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Hashish
First published in German in 1902, Hashish is a collection of decadent, interwoven tales of Satanism, eroticism, sadism, cannibalism, necrophilia and death.
Encountering the enigmatic dandy Count Vittorio Alta-Carrara in a Parisian eatery, the narrator finds himself invited to a “Hashish Club,” where in the dim light of red-filtered candles, a roomful of “recumbent wanderers” explores the abyss of the unconscious. The narrator and the count don a variety of identities as they in turn enter the narratives, sometimes participating in them, other times merely observing them from the vantage point of a shifting divan. Engaging in romantic liaisons with masks and cadavers, taking part in Satanic orgies and carnivals, plotting blasphemy and riding carriages through cityscapes where time loses its bearings, the protagonists draw the reader into their narrative and psychological unmooring.
A forgotten yet important chapter in the lineage of German fantastic and decadent literature, this translation of Hashish is illustrated throughout with drawings by the author’s brother-in-law, Alfred Kubin, from the book’s second, 1913 German edition.
Encountering the enigmatic dandy Count Vittorio Alta-Carrara in a Parisian eatery, the narrator finds himself invited to a “Hashish Club,” where in the dim light of red-filtered candles, a roomful of “recumbent wanderers” explores the abyss of the unconscious. The narrator and the count don a variety of identities as they in turn enter the narratives, sometimes participating in them, other times merely observing them from the vantage point of a shifting divan. Engaging in romantic liaisons with masks and cadavers, taking part in Satanic orgies and carnivals, plotting blasphemy and riding carriages through cityscapes where time loses its bearings, the protagonists draw the reader into their narrative and psychological unmooring.
A forgotten yet important chapter in the lineage of German fantastic and decadent literature, this translation of Hashish is illustrated throughout with drawings by the author’s brother-in-law, Alfred Kubin, from the book’s second, 1913 German edition.
134 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1902
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About the author
Oscar A.H. Schmitz
48 books11 followersOscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz was a sought after German social writer and member of the Munich Bohème.
Schmitz contributed significantly to the development of fantastic literature with his narrative work Hashisch, published in 1902. It plays with taboo topics such as eroticism, Satanism, sadism, religion, death and intoxication.
With his brother-in-law, the graphic artist and illustrator Alfred Kubin, he travelled throughout Europe, North Africa and Russia, as well as Munich, Salzburg, Rome, Paris and Berlin.
Schmitz contributed significantly to the development of fantastic literature with his narrative work Hashisch, published in 1902. It plays with taboo topics such as eroticism, Satanism, sadism, religion, death and intoxication.
With his brother-in-law, the graphic artist and illustrator Alfred Kubin, he travelled throughout Europe, North Africa and Russia, as well as Munich, Salzburg, Rome, Paris and Berlin.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 10, 2018
If you've read more than a few older literary books, especially those written by the useless dandies with more desire for a sensuous life than sense, then you've read this. That's not to say it's bad, though.
The "story" is not really a story. It's more like a young man's repressed fantasies of sex, orgies, esoteric things, and pretentiousness all jumbled into a series of short stories. You know, the kind where you're bored so you imagine yourself doing something crazy, but get so far before your brain runs out of scenario and just comes back to normal. Exactly like that. But more set with the bohemian mixed with Gothic aesthetic that was once so popular among the rich and useless.
Regardless, the stories were amusing. It was a bounce between a dream and soft eroticism, mixed up with some of the young man's fantasies about being with women of mystery and being mysterious himself. In one of the short stories he fucked a woman to death as she died of consumption. Of course, everything was described as elegant.... because that's the way it has to be if you're a dandy. I don't know if anyone sane would call the corpse beautiful after a night of decomposing, but hey, I've only known normal, sane people.
The "story" is not really a story. It's more like a young man's repressed fantasies of sex, orgies, esoteric things, and pretentiousness all jumbled into a series of short stories. You know, the kind where you're bored so you imagine yourself doing something crazy, but get so far before your brain runs out of scenario and just comes back to normal. Exactly like that. But more set with the bohemian mixed with Gothic aesthetic that was once so popular among the rich and useless.
