Description
Book SynopsisThe Grand Spas of Central Europe leads readers on an irresistible tour through the grand spa towns of Central Europefabled places like Baden-Baden, Bad Ems, Bad Gastein, Karlsbad, and Marienbad. Noted historian David Clay Large follows the grand spa story from Greco-Roman antiquity to the present, focusing especially on the years between the French Revolution and World War II, a period in which the major Central European Kurorte (cure-towns) reached their peak of influence and then slipped into decline. Written with verve and affection, the book explores the grand spa towns, which in their prime were an equivalent of today's major medical centers, rehab retreats, golf resorts, conference complexes, fashion shows, music festivals, and sexual hideawaysall rolled into one. Conventional medicine being quite primitive through most of this era, people went to the spas in hopes of curing everything from cancer to gout. But often as not curists also went to play, to be entertained, and to soci
Trade Review[Clay Large's] account is spirited and entertaining. * The New York Review Of Books *
With a focus on the grand spas of Germany and Habsburg Austria, the author of this book provides an engrossing and entertaining history of their development as centers of healing and as hubs of social, cultural, and political maneuvering. His anecdotes about famous cultural figures taking the waters lend fresh insight into their influence and personalities. * Historian *
With scintillating wit and a storyteller's élan, David Large is the perfect guide to the colorful history of Europe's spa culture. This is serious scholarship leavened with delicious gossip about spa celebrities, from Beethoven and Tolstoy to Karl Marx and Mark Twain. -- Adrienne Mayor, author of The Poison King and The Amazons
In this learned, thoroughly researched, and elegant study, the distinguished Central European historian David Large begins our grand tour of spas with Greek and Roman bathing rituals, carrying his fascinating story into the turn of the twentieth century. -- John Merriman, Charles Seymour Professor of History, Yale University
There is no better, more mischievous, more companionable guide to German history than David Clay Large. Once again he has written a book that draws on deep expertise, deep research, a keen knowledge of social texture, and yet reads like a guilty pleasure. The history of the spas reveals modern Europeans wrapped only in towels. -- David Quammen, author of The Song of the Dodo and Spillover
This absorbing book is just as diverting and delightful as the places it chronicles once were. Large writes with verve and style, and he knows how to put vivid characters and vignettes to the service of important historical points. An altogether arresting and rewarding overview of modern European history through an unconventional and entertaining lens. -- Peter Hayes, Northwestern University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Spas and Spa Culture from the Greco-Roman World to the Grand Tour The Ancient West Decline and Resurrection The Grand Tour Chapter 2: Baden-Baden: The “Summer Capital of Europe” Becoming Baden-Baden Faites Votre Jeu: The Age of Bénazet August Granville’s Baden-Baden The “Jewish Question” Getting There The Revolutions of 1848–1849 Chapter 3: Muses in the Water Two Titans at the Fountains: Goethe and Beethoven Scribble, Squander, Soak: Romantic-Era Writers in Baden-Baden The Sound of Music Chapter 4: Roulettenburg: Russian Writers at the Grand German Spas Troubled in Soul (and Bowels): Nikolai Gogol in Baden-Baden Ivan Turgenev’s Path to the West Turgenev versus Tolstoy Ménage à Trois on the Oos Fedor Dostoevsky in German Spa Land Showdown in Baden-Baden Do Svidaniya to Deutschland Chapter 5: Politics on the Promenade A Line in the Water The German Question(s) Five Balls over the Waters: Bismarck’s Alliance System Vicky, Willy, Nicky, Bertie, and Franz Josef Chapter 6: Modernization and Its Discontents Innovations Medicalization: “It’s Not Just about the Waters Anymore!” A Jewish Space Taking the Waters with Marx/Twain Chapter 7: Trouble in Paradise: Spa-Town Life from World War I to the Triumph of Hitler The Grand Spas at War German Spa Towns and the Weimar Republic Rump Austria Slouching toward Berlin: Karlsbad and Marienbad in the Twenties and Thirties Chapter 8: Brown Waters: Grand Spas under the Third Reich Nazis and Spas “Germany’s Visiting Card” “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” A Coda: Badenheim 1939 Wartime Chapter 9: A New Beginning Postwar Recovery Epilogue: The Grand Spas Today Acknowledgments Principal Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading Index About the Author
