Ludwig Anzengruber, a Viennese writer who set most of his works in the Austrian provinces, received equal acclaim as a playwright and as an author of stories and novels. In championing liberal causes and opposing clerical influence in the lives of the populace, he provided a different perspective on the rural milieu from that of many of his contemporaries and successors, who employed local color for its own sake and tended to idealize country life in a conservative way. Anzengruber's enlightened and critical observation of the society in which his characters lived made him a favorite of the naturalists, who became prominent shortly after his death. His influence also extended to the Bavarian playwright and novelist Ludwig Thoma and, indirectly, to other twentieth-century writers who concentrate on rural regions but refuse to accept the notion of a timeless status quo. Anzengruber's use of dialect has made translation difficult...