
Anmerkung zur Transkription:
The book offers a sharp, tongue‑in‑cheek look at the tangled world of love, marriage and the expectations placed on women and men. Written in a cascade of brief, punchy observations, it mixes irony with genuine curiosity about human desire. The author’s voice feels both of its time—1920s Vienna—and oddly contemporary, turning everyday encounters into philosophical riddles.
In its pages you’ll hear a succession of witty maxims that treat topics like fidelity, vanity, and the rituals of courtship as a kind of laboratory experiment. Each line plays with contradictions, comparing a woman’s heart to a sea of tides or likening social mores to a “park of knowledge” that is off‑limits to the naïve. The rhythm of the prose invites the listener to pause, smile, and reconsider familiar clichés.
Listening to this collection feels like joining a salon where humor and insight trade places. The style makes it easy to dip in and out, while the underlying questions about authenticity and desire linger after the final sentence. Ideal for anyone who enjoys clever social commentary wrapped in a literary, poetic cadence.
Language
de
Duration
~23 minutes (22K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Alexander Bauer, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2011-03-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1868–1940
Austrian writer Alexander Engel moved easily between sharp, witty prose and the lively world of theater. His surviving work suggests a playful, satirical voice, with books and librettos that turn everyday relationships into clever performance.
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