Andreas is an unfinished and posthumously-published novel of violence and naivety, pathos and melancholy. Set in the eighteenth century, it tells the story of a young Viennese aristocrat who intends to travel alone to Venice as the first stage of his 'Grand Tour';. On his journey, he acquires an unsavoury servant who unleashes a trail of destruction and violence, which taints and corrupts Andreas' first experience of love. Andreas' loss of innocence takes place in the misty alleyways and gloomy palaces of La Serenissima, whose masked inhabitants confuse and entice him, the women either madonnas or whores indistinguishable behind their masks.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) was a writer from a young age. He studied in Vienna, and along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, was a member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna (Jung Wien). After the First World War, he was devastated by the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1929 his son committed suicide, and two days later Hofmannsthal died of a stroke.
Andreas is an unfinished and posthumously-published novel of violence and naivety, pathos and melancholy. Set in the eighteenth century, it tells the story of a young Viennese aristocrat who intends to travel alone to Venice as the first stage of his 'Grand Tour';. On his journey, he acquires an unsavoury servant who unleashes a trail of destruction and violence, which taints and corrupts Andreas' first experience of love. Andreas' loss of innocence takes place in the misty alleyways and gloomy palaces of La Serenissima, whose masked inhabitants confuse and entice him, the women either madonnas or whores indistinguishable behind their masks.
Author
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) was a writer from a young age. He studied in Vienna, and along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, was a member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna (Jung Wien). After the First World War, he was devastated by the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1929 his son committed suicide, and two days later Hofmannsthal died of a stroke.
