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The congress dances: Vienna1814–1815George V. Strong aa College of William and Mary, Williamsburg,Virginia, USA

To cite this article: George V. Strong (1987): The congress dances: Vienna 1814–1815,History of European Ideas, 8:1, 103-103

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Book Rer’iervs 19

speculation about the meaning. In sum. if you do not iollow Descartes and bracket

mind, msaning and language, then I~OLI have no working alternative except to foIloh

Nistzschs, Heidegger and Dcrrida.

L:niversiry of Haifu

Ezra Talmor

The Congress Dances: 1.ienna 1811-1815. Susan Y.lnry .Alsop (New York: Harper & Rou.

1951). 178 pp.

The L’iennese Enlightenment. Murk Francis, ed. (X<w \I.ork: St Martin’s Press. 1985). I68

PP.

In her, T/W Cony~~s Daters. Susan Mary Alsop takes the reader from the twilight ofthe

great Napoleon to the close of the Congress of l’lenna. But other than giving a liveI>

description of events Ieadin g up to certain selected nocturnal acti\.ltles of members ofthe

great world, Alsop focuses on none of the great political events that took place during this

period. Xnd no more than half the book deals tvrth Vienna 181-l-15. So. for example,

Waterloo or the Hundred Days is \,irtually ignored ivhile many pages are given to the r.islt

of Czar Alexander I to Britain in the sprin g of ISI4 where he-along with the Prince

Regent-became \,ictlms in the quite personal intrigues of the Czar’s much beloved sister

(was their relationship incestuous’?). the Grand Duchess ofoldenburg. Indeed,ifthcre isa

1‘ocus in this reading. it is’on the great romp. The pages of this book are replete with

handsome, brave ].oung generals and beautiful young women of clever mind and

vivacious manner. 01‘ course the handsome young men are seeking love. and the women

arc of ca5y virtue. And so it was that the sexes came together very often. Not that there 1s

anything intrinsically wrong with such goings-on:aftcr all. one can hardly ha\e espected

dashing. brave diplomats to have been all work and no plav. Nevertheless. beyond the

sheets of the boudoir. one learns very little of what made the congress dance when its

members faced one another over green baize tables.

The I’iorrr~~sr En‘nlighrennwn~ contains seven essays, the bulk of Lbhich deals with what

has by now become de r~,~uerrr when one writes on Fin-de-Siide Vienna: Freud,

Schoenberg. Schnitzlrr as bvell as many allusions to the unseen presence of the Emperor

Franz Joseph I. Ne\srthelsss, these essays are useful as well as nicely written and

Informed. Moreover. a fe\v of them especially are thoughtful and incisive. But these

essays-and they are quite diverse in their content-are not for the casual reader ot

Habsburg history. One must be very familiar with time and place if one is to derive

understanding from these readings. Too. each aficionado of Habsburg history will have

his fa\,ourltc among these essays. For myself. I found S.A.M. Adshead’s analysis of the

components making up i’xnna’s //(ILII~~ Ho~r,yeocs/c at the turn of the century \‘erh

enlightening (S.:Y.41. .-\dsh<ad. ‘7%~ Genesis of the Imperial Mind’), I think Adshrad I:,

quite right in pointing out that the tenor of Viennese cultureat the turn of the century W;I~

in great part determined by the bort of bourgeoise that resided in the capital. Vienna’,

capltatlsm, .Ac!shead demonbtrates. ~vas ‘Olltist’--‘a l~~w technology. sweated labour

industry unlikeI> to attract a middle class at either Its upper or lower levels. Busine>>

~~1s either bureaucratic or banausrc.’ So the most lntrlllgent people in the Empire. and

thebe often loved in Vienna. rschc\ved business. But neither was politics open to them

and so [these circumstances] left them very little to do but think.’ .Adshead’s conclusions

do not quite bear out u hat both Schnitzler and Stsfan Zwei g had to sav on this matter.

Ne\,ertheless, I think .Adshead’s analysis very useful to anyone trying to comprehend the

soul of the culture of Fin-de-S/?c/c V~ennrl.

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Uncertain Dimensions. ltestem Overseas Empires in the Ttientieth C‘entur). Rl;mi>nd F

Bftts (Odor> L’nl\erslt> Press, 1985). 263 pp.. P.B. (‘7.95. H C. i:l9.3).

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