Description
Book SynopsisIn 1900 Vienna was one of the most exciting places to live in the world. Its glamorous high society was the envy of Europe, and it was the centre of an exploding arts movement that set the tone for the following century.
Tim Bonyhady's family were leading patrons of the arts in fin de siècle Vienna: Gustav Klimt painted his great-grandmother's portrait, Josef Hoffmann designed their lavish residence and Gustav and Alma Mahler were close acquaintances.
In Good Living Street Bonyhady follows the lives of three generations of women in his family in an intimate account of fraught relationships, romance, and business highs and lows. They enjoyed a lifestyle of unimaginable luxury and privilege until the rise of Nazism made their existence in Austria untenable.
In 1938, as Kristallnacht was raging, his family fled Vienna for a small flat in Australia, taking with them the best private collection of art and design to escape the Nazis. As they remade their lives as refugees, the past was rarely discussed and fifty years passed before Tim discovered the remarkable arc of his family's fortunes.
Trade ReviewA glittering family saga of privilege and tragedy. * Sunday Telegraph *
This is a deeply affecting portrait of a family and the way that memory is held through objects and art. It is a remarkable book. -- Edmund de Waal, author of THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES
So rich in texture, so full of artistic and visual detail, that a whole lost central European world, and particularly its art, architecture and music, comes alive on the page. * The Spectator *
Rich and enthralling -- Alexander Waugh
A captivating tour-de-force. * Art Monthly *
tells a riveting three-generational family story without sentimentality that, because of the meticulousness of the research, displays a whole society to us, with habits, lifestyles, attitudes and aspirations so different from ours... It is essentially an essay on the human spirit, with all its angularities and complexities. * Australian Book Review *
Table of ContentsFamily TreeIntroductionI. HERMINEKlimtGodGas-LightsFamilyGalaPicturesRoomsII. GRETLDiariesTangoLoveWarHoffmannDeathSexMarriageIII. ANNELOREMemoryAustro-FascismAnschlussVisasSubterfugeLossCaptureIV. ANNE1939AliensCorrespondenceEricReturnDispersalRestitutionIdentityNotesAcknowledgementsIndex
