Austria Books

Marcia Davenport's Mozart has long been a well-known and well-liked biography, one still readable and important despite more recent corrections and detailed information not then available. If one has seen `Amadeus,' the outlines of the story will be familiar.

And yet, few books on Mozart are as enjoyable of a read. Davenport tries not just to tell us the what and when of Mozart's life, but engages in what comes across as a sincere and sensitive inquiry into his feelings, his emotions and motivations, as best as can be divined at this distance. His childhood - if one can call it that - and travels about Europe with his father are covered in minute detail, his letters analyzed, his friendships and connections thoughtfully described. I especially enjoyed the Austrian accent in the purported conversations...they seemed to make him still more human.

The story does follow Mozart's musical accomplishments, but this is primarily about the man. There are other books that analyze note for note Mozart's works; this book is confined to personal biography. In the end, of course, it is a tragically short story. Mozart's break from his father proved in many ways to be his break from real life, and this proved to be a young man totally unequipped to deal with life on his own. A person of such staggering talent, his personality so lopsided, at heart good but defenseless, he dies at the peak of his musical powers and at the nadir of his personal and mental composure. The end as Davenport describes is quite very moving and the reader will be touched emotionally.

Davenport was a biographer with tremendous personal empathy and insight, and she writes most touchingly and with great skill. This is not the absolute last word in accuracy or completeness, but it is nonetheless important to understanding the genius that was Mozart.

This book has so much information about the life of Mozart. Marcia Davenport has a great way of pulling all the information together in a timely fashion. A real touching book. Highly recommended. A great read but a sad story.

Davenport gets the chronology of several non-musical events wrong--for example, the Mozarts' infant son died while his parents were visiting in Salzburg, not before they left. It's as if she wants to make them into the people she thinks they should be. The great thing is that this biography reads like a novel in many places, with inner monolog and dialog fleshing out many scenes. On the other hand, it reads like a novel, not a scholarly work. It's gotten a bit dated since 1932, but it's still a pretty fun read. She has a refreshingly positive view of Constanze and even Salieri.

Marcia Davenport's "Mozart" is indeed wonderfully written and truly was a labor of love. She has a gift for drawing the reader into the book; her wit (and, on occasion, biases) can be noted throughout the book. Davenport doesn't get you to know ABOUT Mozart; she gets the reader to KNOW him.
The reader will find himself emotionally attached to Mozart. He or she will rejoice when he rejoices and will feel sorrow when the Austrian prodigy felt sorrow (which, sadly, was not uncommon.) I truly enjoyed reading this book...

...which is why I'm sorry to say that it is not the best biography.

The work is contains many myths and legends that were masqueraded (often by musicologists) as facts in the past. The author makes use of a letter ("Letter to Baron B.") that was proven fraudulent. This particular letter, concocted by a Friedrich Rochlitz in the early 19th century, was dubbed a forgery even before Davenport's time. (Mozart's first reliable biographer, Otto Jahn, acknowledged this.)

This is not to discredit Davenport; she researched all she could. Again, many otherwise reliable musicologists of Davenport's day regarded the above, as well as other myths and legends found in the Davenport biography, as bona fide information. Many other biographers fell victim to this: Alfred Einstein and Maynard Solomon included. It wasn't until the 1980's that further research revealed that many so-called facts about Mozart were nothing more than myth, and that musicologists and biographers alike put a stop to myth-propagation.

I recommend the reader study this book alongside a biography written within the last decade or so... or better yet, obtain a copy of "The Mozart Myths: a Critical Reassessment" by William Stafford. It will allow the reader to filter the fiction from the fact in "Mozart".

With all this said, "Mozart" truly is a wonderful book, even though it isn't an excellent biography. If you're willing to study "Mozart" and compare it to more authoritative works as you're reading it, you should definitely purchase it. I think you'll find that, despite its shortcomings, it is a charming work.

"No biographer, no commentator, critic, or interpreter can ever reveal Wolfgang Mozart entirely. Every attempt to know him truly, to relive his life, is incomplete without his own musical revelations."

Although that sentiment could not be more accurate, this biography by Marcia Davenport, simply entitled Mozart, brings us about as close as we can get to knowing and understanding this musical genius solely through a 400-page biographical account. In preparing for the writing of this biography, Davenport retraced every journey Mozart made, saw every dwelling in which he had lived, every theatre in which audiences first heard his works performed, and every library and museum that possessed useful manuscripts. In the foreword, she asserts, "I think I know what he looked like, how he spoke, what he did day by day."

Throughout the book, we too get a sense for Mozart the composer and Mozart the man. His great musical works did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, they are the products of a man deeply affected by a unique combination of experiences spanning from his prodigious childhood days of touring throughout Europe to his last days in which he wrote his great Requiem (K. 626), a piece he knew he was composing for his own death. We worry with him through his difficulties with debt and the constant onslaught of disgruntled creditors, and we delight with him when he glows with amorousness for some new love interest. We rejoice with him at the success in Prague of his great operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, and we mourn with him as Wolfgang attempts fruitlessly to receive a much-desired court appointment and recognition worthy of his talent. We carouse with him when he lightheartedly indulges in time with good friends; we are spectators at the heart-wrenching deaths of his mother, father, and a number of children who could not survive infancy.

The book is thorough, accurate, and engagingly informative in its narrative of Mozart's life. Though sometimes bland, the language Davenport uses is appropriately simple; quite admirably, she resists the impulse to indulge in the romanticized and flowery rhetoric with which many authors approach Mozart's miraculous genius. Her graceful writing style lets the characters speak for themselves rather than overpowering them with her own bravura.

Davenport also frequently quotes letters written to and from Mozart, thus providing internal proof for her assertions, as well as supplying additional insight into Wolfgang's personality and wit. Davenport quotes from a letter written by Mozart to his wife, Constanze, in which Wolfgang bemoans his ever-growing debt, then adds a post-script: "Tears rained upon the paper as I wrote the foregoing page, but now let us cheer up! Catch!-an astonishing number of kisses are flying about! The devil!-I see a whole crowd of them, too. Ha, ha! I have just grabbed three-they are delicious!" Such blithely clever passages are not uncommon in Mozart's letters, even when he is at his most miserable. Davenport's numerous references to such letters greatly enhance the lucidity of our perception of Mozart.

One weakness in the biography's articulation, however, occurs in Davenport's copious use of foreign words and phrases, for which she offers no translation. Those who are not moderately proficient in German, Italian, and French will miss some of the book's sly humor and more vivid descriptions, although the use of foreign phrases is not significant enough to diminish substantially a reader's understanding of the book.