Regardless, the stories were amusing. It was a bounce between a dream and soft eroticism, mixed up with some of the young man's fantasies about being with women of mystery and being mysterious himself. In one of the short stories he fucked a woman to death as she died of consumption. Of course, everything was described as elegant.... because that's the way it has to be if you're a dandy. I don't know if anyone sane would call the corpse beautiful after a night of decomposing, but hey, I've only known normal, sane people.
December 7, 2018
I'm a fan of the Wakefield Press, a publisher of beautiful little paperback editions of all-but-lost literature, mostly European and from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. This volume contains stories, mostly reprinted from a single slender volume, by a minor German litterateur writing in the tradition of French decadents of the Huysmans and Mirbeau school. The stories form a sort of whole and are slight but effective. I especially liked "The Messenger," about an aging rake seduced by a ghastly prostitute who might be either death herself or merely the beginning of disenchantment. Schmitz apparently saw himself as an ancestor of Meyrink and Ewers, though he lacks the intelligence of the former and the nasty edge of the latter. The book features a jacket and interior illustrations by Alfred Kubin, the author's brother-in-law, and is recommended for anyone with a taste for absinthe, the titular intoxicant, and an interest in the lurid twilight of the 19th Century.
August 18, 2024
An amusing novella of macabre Satanic decadence from 1902 with a handful of brilliant sentences scattered throughout.
March 16, 2019
In addition to its rather bleak subject matter, this collection of short stories had a couple of funny passages:
“These actors, half-degenerate talents, were devoted to the only panacea that exists against the oppression of English life: whiskey.” “The Devil’s Lover” (pg. 21).
““By the way, without you recognizing them, many messengers of death like me must have already come through here to have produced this pervasive smell of corpses.” “None, you damned animal.” I shouted at her.” “The Message” (pg. 101).
“The Devil’s Lover” was reminiscent of The Damned by Joris-Karl Huysmans with the emphasis on incubi. The unnamed lady is like Madame Chantelouve in her devil worship and instance on writing letters.
“The Sin Against the Holy Ghost” was my favorite of the short stories. It remined me of Against Nature as well as The Damned from its depiction of the Black Mass and focus on Salome as a symbol.
Oscar A.H. Schmitz’s preface is also evocative of the Oscar Wilde’s Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. The idea that art has no moral purpose. The afterword states that Schmitz was an admirer of Wilde. Even though you can see Huysmans and Wilde’s influence in these stories, it does not take away from them. If you like Huysmans and Wilde, you will probably like Schmitz too. The story, “The Carnival” is particularly disturbing after a second read.
Like another reviewer mentioned, Octave Mirbeau is not mentioned as an influence in the afterword. However, you could almost see these stories as being shared in the same circle that The Torture Garden was in.
“These actors, half-degenerate talents, were devoted to the only panacea that exists against the oppression of English life: whiskey.” “The Devil’s Lover” (pg. 21).
““By the way, without you recognizing them, many messengers of death like me must have already come through here to have produced this pervasive smell of corpses.” “None, you damned animal.” I shouted at her.” “The Message” (pg. 101).
“The Devil’s Lover” was reminiscent of The Damned by Joris-Karl Huysmans with the emphasis on incubi. The unnamed lady is like Madame Chantelouve in her devil worship and instance on writing letters.
“The Sin Against the Holy Ghost” was my favorite of the short stories. It remined me of Against Nature as well as The Damned from its depiction of the Black Mass and focus on Salome as a symbol.
Oscar A.H. Schmitz’s preface is also evocative of the Oscar Wilde’s Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. The idea that art has no moral purpose. The afterword states that Schmitz was an admirer of Wilde. Even though you can see Huysmans and Wilde’s influence in these stories, it does not take away from them. If you like Huysmans and Wilde, you will probably like Schmitz too. The story, “The Carnival” is particularly disturbing after a second read.
