Vienna's literary tradition is rich, dark, and worth a few hours' reading before a visit. Books that help a traveller see the city differently:
The Third Man by Graham Greene. The novella behind the famous Carol Reed film of 1949. Greene wrote it after walking the bomb-damaged sewers and the Prater with a British army officer, and the dread-soaked atmosphere of postwar Vienna — divided into four occupation zones — comes through unforgettably. Read it in an afternoon and you'll see the Riesenrad differently for the rest of your trip.
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. The great unfinished novel of the Habsburg twilight, set in Vienna in the year before the First World War. Musil's "Kakania" — his sardonic name for the dual monarchy — is one of the finest portraits of any city in fiction. Long, slow, and brilliant.
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. Three generations of an Austrian military family across the rise and fall of the empire. Roth is unsparing about Habsburg decay but movingly tender about its people. The best single novel about the world that produced modern Vienna.
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889 by Frederic Morton. A non-fiction account of a single year in late-imperial Vienna, written in evocative present-tense scenes. The Mayerling tragedy, Mahler's early career, Freud's first publications, and the rise of the antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger are all here.
Embers by Sándor Márai. A short, intense novel of one night in a Habsburg-era hunting lodge, written in the 1940s and rediscovered fifty years later. Perfect length for a long train ride; the atmosphere is unmistakably Mitteleuropa.