Summary: Axel Munthe, a Swedish doctor and consummate bon vivant, was one of the most successful authors of the 20th century with his bestseller "The Story of San Michele." Perhaps because he was more than just a writer: he gave up his career as a fashionable doctor for the elite and settled on Capri. Far from being a dropout, he was a genius of social life. Empress Elisabeth, Man Ray, Rasputin, Henry James, and even Hermann Göring valued his company. Thomas Steinfeld narrates how Axel Munthe staged a life between fantasy and reality - as if it were a novel. About the author: Thomas Steinfeld, born in 1954, is a Germanist and musicologist, a feuilleton correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and also teaches as a titular professor at the Cultural Studies Institute of the University of Lucerne. Published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag: "Wallander's Landscape. A Journey Through Skåne" (2002). Published by Carl Hanser Verlag: "The Passionate Accountant. Philology as a Way of Life" (2004), "The Doctor of San Michele. Axel Munthe and the Art of Giving Life Meaning" (2007), and "The Language Seducer. The German Language: What It Is, What It Can Do" (2010). In September 2017, "Lord of the Ghosts. The Thoughts of Karl Marx" was published.