Like another reviewer mentioned, Octave Mirbeau is not mentioned as an influence in the afterword. However, you could almost see these stories as being shared in the same circle that The Torture Garden was in.
January 5, 2019
German author who went to France and was engrossed with the French Decadent Movement writes the most incredible tales of decadence. The ways his stories just flow together, episodic, just kept me completely engrossed throughout the telling. One of the first drug books, mixed with Satanic overtones and sadism. Truly one to be read and re-read.
For a more in depth review please go to my blog here ... https://aarons-poetry-page.com/2018/0...
For a more in depth review please go to my blog here ... https://aarons-poetry-page.com/2018/0...
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May 8, 2024blurb makes it sound way cooler than it actually is
May 23, 2021
Oscar Schmitz brother-in-law Alfred Kubin designs the cover of this wandering ode to decadent art. Kubin's drawings pepper the pages throughout - vertical lines melting like fresh wax compliment chaotic faces and objects roaming every corner and causing a dark confusion and mystery perfectly suited for, although not as awesome, as the content of this collection of loosely linked decadent tales.
A good number of characters familiar to fans of the literature, music, and art from the end of the preceding decade are present. However, rather than a simple retelling of the real-world aspects and characters from other books or scenes and motifs lifted from art or music, Oscar Schmitz gathers these beings and scenes and atmospheres into what feels akin to dropping in to smoke some hash, being given opium, struggling to maintain thought and visuals and memory as an eager, albeit elusive, figure passes the time with stories. Masks, sex, drugs, the city at night, mysterious women, satanic happenings, satan-loving dandies, and more, all shot at the reader in a chemical fog with a short duration.
It's not, as others have remarked, like other books of this kind. Take any book written by a French symbolist. It must be those damn Germans with their heads up their lab equipment and their fancying a bit more sentimentality than even the French? It doesn't read like other texts written by writers from these parts about the people and places and topics contained within, and to minimize and attempt to fit this in neatly with any school of art is lazy and says next to nothing about the value of or the content within this book. So I'll say no more.
A good number of characters familiar to fans of the literature, music, and art from the end of the preceding decade are present. However, rather than a simple retelling of the real-world aspects and characters from other books or scenes and motifs lifted from art or music, Oscar Schmitz gathers these beings and scenes and atmospheres into what feels akin to dropping in to smoke some hash, being given opium, struggling to maintain thought and visuals and memory as an eager, albeit elusive, figure passes the time with stories. Masks, sex, drugs, the city at night, mysterious women, satanic happenings, satan-loving dandies, and more, all shot at the reader in a chemical fog with a short duration.
It's not, as others have remarked, like other books of this kind. Take any book written by a French symbolist. It must be those damn Germans with their heads up their lab equipment and their fancying a bit more sentimentality than even the French? It doesn't read like other texts written by writers from these parts about the people and places and topics contained within, and to minimize and attempt to fit this in neatly with any school of art is lazy and says next to nothing about the value of or the content within this book. So I'll say no more.
June 7, 2019
Initially I was very excited to discover a 'new' decadent work and writer, especially one illustrated by Alfred Kubin whose visionary novel 'The Other Side' is a weird and wonderful classic from that period. However it was a most disappointing and unsatisfying read. There is something inconsistent and deadening in the writing that I suspect has been the failure of the translator rather than the author.
The banality and incongruous modernity that drains all character and sensibility from the writing is surely the product of our century, not turn of the century Europe. I am now determined to find a translator who is in sympathy with the spirit of the text. A dandy of any age is surely more poetic and refined in their use of language than the writer misrepresented in this translation.
Which is even more disappointing because of the care lavished on this edition by Wakefield Press. It is a beautiful object in itself and the design of the book is exemplary.
The banality and incongruous modernity that drains all character and sensibility from the writing is surely the product of our century, not turn of the century Europe. I am now determined to find a translator who is in sympathy with the spirit of the text. A dandy of any age is surely more poetic and refined in their use of language than the writer misrepresented in this translation.
Which is even more disappointing because of the care lavished on this edition by Wakefield Press. It is a beautiful object in itself and the design of the book is exemplary.
