PositiveFinancial Times (UK)... an extraordinary account of the development of a continental cultured class told through three remarkable figures of the late 19th century ... Weaving into the spaces between these lives the vital stuff of culture in relation to money, Figes evidently feels that out of the fabric of grand, flawed, artistically dedicated and politically aware lives it is possible to define a continental culture ... Unlike the project for a continental civilisation associated with the Enlightenment Figes suggests a definable cosmopolitan European-ness focused on private life and the pleasures of theatres and tourism, of galleries and museums.
