About the work
Der Ruf des Lebens ("The Call of Life") is a three-act play Arthur Schnitzler finished in September 1905 and dedicated to Hermann Bahr. It premiered in Russian translation in St. Petersburg on 20 February 1906, four days before the German-language premiere at Berlin's Lessingtheater on 24 February 1906; the book followed on 27 February 1906 from S. Fischer.
Plot
The 26-year-old Marie has spent years nursing her domineering, disabled father while a cavalry regiment prepares to march off to war. On the night before it leaves, she frees herself from his tyranny in a desperate act, so as to spend one last night with the young officer Max, who is almost certain to die in the coming battle.
Cultural significance
The title reads as an antiphrasis: almost every main character answers the 'call of life' with death. Unusually for a Schnitzler play, its world premiere was not in German at all, but in Russian translation in St. Petersburg.