1 h 40 minAudiobook3 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.
Is it for you?
This summary suits readers who like Viennese fiction, emotional intensity and stories of passion pushed to its limits. If you want light romance or a calm, cheerful read, this darker book may be less suited to you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Vienna at the end of an age
- Obsession as the engine of the story
- Sacrifice and what love demands
- Ruin and the price of feeling
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 3 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 · 60-day guarantee
- 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, for the whole household.
- We remind you first. We email you 7 days before your first payment. Then your first year is 50% off: USD 0.14 a day, then USD 0.27 a day, never raised. Or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
60-day money-back guarantee. If the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
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.
Read it side by side
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- The whole household
Starts right away, on any device
Read free60-day money-back guaranteeRenews every yearCancel anytimeHow it works
Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
Vienna at the end of an age
The Vienna of the Belle Époque was a city of cafés, theatres, music and strict social rules. Behind the polished surface, many writers saw anxiety, secrecy and a hunger for feeling that manners could not satisfy. Authors such as Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig turned this tension into fiction.
Hans Kaltneker wrote within that world, though he belonged to a younger group shaped by war and its aftermath. His short life fell across the collapse of the empire in 1918. That setting matters, because a society close to ruin gives a story of private ruin a larger echo.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
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.
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, for the whole household. 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 - The whole householdUp to 5 readers
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
More like this
Free
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
Questions about Love
Can I read it free?
Yes. The beginning, from the first page to the end of chapter 1, and the first 5 minutes of the audiobook are free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 90 days, with the eBook to keep. After that, your first year is 50% off. You also get 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.
Can my family read too?
Yes. The whole household reads and listens: up to 5 readers, each with their own shelf and their own place in every book.
What if it is not for me?
Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. If you have paid and the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
Who was Hans Kaltneker?
Hans Kaltneker was an Austrian writer who wrote in German and died in 1919. He worked in Vienna in the years around the First World War, and his writing is known for its intense, searching tone.
What period is Love set in?
The book is placed in the Viennese Belle Époque, the last decades of the Habsburg empire before the First World War. It was a time of refined city life and deep unease beneath the surface.
What kind of book is Love?
It is a dark romance, a work of fiction about passion, obsession and sacrifice. Readers should expect heightened feeling and a serious, sometimes painful mood rather than a light love story.
Popular in romance
See all
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
