[Strauss] can write very well indeed, and this is not a small compliment to bestow. His language [in Die Widmung (Devotion)] is clear, precise and modern…. [The] few encounters with people which his pathetic and isolated hero Richard conjures up in retrospect … stir the reader's imagination, and there are a number of fine aphoristic thoughts.

However, Richard's problems are less convincing. He is mourning the loss of his girl friend H., who walked out on him one day without giving any reasons. This event has thrown him into such a state of confusion that he hides in his apartment, gives up his job in a bookshop and even stops buying food. He comes down step by step, until he is a human wreck. Finally he decides to give an account of his sufferings. (Therefore, it seems, the wavering between "I" and "he" in the narrative.) When he does...