For those interested in Mozart's life but who have not done much reading on him, this book is a lovely resource filled with such an abundance of information so as to transform such a novice into an expert. For those who are already Mozart aficionados, this book may not offer much new insight, but the depth and detail with which Davenport describes events may give such readers fresh perspective and heightened understanding. For the musician who enjoys Mozart's works, this biography is particularly intriguing, not only for the reasons noted above but also because the book mentions most of Mozart's great compositions while describing the time during which he produced them. For a performer or an analyst, such information as Mozart's present circumstances and frame of mind while composing a specific piece can be extremely helpful in interpreting his music.

This meticulously complete and factual account of Mozart's life is a valuable resource for lovers of Mozart and of his music, whether reading for study or for pleasure.

I had searched for a quote from this book for years, one that best sums up all my feelings about the film industry. Having discovered the quote, I read the entire novel and was enraptured by it. I read it in one sitting and couldn't put it down. The characters are fantastically developed and paint a rather bleak yet accurate portrayal of past and present film personalities. And I quote:

"You have never been inside a film studio? ... It is really [the same as a] palace of the 16th Century. There one sees what Shakespeare saw: the absolute power of the tyrant, the courtiers, the flatterers, the jesters, the cunningly ambitious intriguers. There are fantastically beautiful women . . . incompetent favorites . . . great men who are suddenly disgraced . . . insane extravagances . . . unexpected parsimony . . . enormous splendor, which is a sham . . . horrible squalor hidden behind the scenery . . . vast schemes abandoned because of some caprice . . . secrets which everybody knows and no one speaks of. There are even two or three honest advisers. These are the court fools, who speak the deepest wisdom in puns, lest they should be taken seriously. They grimace, and tear their hair privately, and weep."

The size of this book is in indirect proportion to the impression or stamp it makes. I don't know if it beats "The End of Mr. Norris" and "I am a Camera" in terms of virtuosity and fluidity in terms of storyline, character, but one amazing thing is looking at the date - 1946 - and being completely taken aback at how modern Christopher Isherwood is. There's a contemporary feel to everything he does and Prater Violet highlights them all. Sorry this review isn't more specific but I've called on plotpoints in this book in tough (personal) situations and feel I at least owe it a (general) review.

For those who never wanted "Berlin Stories" to end, "Prater Violet" will be a welcomed treat. Isherwood's fictions were, for the most part, only thinly veiled memoirs - indeed he plays a part in most without even the contrivance of altering his name. However, whether they be fact or fictions, these stories are original and delightful. Isherwood's adventures in the film colony of London prove irresistible. Each of the characters, Chatsworth, Ashmeade and the great director Friedrich Bergmann, are drawn with wit and clarity. What is most remarkable is how fresh this material is considering it was published in 1945. A very fine and rewarding short novel.

I reread this lovely novel earlier this year. In a way, it's better than Berlin Stories because of its conciseness and the humor is more sophisticated. What had been funny looms like familiar smells over everything when history steps in. I laughed so much and felt so much as I read and that is the reason why we must keep reading Isherwood and slowing down time so that we can perceive when one is being amusing or humble or genuine, without artifice.

Isherwood's short novel is autobiographical fiction about being hired to write a screenplay for a movie called "Prater Violet" during early World War 2. There's lots of world politics, of course, as well as the politics of the worldwide movie industry (Hollywood included). Isherwood's writing is superb, and fills this brief space with a lush garden of a story. Here's a quote: "This business about the box office is just a sentimental democratic fiction. If you stuck together and refused to make anything but, say, abstract films, the public would have to go and see them, and like them..."

Mid Eighteenth Century political/military history is not everyone's cup of tea. The War of Austrian Succession does not have the cache of the better known Seven Years War or the War of Spanish Succession. Nevertheless, the War of Austrian Succession/Silesian Wars has a lot to recommend it. The story of the teenaged Maria Theresa who upon ascending the thrown is greedily attacked by Prussia, Bavaria and France is a great story. With no credible allies, Maria Theresa was able to rally her people to defend her empire.

Reed Browning is good writer and has the organizational ability to help the reader keep track of the myriad of diplomatic and military details. My only criticism is the pathetic maps that accompany the book. The poor author must have not found the money to include better maps with his book.

The War of Austrian Succession is an obscure war. Reed Browning has done a wonderful job of bringing a little known conflict to life.

I read this book because I knew nothing about the mid-eighteenth century in Europe, and I found the story to fascinating. I could have done with some decent maps. Those in the book could have been sketched by a four-year-old. No legends. Few labels. Forget trying to put them in any spacial context with the continent. Locating a town, river or natural feature that is central to the story is successful maybe 20% of the time.

The author's style, pompous and condescending, really got on my nerves. The hit rate for his attempts at irony and humor is also in the 20% range. I don't mind not knowing details, names, historical facts that he alludes to, as I said, I knew nothing when I picked up the book. He seems to be intentionally unhelpful, keeping the reader off balance as his narrative meanders. Characters and places appear suddenly with no introduction. If he were my instructor, I would be wary of trick questions on the exam.

The War of the Austrian succession began when Frederick the Great(as he was to become eventually) invaded Silesia on 16 Dec 1740 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. This book is well-researched and a reader can be confident that an accurate and competent account is being read. Anyone who wants to read such an account will welcome this book. Solid, well-written, authoritative.

This book defied my expectations in several different ways: despite being an academic press, it was superbly written and engaging; though primarily a diplomatic history, it proved itself briskly paced, with lively characters and more than occasional joke; also, it overcame the verdict of hindsight that usually treats the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-48) as a mere prelude to the Seven Year's War (1756-63).

There are three real stars of this story. First, Maria Theresa herself, at whose destruction the war was originally aimed, who rallied her subjects and her armies, even as Franco-Prussian alliance had overrun Upper Austria; second, the Marshall de Saxe, bastard son of the exiled Polish King, who rose to become one of France's greatest soldiers (and a future hero to Napoleon); third - and perhaps the biggest surprise, King Charles Emannuel of Savoy-Piedmont, military-diplomatic mastermind of Northern Italy, who, despite his second-tier status within European royalty, parlayed his strategic Alpine position between France and Austria to emerge as the preeminent prince of Italy. Needless to say, there are other luminaries - Argenson and Belle-Isle, the mad French war ministers, waging war without purpose; Bonnie Prince Charlie, Stuart adventurer (and Bourbon cats paw); King George II, victor of Dettingen (last British monarch to fight in battle); Frederick II of Prussia, unscrupulous genius, conqueror of Silesia; and Empress Elizabeth, the Russian wild-card. This is history of the kind found in Tuchman's "Guns of August" and John Keegan's works; richly rewarding.

I enjoyed reading this book, simply because there isn't too many books out there on the War of the Austrian Succession. In fact, I am willing to wager that probably only one American in 500 would know what this war was all about. (Maybe 1 in 1000?? One in 2000??)

