A kingdom not of this world

About this book

This book challenges prevalent understandings of elite artistic culture in fin-de-siècle Vienna by examining creative manifestations of utopian imaginings that ran counter and parallel to the cultural pessimism widely diagnosed in that society. It argues that the music and writings of Richard Wagner played a key role in inspiring such imagining, which either embraced and extended Wagner's own visions or countered them with visions that were wholly new.