Chapter 1
Dedicated to my grandmother, her Vienna on my mind
The Ferris wheel burns a blazing fissure into the night over the Prater, Vienna’s amusing district where the Viennese, whose present is no more fun and games in the Garden of the Hapsburg monarchy, are obstinately keeping to their better past. We are at the turn of the 19th century. Vienna, a well-practiced whore with the charm of a purring panther is leaning over the blue Danube rinsing out her tell-tale wrinkles in its putrid water.
This is when Clarissa Antonia von Anaheim, a perfect specimen of her time and class, is born with a beauty so perfect that only a commoner could ask for more. It is unimaginable that her outstanding looks could change with age or illness or loss of her social standing or any other calamity befalling the lesser mortals. Her beauty is a phenomenon as obvious as the appeal of an Aphrodite.
