SOURCE: "A Scientific Image of Woman?: The Influence of Otto Weininger's Sex and Character on the German Novel," in Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger, edited by Nancy A. Harrowitz and Barbara Hyams, translated by Barbara Hyams and Bianca Philippi, Temple University Press, 1995, pp. 171-82.

In the following essay, originally published in 1979, Brude-Firnau discusses Weininger's influence on the modern German novel

Otto Weininger's Sex and Character still incites as much disgust and fascination in today's readers as when it was first published in 1903. Its significance is due largely to the history of its reception. Its large circle of readers included such illustrious names as Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Oswald Spengler, and James Joyce as well as numerous German-speaking authors who have by no means all been identified. The most well known are the authors of major novels from the first half of this century: Franz Kafka, Hermann Broch...