ABSTRACT
The quarter-century preceding the First World War has very recently passed entirely out of living memory. What remains are images, now typically seen in television mini-series: women in long skirts and men in coats with stiff collars, spending long sunlit afternoons on large, green lawns in amiable conversation and stately pastimes. It all leaves the impression of an age of peace and prosperity, of a time of order and stability. These images and the impressions they evoke are the electronic version of a long-held designation of the age, known in most European languages by its French name, the ‘belle époque’ – literally, the beautiful era, or, translated more freely, the ‘good times’.
