Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe - Couverture souple

Winder, Simon

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0330522795 ISBN 13 : 9780330522793

Editeur : Picador, 2014

Synopsis

For centuries much of Europe was in the hands of the very peculiar Habsburg family. An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores, musicians and warriors, they saw off - through luck, guile and sheer mulishness - any number of rivals, until finally packing up in 1918. From their principal lairs along the Danube they ruled most of Central Europe and Germany and interfered everywhere - indeed the history of Europe hardly makes sense without them. Simon Winder's extremely funny new book plunges the reader into a maelstrom of alchemy, skeletons, jewels, bear-moats, unfortunate marriages and a guinea-pig village. Danubia is full of music, piracy, religion and fighting. It is the history of a dynasty, but it is at least as much about the people they ruled, who spoke many different languages, lived in a vast range of landscapes, believed in many rival gods and often showed a marked ingratitude towards their oddball ruler in Vienna. Readers who discovered Simon Winder's genius for telling wonderful stories of middle Europe with Germania will be delighted by the eccentric and fascinating stories of the Habsburgs and their world.Danubia was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2013.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

'Memorably funny ... He has produced a history which is often wonderfully readable and entertaining.' The Sunday Times

'Winder is a puppishly enthusiastic companion: funny, erudite, frequently irritating, always more in control of his material than he pretends to be, and never for a moment boring.' The Financial Times

'A fresh look at a region and a dynasty of which most of us in the English-speaking world are quite ignorant.'

--The Guardian

Biographie de l'auteur :

Simon Winder is the author of the highly praised The Man Who Saved Britain and the Sunday Times top-ten bestseller Germania. He works in publishing and lives in Wandsworth Town.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Picador
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0330522795
• ISBN 13: 9780330522793
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 464