Schneewinkl, 28.7.1929

Dearest Lou

You will with your usual acuteness have guessed why I have been so long in answering your letter. Anna has already told you that I am working on something, and today I have written the last sentence, which—so far as is possible without a library—finished the work.206 It deals with civilization, sense of guilt, happiness and similar lofty topics, and strikes me, no doubt rightly, as very superfluous—in contrast to earlier works, which always sprang from some inner necessity. But what else can I do? One can't smoke and play cards all day, I am no longer much good at walking, and most of what there is to read doesn't interest me any more. So I wrote, and in that way the time passed quite pleasantly. In writing this work I have discovered afresh the most banal truths.

Th. Mann's essay is certainly an honour. It gives me the impression that he had an essay on Romanticism ready to hand, when