I am pretty familiar with this war and that helps a lot. The book was written by scholar for scholars basically. Its not an easy book to read to the uninitated reader going in blind. I think I read one previous reviewer suffering from that element.

I thought the author have presented a very readable book, considering all the complex issues, battles and campaigns of this war. The author clearly defined this war as one of Empress Maria Thersea's finest moments as she fought off a very aggressive Frederick the Great and a superb Prussian army, gathered up alliances and waged an effective defense of her crown and territories although she lost Silesia for good.

If there was a weakness in the book, I thought the maps were totally lacking. Considering how important geography was in this conflict, the author should have put in some effort in giving the readers practical maps relating to the war. Some battle maps and illustrations would be nice too.

But its a book for scholars, written by one so I guess I may be asking too much here. Excellent book overall, well worth the time and money to get it and read it. Just have little bit of background to the conflict to get more out of it.

I read this book years ago when it had a different cover. The cover featured what looked like a string of pearls covered in blood. After I read the book I was struck at how appropriate the cover was for the story within. Penrose's focus is not solely Bathory herself. Rather, she is fascinated with the Hungarian society of the time and how that society was in many clear ways complicit in Bathory's crimes. It is easy to accuse the nobility of exploiting the peasants. One is inclined to advocate for the "little guy" in such a story. However, it was these very peasants who would drop off unwanted daughters at Erszebet Bathory's castles, knowing full well what would happen to them there because the countess's crimes were an open secret (servants talk). However, in a country that was constantly at war with the Turks and other enemies, there were many more women than men alive at the time and so there were many unmarried girls who were not likely to ever marry. I suppose the countess believed herself to be providing a sort of civic service by ridding Hungary of its surplus of spinsters. For this reason, I think that Penrose does a great job of presenting us Erszebet Bathory within the context of her society and times because her crimes by themselves are not the whole story. The society that allowed her to kill unfettered for 35 years is itself a truly important part of the story, adding a layer of meaning to Bathory's insane and meaningless crimes.

The way in which she was finally stopped is very telling. Bathory noticed that in spite of years of blood baths, she was still aging. Her resident witch, Jo Ilona, advised her to change the color of the blood from red to blue. Bathory then began to kill the daughters of the local nobility--and that was her mistake. So long as she was killing peasant girls no one cared, not even the "poor" peasants. As soon as she began killing aristocratic girls, she had to be stopped, and she was.

The examination of Bathory in her context allows us to draw parallels with our own times. Don't we have Kennedys who get away with rape nowadays? Don't we have football celebrities who get away with murdering their wives? People with status and prestige still get away with a lot--even in America, don't they? The only reason why Bathory was able to get away with her crimes for so long is her social status. She was a member of one of Hungary's founding families. It also helped that her first cousin was the King of Hungary, her uncle was the king of Russia, and her brother was the king of Poland. With such relatives she was herself untouchable. Reading this book you begin to see that although Bathory is dead and her crimes happened long ago, the circumstances that allowed her to commit her transgressions are still with us. For me, that was the scary part.

This book is very well researched and written. Keep in mind though that it's not for the faint hearted. It goes into a lot of detail on the history of Hungary and the Bathory family that some may find tedious. I loved the book and would reccomend it to anyone with a desire to take a peek into the darker side of human nature.

I found this to be a very interesting read.
looking for books on Bathory, i found this one and a different one, but it wasn't a fact based book i saw, it was like a fictional story i think someone said in a review. This book as far as I've read tells details of her life. There's an appendix showing portions of the trials Elizabeth was put through and how they got the information about her.
unfortunately, this is the only book on her that i have found, and the size of it is a little disappointing. this is a must buy if one is to learn more about this 16th century Hungarian Blood Countess.
"The blood is the life"

I find this book one of the most impressive case studies about serial killers. Although women comprise only 3% of serial killers ever identified (and they usually opt for less violent methods of killing such as poisoning),it is the sadist and nihilistic behavior of this female "Beast" that really surpassess all her male colleagues, even those of our modern times. This is a tragic example of social and political power unchecked by the restraints of the law and moral conciousness, combined to whatever pathological trait can be indetified in her flawed character. She rightly deserves her place along the famous genocides of all times such as Hitler, Stalin and Milosevic. It is a pity that more psychological analysis is missing. Otherwise, it is a great maiden study that can stimulate further research on the dark side of the murderer's mind.

Penrose did a great deal of research--unfortunately the research involved the geography and history of the region, and not so much on Bathory. The interesting details of Bathory are buried at the end of each long winded section that is more concerned with her family geneology or relatives misbehavior than Bathory's.

The sources for the book are excellent, but I hate to read an entire chapter to have one paragraph dedicated to Bathory's atrocities (which were scant in the text...at the end of each chapter we are tittilated with a small detail then pounded again with astological non-sense or geographical trivia).

The section on her trial was relatively short...even with letters writen by those that discovered her henious acts. But its all so short---Penrose spends more time and details discussing another mass murderer of the same time who favored young boys (who killed roughly 60 like Bathory herself claims to have done) to show the depths of depravity--and you are left to wonder why the book wasn't on this killer that is spoken of in each chapter instead of Bathory who has very few details included on her crimes.

Select a different title if you are interested in Bathory.

I read this book after Caldwell's excellent "Hayek's Challenge". I don't normally read biographies, but that was so good I hunted around for related material (and found this).

Unfortunately, this suffers in comparison. Caldwell is much better at signposting and structuring the argument. In contrast, Hacohen jumps around, often covering the same period in different contexts. And his hand is too heavy - the authorial opinions are often forced (or even plain odd - what on earth does he have against Popper's wife?).

Still, his intentions are generally honourable (not always; there's a blind spot as far as Zionism goes) and the final chapter, which places Popper's thought within the current(ish) left-wing context, is interesting.

The book has several different aspects, all of absorbing interest, including the detailed reconstruction of Popper's intellectual career and the depiction of the social and political milieu of Vienna between the wars.

Popper was the archetypal workaholic. Hacohen reports that he worked for 360 days of the year, all day, without the distraction of newspapers, radio or TV. Several times a month, even in old age, he worked all night and friends such as Bryan Magee would get an early morning call from Popper, bubbling with excitement to report on his latest ideas. Popper lived well out of London near High Wycombe and when Magee gained Popper's confidence he was invited to visit, taking the train to "Havercombe" (in Popper's heavily accented English). When I made the trip to Havercombe, Popper arranged to meet me at the station, carrying a copy of the BBC Listener, presumably to pick him out from all the other elderly gentlemen of middle-European extraction who might be thronging the platform at 2.00 on a Wednesday afternoon. In the event, he left the magazine at home and the kiosk had sold out so he had to buy The Times and fold it to the size of the Listener. Of course he was the only person in sight apart from the Station Master. Popper, then aged 70, had what his research assistant tactfully described as a "very positive" attitude to driving. Fortunately it was not far to his home and there were few other cars on the road. Safely home, our conversation laboured, and he frequently pushed a tray of choc-chip cookies towards me. Later he lamented to his assistant that I had eaten a whole weeks supply of his favorite cookies in one afternoon. These aspects of Popper are the other face of the man who some described as "the totalitarian liberal".

