SOURCE: "A Writer's Cache: Robert Walser's Prose Microscripts," in Robert Walser Rediscovered: Stories, Fairy-Tale Plays, and Critical Responses, edited by Mark Harmon, University Press of New England, 1985, pp. 153-68.

In the essay below, Avery attempts to explain why Walser wrote in microscript and discusses how the prose microscripts provide an understanding of Walser himself.

Early in 1913 Walser left Berlin, the unchallenged capital of German literature, persuaded that he had failed as a novelist. The decision to leave Berlin was probably as fateful for Walser's literary fortunes as it was necessary and inevitable for his equanimity and self-esteem. Ironically enough, the subsequent narrowing of Walser's reputation is most evident from the beginning of the twenties on, coinciding with the artistically successful attempt to broaden the scope of his writing after moving to Bern in 1921. Only Die Rose, a collection of "difficult" prose, appeared in the twenties—in Germany. Walser's...