About the Author

Peter Gay (1923—2015) was the author of more than twenty-five books, including the National Book Award winner The Enlightenment, the best-selling Weimar Culture, and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time.

Reviews

"Through Gay's eyes we can get a warmer, more vivid and more accurate sense of the 'bourgeois experience' than has ever been available before." Sunday Telegraph "Schnitzler's Century is really a love story. [Gay's] latest book allows him to show off in a field he has made his own. [He] takes his chance elegantly and always interestingly." Andrew Lycett, Literary Review "Gay's own psychoanalytical approach is shown to brilliant and convincing effect... Schnitzler's Century [is] told with wisdom, wit and sensitivity." Financial Times

"Through Gay's eyes we can get a warmer, more vivid and more accurate sense of the 'bourgeois experience' than has ever been available before." Sunday Telegraph "Schnitzler's Century is really a love story. [Gay's] latest book allows him to show off in a field he has made his own. [He] takes his chance elegantly and always interestingly." Andrew Lycett, Literary Review "Gay's own psychoanalytical approach is shown to brilliant and convincing effect... Schnitzler's Century [is] told with wisdom, wit and sensitivity." Financial Times

The author of The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, Freud: A Life for Our Time, and many other works, Gay takes a fresh look at the 19th century and challenges long-held assumptions about the Victorian age. In this sweeping and provocative survey, Gay uses Viennese playwright Arthur Schnitzler as his guide to exploring the erotic and unconventional currents of bourgeois life in Europe and the United States. He weaves together strands of philosophy, psychology, literature, science, religion, and domestic practices, and the narrative frequently spins off into unexpected territory. For example, Gay offers a delightful discourse on Victorian anxiety, its causes, and its cures. The book can be seen as a distillation of and companion to Gay's five-volume series, "The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud," but it clearly stands alone as a vital contribution to modern history. Recommended for academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/01.]-Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib, Lancaster, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.