Hacohen has provided sufficient background to explain why Popper's ideas were so exciting for some people, and so threatening for others, though it was left to Bill Bartley in the 1960s to articulate the way that Popper had challenged the unstated and uncriticised assumption of "justificationism" which is the glue that holds together the ideas of the positivists and other "true belief" philosophers. Popper's lack of progress in the community of professional philosophers needs to be understood against the persisting background of justificationism, subjectivism and determinism which he has criticised in favour of critical rationalism, conjectural objective knowledge and non-determinism.

Hacohen has assembled a massive amount of material and a lesser talent in organization would have lost the plot among the details. Helped by a liberal quantity of headings sub-headings and his very clear exposition, he has kept his material under control and kept several balls in the air with superb aplomb. The several balls are Popper's diverse interests and the chaotic events that were going on around him in Vienna, not only among the intellectuals but also in Austrian politics.

These events forced Popper to flee to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, surely the antithesis of Vienna in most cultural, intellectual and political respects. There, his campaign for critical rationalism, objectivism and non-determinism was waged in political philosophy. His achievement in writing the two large volumes of "The Open Society and its Enemies" can be compared with the Battle of Britain, where young pilots held Hitler at bay in the skies over the English Channel. Popper daily patrolled the intellectual stratosphere, challenging Hitler's intellectual henchmen from Plato to modern times. This work would have been an amazing achievement under any circumstances, as it was it had to be done in the face of dreadful news from home (fourteen relatives died in the Holocaust), under the threat of Japanese invasion and against the resistance of his Professor who regarded his research and writing as theft to teaching time.

To conclude, this book is a wonderful piece of scholarship and its deserves to be read with close attention by anyone with a shred of interest in the ideas that have shaped the world today. With any luck Popper's ideas will help to shape the world tomorrow. I dissent from Hocohen's reading of Popper's ideas as a prop for social democracy, but anyone imbued with the spirit of critical rationalism can make up their own mind on that.

This book is actually worth six stars, so buy two copies, one for your local library.

Prof. Hacohen gives us an eminent look at the personal, political and scientific antecedents of Karl Popper's main scientific and political publications.
His book is also an excellent and concise economical and social panorama of Austria in the first half of the 20th century.

It is a realistic portrait of Popper as an individual: irascible and arrogant, an eternal dissenter, intellectual loner, not without a certain persecution mania.
It shows clearly how Popper's main philosophical contributions, 'testing and falsification', came into being, as well as his political defense of 'The Open society'. It is all the more surprising how great the difficulties were to publish his books, although they constituted a crucial and fundamental philosophical breakthrough.

Although, for me, Popper is the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, some of his positions are flawed. He is a dualist (mind/body). His defence of Socrates is also much contested. The Dutch classicist G. Koolschijn pretends that Socrates was not a democrat. He was probably condemned for pleading against democracy in his teachings.
Particularly interesting is Popper's struggle with Heisenberg's Indeterminacy Principle, where he lost the battle with Heisenberg.
I also agree with the author's essential remark that 'socially disadvantaged groups do not have a fair chance of being heard, let alone prevailing, in the so-called democratic political process. Organized elites and corporate interest block, manipulate, and circumvent the channels ... a fairly egalitarian socioeconomic structure and public control of corporations are preconditions to effective democratic dialogue.' (p.543)

This book contains an excellent presentation of Wittgenstein's Tractatus and Popper's critique of it. It runs the defenders of Otto Neurath (Cartwright & Co) into the ground.

All in all, a fascinating book for those who are interested in modern philosophy and more particularly in Popper's work.

Newcomers should first read the works of Popper himself, or the excellent introduction by Bryan Magee in his small book 'Popper'.

There are two standard evaluations of Popper's importance. The first sees Popper as an important figure in the philosophy of science, one whose work is now passe, but whose influence cannot be denied. The other sees Popper as one of the great geniuses of the twentieth century, a polymath who gave us new paradigms of scientific and political thinking. This second view, while still the view of the minority, is gaining support in a new millennium where Popper is enjoying something of a renaissance. This is the view that has inspired both Bryan Magee and Antony Flew to pen histories of philosophy subtitled (surely not just for the sake of alliteration) "From Plato to Popper." And this is the view that inspires Malachi Haim Hacohen to give Popper a central place in what, despite its title, is an intellectual history of inter-war Vienna.

If Popper's importance has not been properly appreciated, suggests Hacohen, that is because we try to situate him in the Anglo-American tradition that appropriated him after the Second World War and in which he became famous. Instead, Hacohen traces the genealogy of Popper's philosophy through the currents of thought in inter-war Vienna, showing how they shaped Popper and how Popper responded to them within this context. We see how his principle of falsification evolved as a response to the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle, and how his critique of historicism and promulgation of the Open Society--though published in and appropriated by a Cold War West--were in fact inspired responses to the socio-political debates of 1930's Vienna.

Hacohen's primary aim is to give us a greater understanding, and hence a greater appreciation, of Popper's achievement. But in tracing inter-war Viennese culture more broadly, he also shows the extent to which that culture's set of concerns has shaped our own intellectual outlook thanks to the diaspora of Viennese intellectuals--many of them Jewish--in the face of the Nazi threat. The Vienna Circle influenced a generation of philosophers, Hayek has become a champion for libertarians, and Gombrich has changed the way we look at art. In all of these cases, but none more so than in philosophy, these thinkers have found success in England and America by adapting ideas born out of uniquely Viennese debates to contexts that these debates never reached.

Inevitably, our reception of these ideas on foreign shores distorted their intent. For instance, we tend to understand the Vienna Circle as Ayer understood it without appreciating how the tools and methods these philosophers developed were meant to settle the debates on the nature of science that had divided an earlier generation of Viennese thinkers, the likes of Boltzmann and Mach. Like the Vienna Circle, Popper is too often read as his English-speaking contemporaries interpreted him, and Hacohen's book gives us a rich sense of the problems and debates that shaped Popper's distinctive outlook. Hacohen has labored tirelessly in the archives, and while his preference for completeness and transparency of research over readability makes it a laborious slog, both the depth, breadth, and originality of Hacohen's scholarship is exceptional. He is more at home discussing the social sciences than the natural sciences, but he is more at home in both of these fields than most of us can ever expect to be.

