Dream Story

Dream Story • Arthur Schnitzler

⭑ 6.4 Stars

Ever since I saw the film Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, I’ve been meaning to read the source material - this novella. The film is one of my all-time favorites, but the written form didn’t quite elicit the same reaction from me.

Despite the impressively detailed plot similarities between both works, there are inescapable differences that make it challenging to consider them equal. Having seen the Kubrick version multiple times, I’ve grown fond of his modern American take on a psychological journey. In Schnitzler’s 1926 version, I grappled with the vastly different 20th Century European setting that acts as the foundation to a slightly augmented visualization of Dr. Fridolin’s adventure.