The central figure in this portrait of a crumbling society giving birth to the modern world without realizing it was Wittgenstein the brilliant and gifted young thinker whose great book remains the key to modern thought (as Freud's researches remain the key to modern psychology) and who went on to influence a whole generation of English thinkers, artists and scientists. As a portrait of a man, this book is superbly realized. It is even better as a portrait of the age and milieu in which our modern ideas were born-not only in philosophy, but in art, music, literature, architecture, design and style.
The life and culture of Hapsburg, Vienna before World War I--the city of Freud, Schoenberg, Klimt, and Wittgenstein, whose philosophy announced the birth of the modern era.