The Malady of the Century
by Max Nordau 1849–1923
The book, and the century it came out of.
A young man of the 1880s, exhausted by his own century, drifts between Berlin, Paris and a woman who is worse for him than the age is. Nordau was a physician who co-founded the World Zionist Organization with Herzl — and who wrote Degeneration, the book that told Europe its artists were sick. The plates in this edition are by the very painters he diagnosed: Munch, Klimt, Böcklin, Redon. The argument and the pictures are left to fight it out. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Schwabe, Malczewski and Klimt among them.
“Come, you fellows, that’s enough joking. This defection of yours, melancholy Eynhardt, combines obstinacy with wisdom, like Balaam’s ass!
The Malady of the Century, by Max Nordau, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Literary Classics
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 408 pages
- Reading time
- about 8 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486772542
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Malady of the Century, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486772542, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Malady of the Century?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Max Nordau's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 408 pages, which is roughly about 8 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