July 18, 2023
Perhaps one of the worst books I have ever read? I found this little volume sealed in plastic wrap, and with a blurb promising 'interweaving tales of Satanism, eroticism, sadism, cannibalism, necrophilia, and death' I expected something genuinely shocking. All I experienced was complete and utter boredom.
Also, a charming little quote from the author in the preface to the fourth edition:
"French society became so free and witty because young girls were strictly excluded. English society is so boring and monotonous because "spinsters" have to be involved in everything."
I'd tell him to jump off a bridge if he wasn't long dead already. Rot in pieces, Oscar. You were a misogynist, a hack, and a terrible writer. If I could physically unread a book, it would be this one, you foppish try-hard.
Also, a charming little quote from the author in the preface to the fourth edition:
"French society became so free and witty because young girls were strictly excluded. English society is so boring and monotonous because "spinsters" have to be involved in everything."
I'd tell him to jump off a bridge if he wasn't long dead already. Rot in pieces, Oscar. You were a misogynist, a hack, and a terrible writer. If I could physically unread a book, it would be this one, you foppish try-hard.
June 19, 2019
Dandy fop Oscar Schmitz, writing of narcotized fin de siecle Paris, makes a strong case for adventuring with loose friends who know where to score rich, moist hashish chunks. And then he dreams. And then he writes about his dreams. This was a popular short book by a German whose career took off shortly after its publication, in the early years of the twentieth century. If you like bizarre, dusty, vague, non-linear stuff, you might enjoy this. I have a strong feeling that Hermann Hesse fell hard for this: "MAGIC THEATER. ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY. FOR MADMEN ONLY!"
November 2, 2021
i rlly rlly liked it! this was supposed to be my spooky read of the month but sadly finished it too late😵💫 i enjoyed it in a very “ what am i reading” kind of way. i reread most of the stories twice bc of the old language and i rlly wanted to 100% understand it. my favs were a night in the 18th century, carnival, and the message. honestly all of them were great, but those were the ones i enjoyed the most.
May 28, 2019
Kind of like Steppenwolf meets the Decameron. Easy read, somewhat entertaining but not really as edgy as it purports to be.
June 3, 2020
Time traveling, corpse humping, aphrodisiac fueled orgies of sex and murder, and the ruination of all things innocent. All in all, a good time.
July 31, 2022
A collection of tales swirling in something like the atmosphere of Huysmans. Ends weaker than it's great early passages, so I'm glad the fantastic "Smuggler's Pass" is included at the end.
June 2, 2024
So so good. I don’t understand why this hasn’t had a lot more attention from bigger publishers/bookshops.
September 26, 2024
I really enjoyed this, perfect book to read on a rainy day. Very dark and gothic and at times had me just feeling kinda icky but over all very interesting story
March 28, 2020
Hashish is a collection of short vignettes based around the unnamed narrator’s desire to seize life by embracing all aspects of decadence and depravity—all while remaining thoroughly languid, elegant and cultured.
There’s something amusing about the narrator’s pretentiousness. He seeks transgressions and taboos with the lofty dedication of someone who goes to the opera every week because it’s “improving.” How much of this is intentional is up for debate, but I was surprised by the humour in the writing. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole book. The blurb promised eroticism and cannibalism, but given that it was written in 1902 I was prepared for floral descriptions of lady’s racy ankles and bloodstained daggers dressed up in polite euphemisms. However, Hashish delivers some genuine twists and shocks:
Which, honestly, I was not prepared for.
The stories vary—Smuggler’s Pass is the most notably different, having more of a fairytale than a gothic feel—but they all contain a certain longing. The narrator(s) searching for meaning, whether through watching peasant orgies or pursuing erotic affairs with masked strangers, gives an oddly wistful tone to this collection of horror and weirdness.
I would recommend giving Hashish a go if you like oddness, humour, and a certain level of grotesque.
