'Fenitschka' and 'Deviations'

The author of these two novellas, Lou Andreas Salom, is not as well known through her own writing as through her friendships with such men as Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, et al. and on whom she had significant influence. As one of the first women to study at a European university, her relationships with men differed vastly from those of other women of her time, and one might count her among the avant-garde of the women's movement. Fenitschka, the first of the two stories in this volume, is based on an experience in Lou Salom's life which gave rise to the libretto of the better known of two operas, Lulu by Alan Berg. The second opera entitled Deviations was written only a few years ago by the Italian composer and conductor Guiseppe Sinopoli. Whereas the first work bears only a very slightand less than favorableresemblance to the character of this exceptional woman, the second, though not a chronological account of her life, captures her spirit much more faithfully and once again bears witness to the fact that she aroused and stimulated the creativity of those whose lives she touched.