The problem, then, is whether Popper is the central figure of the intellectual history of inter-war Vienna, which is how Hacohen portrays him, or if he is only one of a number of bright minds to emerge from that context, and neither the brightest nor the most influential. He was a marginal figure at that time, and his contemporaries in the Vienna Circle, though respectful, seemed not as convinced as he was that he had delivered the deathblow to logical positivism. The philosophical world more generally tends to give the role of death-dealer to Quine for his 1951 paper, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism." Hacohen might reply that we inflate Quine's importance to Popper's detriment because we come to logical positivism from an Anglo-American perspective, and that in failing to appreciate its original context, we fail to appreciate that Popper had buried logical positivism by 1934. There is some merit in this argument, and perhaps if Popper had arrived in London before 1946 and if the Logic of Scientific Discovery had been published in English before 1956, things would be different. But whether a result of historical mischance or of Popper's work not being as decisive as he thought, he has failed to have an impact on English-speaking philosophy that rivals the Vienna Circle. Or Quine, for that matter.

Hacohen makes an excellent case for the tremendous, and too-often unnoticed, influence of inter-war Vienna on post-war scholarship in the English-speaking world, but he is less convincing in situating Popper as the central figure of this influence. Popper certainly developed interesting and fertile responses to the problems of his intellectual milieu, but it seems a bit of an exaggeration to claim that he solved these problems, or even that his solutions are more compelling than those of any of his contemporaries. Hacohen does not simply state his allegiance to Popper baldly; he provides arguments, but these arguments are not likely to convince those of us who are not already Popperians.

Popper has never been fully embraced by the mainstream of Anglo-American philosophy, and this may be connected with his having been shaped by a different set of concerns than his English-speaking contemporaries. With these concerns in clearer focus, he still doesn't emerge as one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, but Hacohen's effort to give him his due does shed valuable light on an interesting period. Though his emphasis on Popper's importance may be misplaced, Hacohen's book nonetheless makes for engaging intellectual history.

Malachi Hacohen as written a great biography that both covers the personal has well as the philosphical development of one of the 20th century's greatest minds. This is a big book in every sense of the word, big in ideas, big in scope. One of the by products of reading this book was to discover the immense impact that intellectuals from 1920's Austria and non germanic Central Europe had upon, not just philosphy, but also economic and political developments in the Anglo Saxon world. People such as Hayek, Drucker, Polyani, Tarski, Neurath, Mises and many more have had a profound effect upon the thinking of both the Right and the Left in the US and Britain. One of those books which one can honestly say the reader will be much wiser after finishing it.

Great story and the book gets right to the point. Although I'm not so sure about the author's approach on describing the battle by sections or areas as opposed to chronological developments. Nevertheless is great reading for history buffs

I am a long time fan of Osprey Campaign series - I have all the 120 first titles - and this is definitely one of the very best. It is not very frequent - and not very easy - to combine historical accuracy with a great number of facts and statistics and in the same time to provide the reader with such a passionating narration. Felicitations to Angus Konstam.

Lepanto 1571 (Campaign, 114) by Angus Konstam is a well written, yet concise, account of the Holy Alliance's total defeat of the Ottoman Navy off the coast of Greece. It follows the usual Ospery style with a brief explanations of the rival commanders, their navies, the campaign and the aftermath. The best compliment that can be given the author is that my appetite was wetted for more information concerning the battle and the aftermath. Konstam raises many questions, although only briefly, that deserve further consideration. Among them are why the Ottomans joined the battle given their knowledge of the frailty of the Holy Alliance and whether the Holy Alliance's superiority in artilitery was decisive.

All in all, this was a good book and a credit to the author and Ospery.

This book sets the standard for all books in the Osprey Campaign series. It focuses on the battle, is well organized, and easy to read. Konstam and Bryan should be commended for a job well done. Anyone who has read an Osprey Campaign book will recognizes the familiar organization of the chapters. Essentially, the authors improve upon this well established pattern through effective writing.

The chapter on Opposing Commanders provides a good example. A paragraph is devoted to each relevant character. In addition, the individual's name is highlighted in bold at the beginning of each paragraph. This simple element allows the reader to easily refer back to this chapter as needed.

A significant portion of this book is focused on the battle itself. Although one might think this obvious, it is not the case in all Osprey books. The Battle of Lepanto consisted of action between three smaller divisions, the North, Center, and Southern "Battles." The author takes the time to inform the reader that he will discuss each action in its entirety instead of covering the whole battle simultaneously. The point is that the reader knows what the author is doing and doesn't have to guess.

The Battle of Lepanto contains several significant figures, multiple countries, and a battle that has three significant actions. The complexity of this battle provides numerous opportunities for an author to write a confusing and jumbled narrative. The fact that Konstam and Bryan cover this battle in a clear and easy to read fashion is commendable. As noted above, this book sets the standard for which all Osprey books should strive to reach.

Much credit must be given to the author of this title, Angus Konstam, for delivering a clear, consise, and very enjoyable summary of the events leading up to Lepanto, the Battle itself, and its effects and aftermath.

The maps in this Osprey installment is great, though not magnificent but other parts of the book definetley make up for that. The Order of Battle (Consisting of three pages) is very clear and interesting to look at, as is the introduction and the opposing fleets and commanders. Though at first one may be a little confused of the names of the admirals and captains both Christian and Muslim (there are plenty of Ali's flying around), but due to the very smooth progression of this installment one will nail the names down in no time. I am, though, a little bit disappointed at the lack of information drawn on the Ottoman commanders (they didn't even give a picture of Ali Pasha, the Ottoman admiral) in this section, they later make up for it when they clearly show their personalities during the battle.

The Battle itself is the best part of the book, unlike many other Osprey campaigns that have a stronger prelude to battle than the battle proper. This part of the book has three parts of its own, the battle of the Christian left and the Ottoman right (which clashed first), the battle of the Christian and Ottoman centres (which is by far the most interesting), and the clash (though minor) of the Christian Right and the Turkish left. Though it might sound unattractive, it is truly a very good way to present the battle as each flank almost exclusivley fought with its opposite flank. Each clash is covered with great detail and imagrey (I was amazed at imagining 60 galleys packed together in an amazingly tiny space with thousands of soldiers confusedly storming each other's ships across broken oars seeing less than 5 yards ahead of them due to the choking smoke from the canon and musket, fighting desperatley with sword and pike), and is extremely clear. Never once was I confused as what happened (see Waterloo 1815 if you want a confusing summary), and even without the great 3D maps I could picture the battle, blow by blow. Coming to the 3D maps, they are very clearly laid out and colourful and not in the center of the two pages (thus allowing you not to tear apart the book), with seperate symbols units for the Venetian Galeasses, which might have very well became the desicive factor in the Christian victory. The 3 full colour battlescenes are extremely colourfull and well drawn, but do not show much in terms of actuall material other that banners and the such.