There’s something amusing about the narrator’s pretentiousness. He seeks transgressions and taboos with the lofty dedication of someone who goes to the opera every week because it’s “improving.” How much of this is intentional is up for debate, but I was surprised by the humour in the writing. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole book. The blurb promised eroticism and cannibalism, but given that it was written in 1902 I was prepared for floral descriptions of lady’s racy ankles and bloodstained daggers dressed up in polite euphemisms. However, Hashish delivers some genuine twists and shocks:
As the fury of the organ thundered down, Teresa was compelled to wilder and wilder dancing. She flung away the platter with the head and in sudden inspiration found within herself the Asian dancers’ pensive, articulated turns of limb. She presented her open sex to the bright candles and, with a violent gesture, tore away the flower of her virginity, so that her white body bled on the red rubies.
Which, honestly, I was not prepared for.
The stories vary—Smuggler’s Pass is the most notably different, having more of a fairytale than a gothic feel—but they all contain a certain longing. The narrator(s) searching for meaning, whether through watching peasant orgies or pursuing erotic affairs with masked strangers, gives an oddly wistful tone to this collection of horror and weirdness.
I would recommend giving Hashish a go if you like oddness, humour, and a certain level of grotesque.
December 17, 2024
This short book was published in 1902 in Germany and it’s primarily a weird dive into the world of drug use, hedonism, and the darker tendencies of man. The protagonist in this story begins taking a hallucinogenic drug called Hashish after a chance meeting with an acquaintance who invites him to a special club. The rest of the tale is a series of short stories either experienced by the protagonist or told by other guests of the club who are also under the influence of Hashish.
At times these short stories are thought provoking and surprising, sometimes they are about sex with masked women, some are about God and the devil and orgies, some are about death, one is just about a guy bragging a lot, one is about prostitutes and suppressed male rage, one is about necrophilia. It’s sort of all over the place.
These stories aren’t always good, sometimes they are, but other times they are quite a rough read. Maybe that’s a byproduct of the 100+ year age of the book, maybe it’s because the values of the times are outdated. And the stories don’t have an obvious purpose. The author leaves you to determine that on your own.
And my conclusion is that Hashish is about the unfiltered animalism of humanity that we all feel at some point in our lives, but that isn’t discussed openly in wider society. Maybe drugs are one way of tapping into these primal urges, or maybe drugs are an urge on their own. Either way the author is trying to invite you to dip your toes into this part of humanity just to see how it feels.
At times these short stories are thought provoking and surprising, sometimes they are about sex with masked women, some are about God and the devil and orgies, some are about death, one is just about a guy bragging a lot, one is about prostitutes and suppressed male rage, one is about necrophilia. It’s sort of all over the place.
These stories aren’t always good, sometimes they are, but other times they are quite a rough read. Maybe that’s a byproduct of the 100+ year age of the book, maybe it’s because the values of the times are outdated. And the stories don’t have an obvious purpose. The author leaves you to determine that on your own.
And my conclusion is that Hashish is about the unfiltered animalism of humanity that we all feel at some point in our lives, but that isn’t discussed openly in wider society. Maybe drugs are one way of tapping into these primal urges, or maybe drugs are an urge on their own. Either way the author is trying to invite you to dip your toes into this part of humanity just to see how it feels.
August 8, 2023
This is a hard book to review - it was at times an enjoyable read: it is creepy and engaging, but it really steps over the line quite a bit into 'what the hell' territory, with some pretty taboo stuff. I'm talking necrophilia and rape. It is always a bit unclear as to what Schmitz/ the narrator thinks of these things, but you kind of get a nagging feeling he is fairly ambivalent at best which means that it hard really to enjoy this book for its narrative properties. That being said as a piece of fiction that revels in its own distaste, it can be appreciated for its experimental nature and it certainly was entertaining in sections.
February 16, 2021
Forgot I'd read this volume. Picked it up and got nearly half way through before I realized I'd read it a year back. Still, I enjoyed rereading it. From a chance encounter with an acquaintance in a restaurant, Schmitz takes the reader on a journey through vignettes of depraved episodes of history, ending up back at his apartment.
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