The dread of the coming dehumanization, the dread of the coming silence of humanity, the dread of human suffering that proclaimed itself everywhere, this precompassion lay deep within Hofmannsthal and made him more poetic than Joyce. - Hermann Broch

The Lord Chandos Letter states the problem of modern literature with a clarity and audacity which surely have never been surpassed. - Stephen Spender, The New York Times

Information about the author: Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), the poet, dramatist, essayist, and librettist, was raised in Vienna. The son of a banker, Hofmannsthal began to publish under the pseudonym Loris when he was only sixteen. Hofmannsthal's youth, talent, and precociousness made a splash at Café Griensteidl, the epicenter of literary Vienna; critic Hermann Bah.