The Aftermath is almost as strong as the long, clear, and vivid battle summary, showing that the battle was not as decisive at popularly thought. As the author states earlier in the book, Galley's can be rebuilt, but the lost lives cannot. In terms of lost lives, the Christians lost a little less than the Turks (around 25,000 each) even though the Turkish fleet lost 170 of its 240 galleys. Indeed, the Turks rebuilt just a large as a fleet they lost the following year. The short-term effects might have been weak for the Christians (Cyprus was not re-captured, no other land was taken, the Barbary Corsairs lived on, and the Turks rebuilt thier fleet), but Konstam covers the long term effects clearly and backed with much evidence. Truly, as seen and told in the book, the only thing Lepanto truly created was breaking the myth of Turkish marinetime invunerability and the death of experienced Turkish ship commanders which led to a halt in the Turkish offensive naval policies (even though they have continued sucsess defensively).

Now comes the criticising. Well, the main problem with this book is the author not delivering a straight answer for the decisive factor in the battle that led to the Christian victory. This is a minor problem though, because since the battle summary is so well laid out and clearly pictured one can make their own assumptions to why the Christans won such a major victory (my assumptions is the Venetians galeasses breaking the initial Turkish line). Other than that...nothing. The lack of numerous detractors to this installment, coupled with the vivid and clear picture of a very interesting battle as well as great maps, make this a must-have for any Osprey enthusiast.

Some parts of this autobiographical work are delightful reading for anyone with an interest in 20th century history. Other sections impress because of Marai's singular gifts as a writer, his powers of observation, and his analysis of the human condition.
The book is a bit uneven, however, featuring too much reflecting on the role of the writer in society and his relation to language and so on and so on.
Most memorable thought: when Marai has decided to leave his country for good, he makes an effort, before leaving, to read as many books by lesser known Hungarian authors - because those will not be available abroad.
Most humorous glimpse of history: when Russian soldiers search Marai's house for German soldiers, calling out "Hermann! Hermann!"

I cannot improve on the review below, but I can try to help by summarizing a few important points about this book. The reason why it gets five stars is the author's fascinating personal account of the Soviet Army's occupation of Budapest in 1944-1945 and of the cultural clash between Soviet soldiers and the Hungarian bourgeois. This makes up the first third of the book (113 pages). The other two-thirds of the book cover the aftermath of the destruction of Budapest, and the increasing Communist stranglehold on society ending in Marai's flight to Switzerland. These latter parts are not bad, but not as good; they sometimes drag a bit, with Marai tending to entwine himself in navel-gazing intellectual discourse from which a better editor might have rescued him.

This is a wonderful memoir set in Hungary covering the last days of World War II and the gradual take over of power by the communists.The memoir ends in 1948 when Marai left his homeland for good.
As anyone who has read Embers will know Marai is a very gifted writer and this memoir is an absolute delight to read.It is full of brilliant insights and perhaps gives the reader a better idea of what life was like in an East European city in the post war era compared to historical studies.I particulary enjoyed the sections in the book where he recounts his dealings with the Russian soldiers who "liberated" Hungary.
There is only one sadness attached to this book and that is that Marai has only the 3 books available in English.He was a prolific author and if Embers,Converstaions in Bolzano and this memoir are anything to go by he is a writer of great quality and I would gladly read anything he has written.So come on publishers show a bit of initiative and get more of this great twentieth century Hungarian writer into translation.

The "Memoir" covers a four year period out of some forty years during which Marai, the prominent and praiseworthy Hungarian novelist, kept a journal. At present it is the only portion of this long-running commentary which has been published in English. The translation by Albert Tezla is an excellent one which captures the author's spirit and style. The four years in question are those which proved to be a major historical turning point for Hungary and a bitter and deeply personal turning point for the author.

What happened during those four years? In brief: the final tergiversations and collapse of Horthy's Regency government; its replacement by a desperate Nazi-backed Arrow Cross regime which was determined to go down in flames and take as many victims as it could with it in a final Wagnerian gesture of hatred; an uneasy period of "liberation" by the Soviet army (where liberation equaled successful military operations against the Germans plus looting and other depredations); the machinations of political parties and leaders who were making their moves in a shrinking circle of authority and responsibility, since all knew or suspected that their fate would be decided in Moscow; the return of exiled Communist factotums who had been winnowed and educated by Stalin's system in its period of purges, men who lived in fear and ruled by fear; the springing up of fellow-travelers and shape-shifters of every description, each fleeing guilt while feathering his own nest; the period of land-redistribution followed by nationalizations of industry and commerce, then the creation of collective farms; the debasements of the period of currency hyperinflation; and, what breaks the author's heart the most, the "treason of the clerks" (that portion of the middle class and its literary and artistic spokesmen who abandoned their humanistic ideals and threw themselves into collaboration with the new, all-powerful Party apparatus).

For Marai personally this was a period when he began to take serious stock of his career hitherto as a successful bourgeois author and came to the sad conclusion that both he and his work might have been nothing but caricatures of a dying way of life. And, in 1947-48, it is a time when he turns this reckoning, along with his truly depressing picture of Hungary's total spiritual compromise and abasement under both its previous and its new systems of rule, into a decision to leave his homeland forever.

In his judgments of failure of intellect and behavior, he is as hard on the Hungarian and the broader European middle class as he is on the Communists. After a year or so when he feels he must commit himself to a "neutral" evaluation of the Red Army and its political masters, he comes to truly detest Communism. He hates it for the anti-humanism of its official philosophy (which he characterizes as an outdated and culturally dead and deadening theory which might have been appropriate in Marx's day but was irrelevant to the problems Europe faced in 1945). He hates it for the phoniness of its leaders' attempts to convince his countrymen that they are "building socialism" while in fact they are knowingly establishing a Russian colonial satrapy which will prove to be as indifferent to the needs of workers and farmers as it is to the death of the middle class and the old Hungarian aristocracy - both the real one and the faux-aristocracy of the Regency. And he hates it because he sees its leadership and middle-men as untrained, incompetent bunglers and looters whose real purpose is mere political survival at any cost. Marai does not regret the fate of the old land-owning class, whom he feels was as indifferent to the hardships of life of the vast majority of his countrymen as the new masters will prove to be. But the decay and destruction of the middle class truly disturbs him, since he believes that the educated, politically liberal bourgeoisie was the only group which had a chance of representing cultural humanism and political democracy in a way that might have withstood fascism and communism. More painfully, he acknowledges that this decay and destruction was brought on by a lack of vigilance and vigor by the middle class itself, which was losing confidence in the older accepted rationales for its existence and way of life. He indicts this middle class for sacrificing its principles on the altars of political expediency and self-interest.

