Schnitzler's Century

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Queen Victoria has long been seen as the emblem of the nineteenth century, but Peter Gay, a prominent cultural historian, argues that the sexually liberated Viennese playwright Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) better represents this era. In nine interconnected chapters, Gay draws on three decades of extensive research to offer a fresh perspective on the nineteenth-century middle class, exploring its passions, politics, religion, and anxieties. His examination extends back to 1815, marking the end of the Napoleonic era, and spans a century that saw the rise of the middle class and the development of a culture that persists today. Gay captures the complexity of the period, revealing the coexistence of superstition and science, cruelty and humanity, anxiety and Eros. By investigating bourgeois life from Philadelphia to Moscow and London to Rome, he identifies a common Victorian style across the Western world, despite local variations. This work is not mere revisionism but a quest for truth about the past. With Schnitzler as a guide, Gay offers new insights into familiar subjects, illuminating an age that significantly shaped our modern identity.