Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Born in the capital of the Austrian Empire, Schnitzler descended from two Jewish families, with his mother being Luise Markbreiter and his father being the well-renowned Johann Schnitzler. He would enter the practice of medicine like his father and maternal grandfather before him and begin work at Vienna’s General Hospital after completing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. This career path, however, would be short-lived as over the next ten years, Schnitzler’s interest in the medical field would dwindle and he would set out to make a career for himself as a writer. Beginning with his first play Anatol (1893), Schnitzler would go on to publish over a dozen works with the most notable being the controversial play Reigen (1897), the sensual novella Rhapsody: A Dream Novel (1926), and the socio-political novel The Road into the Open (1908), and become known for his frank descriptions of sexuality, commitment to writing “of love and death,” and strong stance against antisemitism.