All of this leads him to a period in which his own mind moves slowly and inexorably toward the decision to break with his past and his country. Most disturbing to him is the notion that if he stays - whether as a practitioner of "internal emigration" or as an occasional "fellow traveler" and regime booster who will be allowed to publish his work in return for such compromises - he will lose his "Self", because it is the capture of the core of his identity that is the objective of the new system. He is more afraid of that system's intolerance of the silence of a member of the intelligentsia than he is of its crass desire to manipulate writers and other artists into the practices of "socialist realism". He has to leave in order to save his relationship with his own language and to protect that Self. (His reflections on this give rise to the title of my review.)

But this memoir is more than a series of gloomy meditations on social and political affairs and trends. It is also a sort of love-letter to the beauties of the Hungarian language (which is Marai's declared "homeland") as they were developed over several generations by belletristic writers. There are recollections of the careers of his fellow writers and a portrait of the atmosphere of literary ferment and creativity that permeated the cafes, bars, and news-rooms of periodicals and daily papers for whom many of these writers worked in order to keep themselves alive while they also produced poetry, short-stories and novels for a loyal cohort of sophisticated readers. There are generous comments made about the many talented writers of his own generation and the two generations that preceded it. There is a paean to the minor Hungarian writers (the "second set") whom he feels were every bit as talented and worthy as the major and more successful ones (he spends his final year in locating and reading increasingly rare copies of the works of these minor writers, since he thinks they will become inaccessible to him after he goes into exile; this knowledge and experience is the only thing he wishes to take with him as he leaves his land and culture behind). And there is the recurring lament of the Hungarian writer who looks to world literature for both influence and approval: "We are alone with our unique language that is surrounded by a sea of powerful and mutually supporting Indo-European tongues that constitute this world-literature in Europe. Who will appreciate our efforts and take the time and trouble to learn the great beauties of own painfully created literary tradition and to see where it belongs in this broader sea of humanistic achievement?" (The foregoing is the reviewer's weak paraphrase of a longing expressed powerfully by Marai.)

The book opens with highly particular observations of the situation in Hungary in March of 1944, and it closes with more general ruminations about the psychological, ethical and cultural state of Europe in 1948. The author is pessimistic, but he will not yield an inch on the overarching importance of a humanistic culture which he feels may be moribund, but without which he sees Europe and the modern world as bereft of rational ideals and purpose. It might be better to read two or three of Marai's novels which are now available in good English translations before turning to this memoir - in this way the reader will be exposed to sophisticated and moving literary portrayals of the world whose loss he laments here. The Corvina Books Ltd. edition of the Memoirs has a brief, cogent Introduction by the translator, who has also compiled very informative end-notes on Hungarian personalities and events alluded to by Marais. This book is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to learn what this historical period looked and felt like "from the inside".

This is a first-rate book and that's all that needs to be said. The customer reviews on Amazon provide a rich discussion of its content and of Marai himself. The most important aspect of the book -- and the reviews -- is to draw attention to a major and prolific novelist whose work disappeared for fifty years as a result of the political purging of the communist regime. Embers, the first of the rescued novels, is simply superb -- and such a surprise; you will not have read anything like it. Conversations is more complex and takes a while to get into but it, too, is the work of a unique mind and style.
So, this is a good introduction to Marai and an excellent historical memoir but it is the novels that matter most. There will be more -- the search is on to find the original Hungarian books. Embers should be on your bookshelf and Christmas/Fathers Day/Whatever gift list

You might not find the literary style of this book to be a knockout, but, like Jerzy Kukuzka's "My Vertical World", the content will probably blow you away. Hermann fought his way past numerous obstacles on his way to the summit of Nanga and did so with impeccable style. It's a guaranteed classic.

This book, written by Hermann Buhl, was largely re-written by his friend and editor Kurt Maix, at least according to Reinhold Messner, author of a climber's biography of Herman Buhl. This may be so, but I think this book conveys what Hermann Buhl wanted to say- after all he approved it.

While text such as "[my recollections of Nanga Parbat] are ... shining, alluring visions which sear one's heart and wipe out all memory of distress, worry, and disappointment" does not sound like his words, I think they well describe the sensation. And that is one of the key differences between this book and Messner's book, "Hermann Buhl- Climbing Without Compromise". This book conveys, as a detached writer would, the thoughts and feelings more than the exact words or technical details of Buhl's life. For those who prefer, or want additionally, to "hear" Buhl's own voice, and many more\technical details of his accomplishments, I recommend Messner's book.

FYI, the 1987 Movie "The Climb" only covers Buhl's climb of Nanga Parbat, but keeps fairly close to what is described here, and even "quotes" Buhl from this book.

Everyone interested in Alpine and Himalayan mountain climbing knows of Herman Buhl (Messner considers him the best climber of all time). His feat of survival alone in a bivouac above 8,000 meters on Nanga Parbat is among the most remarkable achievements in the history of Himalayan Mountaineering!

And here is the most significant area where the book comes up short -- it devotes only a short section, at the very end of the book, to this remarkable expedition. Do not be mislead by the title -- this is not a book about this expedition -- it is an autobiography of Buhl, highlighting some of his remarkable achievements in climbing in the Alps.

My second concern about the book is related to the author's style. Of course, it is a matter of personal preference, but I find Buhl's writing as uninspired and dry, as his climbing capacities are outstanding. One simple comparison of the description of the same episode (climbing the north face of the Eiger) by Buhl as compared to that by Gaston Rebuffat (I highly recommend his book "Starlight and Storm"; they found themselves climbing the Eiger at the same time) clearly shows the much more inspired writing of the French (not to mention that Buhl does not even mention Rebuffat, a well known climber in the Alps by then, by name).

If you are really interested in Herman Buhl, I recommend "Climbing Without Compromise", or the "Kurt Diemberger Omnibus".

This is without a doubt one of the two best mountaineering books. Incredible stories of close shaves and lucky escapes make it clear that the final ending on Chogolisa was bound to happen sooner or later. Only Terray's "Conquistadors of the Useless" reaches the same heights. They don't write them like this anymore ....

I have just reread this classic in English. Hermann Buhl was the best mountaineer the earth had ever given birth to. The conqueror of Nanga Parbat and Falchen Kangi, one of two people who devirginized 2 eight-thousanders, along with Kurt Diemberger. His all ascents stand in contrast with the siege methods of the time, but the ascent of Nanga Parbat set the limit of endurance and courage, to be met decades later. His style compares to the style Mount Everest was ascended in the same way as Jerzy Kukuczka's 14-summits compare to Reinhold Messner's, respectively.

