This book is the first part of an unfinished project for a monograph on Alban Berg’s life and work. It documents the composer’s juvenilia and early works (from the years 1900–13). Significantly, Andrzej Chłopecki does not limit himself to a discussion of selected musical examples from that period. In each chapter, he also deals with the composer’s life, the details of his psychic condition and his evolving personality, presenting him in relation to his environment. According to Chłopecki, “the chronology of Alban Berg’s work is strictly linked to the chronology of his life (...). Life becomes here an inseparable context for the work, and the work – an inseparable part of the life.” Such an integrated analysis of Berg’s music in the context of his biography is uncommon, and in this respect Andrzej Chłopecki’s monograph can be seen as unique. It is also distinguished from other works in the rich bibliography of Berg studies by its focus on the life and work of the composer in his youth.