This study is the first comprehensive appreciation of the largely underrated Austrian author Ferdinand von Saar (1833-1906). The textual analysis concentrates on his short stories, where he essays a discursive panorama of the late stages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite his idealistic desire for harmony he is increasingly overtaken by destructive forces. Identity and traditional gender roles threaten to collapse, a development reflected by the topographic localization of the texts in 19th century Vienna. Saar is one of the precursors of modernity around the turn of the century. But the...