1 h 40 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does love become when desire leaves no room for anything else?
Hans Kaltneker’s Love is a dark romance of obsession, sacrifice and ruin in the Vienna of the late Habsburg age. Cafés, theatres and music form a polished setting, while strict social rules stand against a hunger for feeling that manners cannot satisfy.
At its heart lies a difficult question: how much can love demand before giving becomes self-destruction? Kaltneker’s intense, feverish writing explores passion and its price. Here, love offers no promise of comfort, and the costs of feeling cannot simply be undone.
What you’ll discover
- Vienna behind the polish Enter a world where social rules meet secrecy, anxiety and an unsatisfied hunger for feeling.
- Desire at its darkest Explore obsession as a force that narrows life around a single consuming desire.
- The demands of sacrifice Consider where devotion ends and the surrender of comfort, reputation or self becomes harm.
- Passion with lasting costs Face a dark vision of love in which feeling carries consequences that cannot be undone.
- Emotion without easy comfort Meet Kaltneker’s feverish intensity in a romance that brings desire and ruin into close company.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A night of vows and a dead dog
- A marriage bought on strange terms
- The Sad One preaches the last sacrifice
- Slander, a husband's visit, and a death
- A fortune thrown away to ruin her
- Trial, prison, and a brothel waiting
- What the novel is really about
Who’s who
- SecundusA Viennese prince with a vast fortune, he loves one woman so wildly that he sets out to destroy her and himself.
- Kathrin NhiliusA beautiful, married society woman who is the beloved of Secundus, and who believes that love must be tested by suffering.
- The Sad OneA fallen angel with the face of Dante, who visits Secundus at night and teaches him the last stage of sacrificial love.
- SabineA cold, proud young aristocrat who agrees to a loveless marriage with Secundus in exchange for wealth and status.
- Baron NhiliusA fat, gentle businessman with a weak heart, who tries to settle matters with Secundus without a duel.
- FantoSecundus's shrewd and loyal financial manager, who carries out the schemes of ruin though he sees where they lead.
- Madame Adèle OstererA powerful keeper of Vienna's finest brothel, who accepts a large payment to bring the Baroness under her roof.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 1 h 40 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Love in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Love
A prince with thirty million wrecks the woman he adores, while a dark angel calls it love.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then USD 0.14 a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
A man kills a dog with a tender hand, then sets out to destroy the woman he loves. It is set among the palaces, bars and courtrooms of Vienna.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A night of vows and a dead dog
The book begins in a bedroom at night. A man says he has searched for her, while the woman says she has waited to be found. She is married to another man, and she once walked barefoot across a cold floor as a small sacrifice for her unknown beloved.
He promises to speak to her husband at noon and set her free. Then they part into a gray morning. In the garden, a large black dog comes shivering toward him and rubs its head against his knee.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Love
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Love by Hans Kaltneker about?
It tells of Prince Secundus, who loves a married woman, Kathrin Nhilius, and then sets out to ruin her and himself, believing that the highest love must be willing to be hated and to give up grace.
Who is the Sad One in Love?
He is a dark angel with Dante's face who visits Secundus at night. He claims to be both a fallen brother and the hero's own soul, and he teaches him a stern creed of sacrifice.
What does the epigraph from Meister Eckhart mean?
Eckhart, a medieval preacher, says love as strong as death goes past all comfort and even past hope of eternal life. The Sad One retells this idea to Secundus as a plan for his own actions.
The author
Hans Kaltneker
1895–1919 · Austrian poet and playwright
Hans Kaltneker was an Austrian writer who wrote poetry, plays and prose in the early twentieth century. He was born in 1895 in Temesvár, then in Austria-Hungary and now Timișoara, Romania. He died of tuberculosis in Gutenstein, Austria, in 1919, at the age of twenty-four.
More like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
