For centuries much of Europe was in the hands of the very peculiar Habsburg fami
ly. An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores, musicians a
nd warriors, they saw off - through luck, guile and sheer mulishness - any numbe
r 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 everywhe
re - indeed the history of Europe hardly makes sense without them.
Simon Wind
er's extremely funny new book plunges the reader into a maelstrom of alchemy, sk
eletons, jewels, bear-moats, unfortunate marriages and a guinea-pig village. Dan
ubia is full of music, piracy, religion and fighting. It is the history of a dyn
asty, but it is at least as much about the people they ruled, who spoke many dif
ferent languages, lived in a vast range of landscapes, believed in many rival go
ds 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.