This is a masterful biography, but one need to have a profound knowledge of higher mathematics and a basic one in physics to fully understand it.

Walter Moore shows that Schrödinger's life and thought was at least controversial.

Life
Schrödinger's personal itinerary is exemplary for the 20th century. He was born in a comfortable upper-middle class, but his parents lost their savings in the German inflation after WW I. The result was famine and diseases. It marked the rest of his life. As a young man he was confronted with unemployment and nearly left physics for financial reasons!
He found a decent job only at the age of 34. Even after winning the Nobel Prize he was still confronted with 'pension' problems.

Science
Walter Moore gives us a magisterial and detailed analysis of the scientific discoveries of ES, from his humble beginnings to the elaboration of the quantum wave function and after.
It shows that ES was above all a mathematical genius and a not so brilliant experimenter.
ES remained all his life opposed to the complemantary (particle/wave) interpretation of quantum mechanics (the 'Kopenhagen oracle' for ES). For him, there were only waves!

Sex
Beside science, sex was the principal occupation of his life, with all combinations imaginable. He lived a ménage à trois and sometimes à quatre, but still fell in love with other women, also with very young ones for he had a Lolita complex. He could without doubt have been accused of paedophilia.
But his intense love affairs stimulated highly his scientific creativity.
One can only wonder if his 'wild' behaviour and negative view of bourgeois marriage were not fundamentally influenced by the fact that he couldn't marry his first true love, because her family found that he was too poor!

Politics
He had a deep contempt for the governing classes (politicians, clergy) who 'enslave men by violence and use the religious desire of many people to promote superstition to rule over the dispossessed'. He also distrusted democracy!

Philosophical world view
This is certainly one of the strangest aspects of his thoughts.
He was convinced that physics provided absolutely no answers to philosophical questions (e. g. free will). All his life he remained, like Einstein, an adept of determinism.
His philosophical views and ethical principles were completely dissociated from his real life!
As an adept of the Vedanta, he believed the Buddhist wisdom that a thing could be both A and non-A (horribile dictu)!
He was also heavily influenced by the philosophy of Schopenhauer.

This work gives excellent explanations of the Vedanta, and the philosophy of Mach and Schopenhauer.
It contains a very painful paragraph on Heidegger.

I see only one minus point: the author doesn't give Bohr's pertinent response to the EPR-article against the Copenhagen interpretation of qm.

This is a brilliant book and certainly the definitive biography of Schrödinger. It is by no means a hagiography and doesn't dodge some 'weird' aspects of Schrödinger's life.
Not to be missed.

If there is some way I could rate this book as five star plus, then I would love to do that. This is a very well researched book by an author who makes a passionate presentation of the mind and work of one of the greatest physicists of 20th century. Erwin Schrodinger is an enigmatic figure, a brilliant scientist, philosopher, poet and a humanist who lead a complex personal life; several love affairs allowed and approved by; his wife Annemarie, and husbands of his girlfriends. The author has examined and reviewed many archived materials from Schrodinger's family, friends, and universities/academic institutions who knew Schrödinger. The reader becomes fascinated by sheer brilliance, wisdom, sadness, and struggle in personal and professional life of Schrödinger.

Schrodinger was deeply philosophical in his thoughts than any other scientist of his time, but he apparently did not make far-reaching philosophical conclusions from his work in quantum physics. He was held back because he knew there was a lack of clarity. Schrödinger was deeply influenced by the thoughts of Schopenhauer, and developed strong interest in Buddhist philosophy and Vedanta (one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy.) Schrodinger intensively studied the works of Schopenhauer, Henry Warren, Max Welleser, Richard Garbe, Paul Deussen, Max Muller, and Rhys Davids to understand Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. Erwin's interest in Vedanta and Upanishads started at a young age when he was accustomed to cold hungry time in war-torn Vienna. His search for the truth never reached conclusion as his one time lover Hansi Bauer noted, but his belief in Vedanta remained the same since 1920 until his death. He was a life long believer of Vedanta. He lashed out Christian churches accusing them of gross superstition in their belief of individual souls.

Quantum physics has tremendous philosophical implications, which revolutionized modern thought in science and philosophy because it did not agree with the philosophy of materialism expounded by Newton. Interpretation of quantum world suggested that strict determinism and predictability is not an accurate description of reality, and consciousness is an integral part of the laws of quantum physics. In other words, the human observer (biological system) and the observed (rest of the universe) is not merely a biological (cognition) phenomenon but more than that. One can not actually derive the Schrödinger wave equation from classical physics. It is a justification and hence the final equation is used to calculate the energy levels that fit the experimental results such as the observed UV spectra of a hydrogen atom. Schrodinger developed relativistic equation first and then the non-relativistic equation. The relativistically framed (without spin) equation did not agree with the experimental result because it did not include electron spin. It was not known at that time that electron has a spin. This equation was good for a particle with no spin and it was the same as fine structure formula of Sommerfeld.

According to Vedanta; there exists only one universal being called the Brahman, which comprises all of reality in an undivided unity. This being absolutely homogeneous in nature: It is pure thought, which is not an attribute but the substance devoid of any qualities. The Brahman is associated with a power or a principle of illusion called Maya. As a magician creates illusion during his act, Brahman through Maya creates the appearances of the material world. Maya is the cause of the material world, and an indivisible Brahman is present in all forms of existence. The soul in reality is an infinite Brahman enmeshed in the unreal world of Maya. The unenlightened soul is incapable of looking beyond this illusion, but an enlightened soul knows the difference between its true self and the external illusory world thus paving the way for identifying itself with Brahman. This unity and continuity concept of All in One expounded in Vedanta is consistent with quantum physics where the universe is superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. The existence of Heisenberg uncertainty phenomenon and quantum Zeno effect is an allegory to the illusions of Maya or a prelude to the indivisible, All in One, Supreme Brahman. This intense philosophical debate was taking place in the mind of young Erwin in the midst of discovering wave mechanics! Nov 1925 to Dec 1926 is a critical period for the development wave mechanics. Erwin's thought process was so upbeat that his creative power peaked during this period and remains without parallel in the history of science!

In personal life; Erwin had contempt for Nazis but never openly criticized the regime. Schrodinger left Berlin 1933 to protest Nazi regime, in the same year he was awarded Nobel Prize with Paul Dirac. At one time he considered a faculty position at Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science) in Bangalore, India at the invitation of Nobel laureate C.V. Raman. Erwin's love interests include a long list of women; Felice Krauss, Lotte Rella, Ithi Junger, Hansi Bauer-Bohm, Hilde March, Sheila May Green, Kate Nolan, Betty Dolan, Lucie Rie, and maids of Vienna during war years. He had