This elegantly written book explores the history of ideas in Europe from the revolutions of 1848 to the beginning of the First World War. Outlining the intellectual context and exploring the impact of science and social thought on European intellectual life, the discussion encompasses powerful concepts in evolution, art, myth, the occult and the unconscious mind. Woven into this fascinating web is the work of novelists, poets, artists, playwrights, philosophers and composers, resulting in a text populated by most of the great -- and many of the lesser known -- intellectual figures of the age, from Mill, Nietzsche and Bergson to Dostoevsky, Flaubert and Wilde. Book jacket.