Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time

A biography of composer Jacques Offenbach that is also a social and cultural history of Second Empire Paris.

Siegfried Kracauer's biography of the composer Jacques Offenbach is a remarkable work of social and cultural history. First published in German in 1937 and in English translation in 1938, the book uses the life and work of Offenbach as a focal point for a broad and penetrating portrayal of Second Empire Paris.

Offenbach's immensely popular operettas have long been s…