From the 1780s to World War II.

A city without Jews.

A tale of coffee and sadomasochism.

Ironists of a vanished empire.

Nazi attitudes even survived the Third Reich.

It focuses on the affluent families of the Ringstrasse, not on poverty or anti-Semitism.

After discovering letters from her grandfather’s old lover, a writer tries to track her down.

A writer takes a Jewish “heritage tour” through Central Europe.

The famed elegist of turn-of-the-century Vienna has sparked renewed interest. Is it because he sustains the dream—or, rather, the fantasy—of a Europe that never was. . .