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Product Description
Product Description
From the Velvet Revolution to the disturbing world of Franz Kafka, from the devestation of the Thirty Years War to the musical elegance of Mozart and Dvorak, Prague is steeped in a wealth of history and culture. PRAGUE IN BLACK AND GOLD is a first class history of this unique city, allowing us to unravel layer upon layer of startlingly symbolic sites and buidings to reveal the real Prague. "PRAGUE IN BLACK AND GOLD is an exceptional work - and exceptionally reliable ... I am sure that thiswill be an important and exciting guide for all who wish to learn more about the famous people and important events in the history of the Czech lands and their capital" Ivan Klima, The Times
About the Author
Peter Demetz is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Yale Universiry. He grew up in Prague but fled Czechoslovakia in 1949, settling in the United States. "The author is a master of digressions, a brilliant raconteur whom we follow gladly on his intellectual rambles ... As a guide in these treacherous waters, he inspires total trust" Spectator
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
I bought this in Prague and it became a second travelling companion to me. The minute print meant I found the book difficult to get into at first, but I persevered and learned so much which illuminated my stay.
Peter Demetz is not afraid to write subjectively and his personal insight is one of the most fascinating aspects of this history, stripping away the tourist facade and displaying his home city in all it's bloody splendour.
My only criticism would be that recent history is a little rushed, but perhaps that is deliberate? It certainly made me want to learn more about Prague's fascinating history - and sharpened my appetite for another trip to the Czech Republic!
Peter Demetz provides THE essential history of the capital of Bohemia, Czechoslovakia and then the Czech republic in his magnificent, well informed: Prague in Black and Gold. I have to keep re-reading this masterpiece because every time I pick it up it transports me right back to the jewel in the European crown that is Prague in all its mystic and magical charm.
Impartial and informative, Prague in Black and Gold allows you to dive deep in to the turbulent history of the city at the center of European affairs for well over 1000 years, through the founding Premyslids and the golden era of Charles IV, to the Hussite revolution and wars, to the alchemical era of Rudolphine Prague right through to the founding of the republic and the death of the first president T.G. Masaryk at the onset of Nazi domination. Although he finishes the book at this point, Demetz picks up where he left off in 'Prague in Danger' which begins with the onset of the Second World War and the appalling Munich Agreement of 1938.
Demetz leaves nothing out and never shy's away from reality recounting the brutal treatment of the Jews of Prague in recurrent Pogroms and discriminatory legislation by even those most celebrated Czech Kings and Queens. He also brings in important events and characters in the geographical areas surrounding Prague from Poland and the German states to Italian and Austrian influences to provide a well rounded history which misses none of the events as they happened on the ground.
It seems that there is almost nothing this author doesn't know about this incredible place and all those who have been, or are thinking of going to Prague, should read this through in order to fully experience all that the most magical city in Europe has to offer.
Impartial and informative, Prague in Black and Gold allows you to dive deep in to the turbulent history of the city at the center of European affairs for well over 1000 years, through the founding Premyslids and the golden era of Charles IV, to the Hussite revolution and wars, to the alchemical era of Rudolphine Prague right through to the founding of the republic and the death of the first president T.G. Masaryk at the onset of Nazi domination. Although he finishes the book at this point, Demetz picks up where he left off in 'Prague in Danger' which begins with the onset of the Second World War and the appalling Munich Agreement of 1938.
Demetz leaves nothing out and never shy's away from reality recounting the brutal treatment of the Jews of Prague in recurrent Pogroms and discriminatory legislation by even those most celebrated Czech Kings and Queens. He also brings in important events and characters in the geographical areas surrounding Prague from Poland and the German states to Italian and Austrian influences to provide a well rounded history which misses none of the events as they happened on the ground.
It seems that there is almost nothing this author doesn't know about this incredible place and all those who have been, or are thinking of going to Prague, should read this through in order to fully experience all that the most magical city in Europe has to offer.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
I admit it - I found this book dry, drab, dusty, and dull. Fact after fact whipped past me, and at the end of the exercise, I felt as if I knew nothing more about the city than I did when I began.
Perhaps I have been spoiled by reading too many lively histories - histories that carry you away and deposit you within a (albeit often mythical) city. Thus, I expect history to be an adventure, not a trial. For me, this book was the latter - and I was relieved to finish.
All that said, the main issue I had with this book was that the history lesson stopped in, of all times, 1937. So - no Nazi occupation, no communist regime, no velvet revolution. Cutting out the most interesting part of Prague's history in this way is bizarre and (even bearing in mind Demetz's discomfort at his past) fairly unforgivable.
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