1,549 works, 150 years of economic thought. Each one summarized and searchable, with cited passages inside.
Borrowed dishes, a borrowed samovar passed off as a family heirloom, a fur coat defended as the very emblem of one's credit: the Dobler household sustains its claim to be 'better people' entirely on appearances, while the father hides seven months of unemployment. This three-act Viennese comedy, written with Alexander Engel, sets the son Toni's philosophy of debt and strategic marriage against his sister Martha, who advertises herself as a piano teacher, refuses to snare a suitor by concealing the family's poverty, and insists that the better people are simply the better human beings. Around a widower's phantom inheritance and a chain of scheming courtships, the play turns the comedy of social masquerade into a quiet argument for honest labour over genteel pretence.
Der Pflanz, Martha, der ist ja eine soziale Notwendigkeit.
English translation: “Keeping up appearances, Martha — that's a social necessity.”