- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Picador (5 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330451391
- ISBN-13: 978-0330451390
- Product Dimensions: 14.8 x 4.8 x 22.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 37,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Germania
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Winder is perhaps the first to have succeeded in presenting Germany as no less fun that France or Italy and the Germans as a nation of eccentrics very like our own... He excels in a style that he self-deprecatingly calls ''anecdotal facetiousness'' but which manages to convey copious quantities of facts in the most enjoyable way possible.' --Evening Standard
'It's plain that Winder's mind is fizzing with interesting ideas. He can write beautifully, embodying a whole world in a phrase... He finds new angles on familiar subjects... His excitement is beguiling and infectious; he's widely read, good-humoured and - a wonderful asset in writing this book - utterly lacking an axe to sharpen on the subject of the Second World War... There are many pleasures to be savoured in Germania... gems that make Winder's clever, rambunctious work a book to treasure.' --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review
'This book is the chronicle of a passion. It is also an engrossing, informative and hilarious read. He has spun an enthralling weave of travelogue, anecdote and historical mock-epic. What is often most engaging about these encounters is the spectacle of Winder himself. It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with WG Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this. Winder's extravagant mixing of genres allows him to seek historical depth without sacrificing the pleasures of anecdote. There is a serious purpose behind all the playfulness.' --Christopher Clark, Sunday Times
`His rich and broadly chronological history of Germany and its peoples is minutely researched. Interspersed in the narrative, however, are the deliciously opinionated, often hilarious and occasionally vituperative reminiscences of the author's many excursions to Germany and Austria. They make the book. The love-hate nature of his relationship with his subject brings out the best in his writing...It is the kind of knockabout humour that has British readers rolling while Germans smile politely but a little uncomprehendingly... A splendid offering.' --Hugh Mortimer, Financial Times
`Simon Winder peppers his meaty tome with quirky digressions, anecdotes and memories, revealing intriguing insights about Germany, from its cuisine to its architecture, people and history.' --ABTA magazine
`Travelogue and historical narrative are merged in a gloriously free-wheeling narrative of the entire sweep of German history . . . This book is clearly not intended to be the last word on German history. But for any readers wanting a learned, entertaining and lucid introduction to a notoriously complex subject, it should certainly be their first.' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'This candid, cheerful and idiosyncratic approach to travelogue makes a refreshing change. Whether being stridently critical or puppyishly enthusiastic, Winder is a master of the well-turned phrase or the unexpected insight.' --The Times
`Best to follow Winder on his rambles as you'd follow a favourite uncle who knows lots about lots of apparently random things . . . He is most engaging and sporadically wise . . . Winder's mind is a very agreeable place to go rambling.' --The Scotsman
'Entertaining and informative... Delightful'
--Philip Hensher, The Independent
`A history engaging and infuriating enough to hold us through over 450 pages.' --The Independent
`beautifully written and insightful book . . . It can only be hoped that it will be read by many and that it will be recognised for whit it is: a witty, thought-provoking account of German's various histories, cultures and oddities.'
--Irish Times
'It's plain that Winder's mind is fizzing with interesting ideas. He can write beautifully, embodying a whole world in a phrase... He finds new angles on familiar subjects... His excitement is beguiling and infectious; he's widely read, good-humoured and - a wonderful asset in writing this book - utterly lacking an axe to sharpen on the subject of the Second World War... There are many pleasures to be savoured in Germania... gems that make Winder's clever, rambunctious work a book to treasure.' --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review
'This book is the chronicle of a passion. It is also an engrossing, informative and hilarious read. He has spun an enthralling weave of travelogue, anecdote and historical mock-epic. What is often most engaging about these encounters is the spectacle of Winder himself. It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with WG Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this. Winder's extravagant mixing of genres allows him to seek historical depth without sacrificing the pleasures of anecdote. There is a serious purpose behind all the playfulness.' --Christopher Clark, Sunday Times
`His rich and broadly chronological history of Germany and its peoples is minutely researched. Interspersed in the narrative, however, are the deliciously opinionated, often hilarious and occasionally vituperative reminiscences of the author's many excursions to Germany and Austria. They make the book. The love-hate nature of his relationship with his subject brings out the best in his writing...It is the kind of knockabout humour that has British readers rolling while Germans smile politely but a little uncomprehendingly... A splendid offering.' --Hugh Mortimer, Financial Times
`Simon Winder peppers his meaty tome with quirky digressions, anecdotes and memories, revealing intriguing insights about Germany, from its cuisine to its architecture, people and history.' --ABTA magazine
`Travelogue and historical narrative are merged in a gloriously free-wheeling narrative of the entire sweep of German history . . . This book is clearly not intended to be the last word on German history. But for any readers wanting a learned, entertaining and lucid introduction to a notoriously complex subject, it should certainly be their first.' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'This candid, cheerful and idiosyncratic approach to travelogue makes a refreshing change. Whether being stridently critical or puppyishly enthusiastic, Winder is a master of the well-turned phrase or the unexpected insight.' --The Times
`Best to follow Winder on his rambles as you'd follow a favourite uncle who knows lots about lots of apparently random things . . . He is most engaging and sporadically wise . . . Winder's mind is a very agreeable place to go rambling.' --The Scotsman
'Entertaining and informative... Delightful'
--Philip Hensher, The Independent
`A history engaging and infuriating enough to hold us through over 450 pages.' --The Independent
`beautifully written and insightful book . . . It can only be hoped that it will be read by many and that it will be recognised for whit it is: a witty, thought-provoking account of German's various histories, cultures and oddities.'
--Irish Times
Product Description
An often eccentric, always entertaining guide to the history and the hidden wonders of Germany
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Informative history,
By L. H. Healy "Books are life, beauty and truth." (Cambridgeshire, UK) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I was excited to get my hands on a copy of this book as I studied German and have lived in Germany and travelled there extensively. I think the author has evidently put an awful lot of work into this book and it does contain a lot of historical factual information with his take on it all. It's interesting to hear his story of how his interest in all things German developed and it's these personal elements that I probably found the most readable. In some way though it is not quite what I had expected, perhaps I had been after a sort of entertaining, more light-hearted travelogue of adventures in the same vein as Bill Bryson or similar, and that is my error in misunderstanding the nature of the book perhaps, but this is definitely more of a historical account through the ages. In a way I would have liked it to have come right up to the present day Germany we now know, yet I understand the author's reasoning for stopping when he does. I'm sure some readers will find it fascinating and I will probably revisit it in the future and retry sections of it. Personally I think it is easier read and digested in small chunks than trying to go at the whole work at once.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment,
By
This review is from: Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern (Hardcover)
Having spent over 5 years living in Germany I decided to buy this book on the back of previous reviews. I was very disappointed with what I read. The style is awful with long-winded sentences and weak attempts at humour. The writer is all over the place, with no clear line of thinking. If you are looking for a book that will give you some idea of what makes Germans tick, then don't bother with this one.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
One eye...,
By
This review is from: Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern (Hardcover)
This starts off as a fairly funny book that anyone who regularly tours Germany will find amusing. Soon however the authors political bias and in particular his curious anti-German mindset shows through. This worsens as the book concludes and this reader found difficulty in finishing the volume. His particular hatred of Munich and Bavaria is particularly jarring.Most disturbing (and illuminating) is his readiness to "forgive" the Red Army all their excesses as they raped and murdered their way through north Germany and Austria. I am sorry I bought this book...
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