Max Nordau’s Fin-de-si Ecle Romance of Race

Max Nordau (1849-1923) is the author of Degeneration and a founding father of Zionism. This Hungarian-born physician wrote fiction in which romantic and personal relations depicted in miniature the social and ethnic tensions of his day. His family stories metaphorically diagnosed the problems of minorities, especially Jewish populations, in European countries. Close analysis of Nordau’s literary work opens new perspectives on his cultural and political efforts and thought.