The Aristocrat

Originally published in 1928, The Aristocrat makes its first appearance in this country replete with glowing blurbs by Thomas Mann. It's a good book, but maybe Mann got a little carried away. The aristocrat of the title is Boetius Maria Dagobert von Orlamunde, the last representative of an ancient lineage, one ``just as good as that of the Habsburgs''. Unlike the Habsburgs, however, the Orlamundes are broke. When the novel begins in 1913, Boetius is a poor, somewhat overaged resident at a noble boys' school in Belgium where he has learned riding, fencing, swimming and the like while admitting: ``I cannot count properly, nor write quite without errors.'' What he does best is worry about death (usually referred to as ``D.''). Fearing that his fear of death undermines his nobility, he challenges himself by breaking a skittish horse and saving a drowning friend. But, faced with real danger when the school catches fire, Boetius loses his nerve. Suddenly homeless, he returns to his birthplace and bravely gets a manual job at a turbine factory. Here, he says, ``I no longer hunger for `tests'. I am in reality.'' Clearly, the broad hint here is that an 18-year-old wrestling with and conquering his fear of death in Europe circa 1913 is fate's fool. It's not enough of a device to support the loose narrative or Weiss's style, one of obsessive detailing at times worthy of Huysmans. (Aug.)