelfarb, Judging Richard Posner.
—No, wait a moment!
Friedrich Nietzsche, On The Genealogy of Morals.
To say it plainly: Wagner does not give us enough to chew on. His recitativo—little meat, rather more bone, and a lot of broth—
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
Suddenly Wagner came back, red in the face and obviously angry.
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
Why, sir! What are you saying?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nòrnberg.
To be sure, . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Attempt at Self-Criticism.
. . . as far as the Wagnerian "leitmotif" is concerned, I lack all culinary understanding for that. If pressed, I might possibly concede it the status of an ideal toothpick, as an opportunity to get rid of remainders of food.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
General Grant . . .
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Sunday, July 15, 1877).
. . . took his ease, chewed his cigar, looked at the people coming and going like any other war veteran . . .
Gore Vidal, 1876: A Novel.
. . . come home . . .
James Joyce, Ulysses.
. . . to grow old, to sit on the courthouse steps of an evening and watch others live.
Gore Vidal, 1876: A Novel.
“Perhaps the gentleman . . .
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
. . . that, Professor?—
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table.
. . . is right.”
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
I doubt it.
Antonin Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law.
I well remember my first meeting with . . .
William H. Rehnquist, Foreword to Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan’s Enduring Influence.
. . . Nietzsche—what restlessness, what bizarreness, what severe psychopathology!
K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius.
‘Is this conflict really necessary?’
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court quoting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I was always of the opinion that in a group like ours we should speak so fully that no opportunity for argument should be provided by overmuch narrowness in the meaning of the things said.
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron.
Poor woman!
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
Her proposal . . .
Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters.
. . . was met by a few smiles but mostly by stony silence.
William O. Douglas, The Court Years: 1939-1975—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
She let it rest with that.
The Niebelungenlied.
What after all was the lady to do?
Harold Bloom, The Book of J.
“As I stood there . . .
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
. . . shredded bits of . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . the wordy wit . . .
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
. . . of Goethe . . .
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
—a singularly frivolous and whimsical fellow;—
Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
. . . came . . .
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
. . . murmuring . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . back to me.”
William O. Douglas, Go East Young Man: The Early Years—The Autobiography of William O. Douglas.
This casus makes me chuckle.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . said he; —
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
I was not surprised when . . .
Howard Zinn, Foreword to Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.
. . . Wagner, . . .
Dresden City Police Commission, Warrant for the Arrest of Richard Wagner for the Crime of Sedition.
. . . restless and . . .
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Tuesday June 8, 1869).
. . .annoyed, . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . jumps up from his chair and . . .
The Electronic Observer Online, Baldwin Screams: “We Would Stone Henry Hyde.”
. . . turns to . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . Goethe among others.
DuBois Learning Center, Shades of Black: Bert Williams.
Stop!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Oh, to have to bear this insanity . . .
The Diary of Richard Wagner—The Brown Book: 1865-1882.
. . . as though I . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
. . . was on trial and having a difficult time in court!
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Tuesday, June 27, 1882).
“A queer thing, that . . .
Homer, The Odyssey.
. . . one always has to go on chewing the same thing over and over!”
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Monday, March 6, 1871).
Wagner was beside himself and kept on . . .
Verwandlung: The Transformation Scenes in Wagner’s Parsifal.
. . . glaring at the others.
Joe Klein, In God They Trust.
His sharp eyes emitted the contempt and mockery of someone who knows everything better than everyone else but feels that the world begrudges him his success and refuses to acknowledge it out of envy.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, A Rabbi Not Like My Father.
How arrogant they seem, these gluttons, making free here in your house!
Homer, The Odyssey.
Indeed!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
And . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
What a hideous yelling!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
. . . raucous . . .
Franz Kafka, The Trial.
. . . loathsome . . .
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment.
. . . like the tune of a . . .
Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether.
. . . Rat-Catcher
Richard Wagner, Satirical Poem "To Georg Herwegh."
How these men weary me! They are ridiculous! They are altogether ridiculous!
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
Things are not well with me. My poor nerves!
The Diary of Richard Wagner—The Brown Book: 1865-1882.
". . . though I am accused of something, I cannot recall the slightest offense that might be charged against me. But that even is of minor importance, the real question is, who accuses me? What authority is conducting these proceedings? Are you officers of the law? None of you has a uniform, unless your suit"—here he turned to Franz—
Franz Kafka, The Trial.
. . . Liszt paid no attention.
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
“Tut!” says . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . the Abbe . . .
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
(to himself)
Lorenzo da Ponte, Cosi fan tutte.
. . . with something like contempt.
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
Heavens! My dear child married to an old man . . .
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . like this one.
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
What is it?
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
Liszt apparently replied that he shared . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, Hic Century.
. . . the opinion of the others . . .
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility.
. . . but could not, as a man of the cloth, be heard to say so publicly.
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, Hic Century.
Frau Cosima . . .
Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years.
. . . a deeply pained expression on her face . . .
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . turned to her father.
H.G. Wells, Soul of a Bishop.
Papa!
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
At half past eight the Italian salad will be served; so now is the prescribed moment for the Professor to go out into the wintry darkness to post his letters and take his daily quantum of fresh air and exercise.
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
Strauss joined us—
Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters.
God, Nietzsche! If only you had known him. He never laughed and always seemed taken aback by our jokes.
Cosima Wagner, Letter to Richard Strauss.
Yes, he has a sombre look.
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
One comes across queer ducks sometimes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
I realize now that there was something already wrong . . .
Janet Malcolm, In the Freud Archives.
. . . when he first . . .
Henry James, The Pupil.
. . . came to our house, ate nothing, said 'I am a vegetarian,' I said to him, 'You are an ass!'
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, January 14, 1882).
Actually, you called him Cottontail.
Simon Gray, Butley.
“So I did, so I did.”
Edgar B.P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings.
He had his diplomatic smile on—the one that makes him look exactly like a rabbit.
Simon Gray, Butley.
Raw pompous upstart!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
All the same, the presence of . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Tuesday, July 18, 1882).
George Eliot
Frederick R. Karl, George Eliot: Voice of a Century. A Biography.
. . . pleases him. He jokes with her about their writings: "The whole world reads yours, I read only my own, because in all others I find embarrassing contradictions. But not in mine—I do what the Talmud says about God, who reads the Bible."
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Tuesday, July 18, 1882).
George Eliot . . .
Frederick R. Karl, George Eliot: Voice of a Century. A Biography.
. . . started, half rose, listened a moment, then began to laugh and said:—
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.
A book that is completely without contradictions would be a rare achievement.
K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius.
R. is vexed . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Thursday, December 7, 1882).
One wonders whether Miss Eliot, who had recently written Daniel Deronda, discussed it with . . . Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . . her host . . .
Henry James, The Ambassadors.
. . . the author of Jewry in Music.
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
Visitors came and went.
Richard Wagner, Die Walkure.
Hermann Levi, the newlywed Gravinas, and the lanky Countess Usedom, who always amused the children by bending down to kiss their father's hand, in return for which she received a peck on the cheek.
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
Ivan Herzl, the celebrated young leading man at the Stadttheater . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . had to leave early—
Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes.