Liszt's career as a pianist coincided with the rise of music played for the public as a commercial enterprise. His performances were fabulously successful, and in the 1840s the word "Lisztomania" was coined to describe the public reaction. The analogies with modern celebrity are strong; Richard Schickel wrote that "before Sinatra at the Paramount there had been, of course, Lisztomania in Europe.<ref>Schickel, Richard (1985) ''Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity''</ref>. A 1985 movie by [[Ken Russell]] entitled ''Lisztomania'' played on the similarities, with real-life rock star [[Roger Daltrey]] (lead singer of [[The Who]]) playing the role of Liszt.
Liszt was a romantic in two senses. He was an exponent of the musical style known as [[Romantic period (music)|romanticism]]. He was also a man about whom it was said that "as long as he lived, women fluttered around him as moths about a candle."
Often referred to during his lifetime as Abbé Liszt, he studied theology in Rome and received a lower order of consecration, but was not a priest.<ref>"Franz Liszt not an Abbe." ''The New York Times,'' July 17, 1885, p. 4: "Of the consecrations, however, he only received the lower order, which formerly were frequently and even now occasionally vouchsafed to lay brethren. He is therefore neither subdeacon nor deacon, and still less a priest, and has neither the rights nor the responsibilities of the members of the higher clergy. He is not bound to wear the clerical garb; still less is he beholden to comply with any of the rules and duties imposed upon the higher clergy."</ref>