Other Fiction Wilson, Romer: Martin Schüler V1.01. 21 July 2014

[forcheville]

Romer Wilson (born Florence Roma Muir Wilson (married name O'Brien); 26 December 1891 in Sheffield, 11 January 1930 in Lausanne) was a British writer. In 1921 she won the Hawthornden Prize for "The Death of Society".

Her first novel "Martin Schüler", originated from a short story, an early draft was recued from the waste-paper bin by a friend who persuaded Wilson to complete it. It was published to a chorus of praise in the British press. The American reception was more muted.

Summary: Romer Wilson's first novel is a study in the life of Genius, a theme that would preoccupy her throughout her life. The eponymous Martin Schüler is a young German composer of genius in the years leading up to the Great War. His great passion is to create one magnificent work that will live forever. With his passions so consumed in his art, he makes sacrifices in his human relationships, going through a series of wrenching, unequal love affairs. The novel is of interest not only for Schüler's lifelong struggle to reconcile his fleshly desires with his lust for fame, but also for the Continental setting as Europe falls toward catastrophe. ( by Expatriate at LibriVox)

From a review in The New Republic, March 1919:

"No one is going to like this novel who is repelled by intense self-consciousness. "Romer Wilson" is manifestly a clever writer, but a writer so intensely self-conscious that her first book is stiff and unnatural from beginning to end. This stiffness and unnaturalness are, however, a large part of its charm. It is perhaps a pity that the extirpation of the commonplace should be so evident.
It is even more a pity that there should be so much sharp clarity when the accent of life is so often rumbled and blurred and confused. Yet the mere fact that the simplicity of Martin Schüler is a forced simplicity, with a characterization not notably human; ought not to deter any adventurous reader. The book gains something by being so extraordinarily considered. It is beautiful not merely in the texture of its feeling but in the exacting precision and fierce deletions of its narrative, permitting the reader to infer the many-sidedness of Martin Schüler but never permitting him to escape from a poetic concentration. The book is one to be read at a sitting and to be enjoyed as a decoration rather than as a criticism of life. A decoration it genuinely can claim to be, with immense promise in it of fine creation later on."

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.

[forcheville]

Version 1.01 small number of improvements to style-sheet. Text unchanged.