Accounting and the soul of the middle class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben

The power of accounting has been explained in terms of its technical efficacity in depicting economic reality. This paper examines the significance of accounting for the nineteenth-century middle class as it was portrayed in Freytag's best-selling novel Soll und Haben. It considers the connections between accounting and middle-class values, in particular orderliness and rational conduct. It concludes that accounting derives persuasiveness not from its facticity, but from its simultaneous embodiment and confirmation of middle-class values.