"In this sparkling essay collection, Joachim Kalka delves into the mythos of the nineteenth century, exploring our fascination with its "auratic gaslight," its mingling of romanticism and modernity, enlightenment and darkness. "To gaze back at the nineteenth century is to confront an era which. easily inspires a kind of sentimental scorn. And yet in this era's depths lie all the things that grin at us today with the Medusa's gaze of the unsolvable...