Budapest : a cultural history / Bob Dent.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dent, Bob.

Series:

Cityscapes

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Budapest (Hungary)--Description and travel.

Budapest (Hungary).

Budapest (Hungary)--Civilization.

Physical Description:

xv, 237 pages : illustrations, map ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

The views of Budapest by the River Danube are unparalleled in Europe. On one side the Buda hills reach almost to the riverside, with Castle Hill and Gellrt Hill offering outstanding panoramas. Pest, linked to Buda by a series of imposing bridges, with its mixture of late-nineteenth-century Historicist and early-twentieth-century Art Nouveau architecture, is still very much a "turn-of-the-century" city.

For more than fifty years prior to the Second World War, Budapest was one of the outstanding cultural capitals of Central Europe, on a par with, and in some ways ahead of, Vienna and Prague. Now that it is no longer "hidden" behind the Iron Curtain, much of that old atmosphere has returned. With its rich and often turbulent history, its unique thermal baths, its excellent public transport system, its street cafes and broad-ranging cultural scene, Budapest is a captivating metropolis, currently being rediscovered as one of the liveliest cities in the region. City on the Danube: Straddling the majestic river, Budapest's setting is unique; bridges and baths, cafes and squares; an architecture that recalls the pre-1914 era. City of Fusions: Bartok and Kodaly fused folk and classical music; the tradition continues with Budapest's vibrant mixture of live folk, gypsy, klezmer, and jazz. City of the Unknown: Breaking through the barrier of the Hungarian language, often described as impenetrable, presented here are writers and poets deserving international recognition.

Contents:

A Cautionary Note xi

Chapter 1 By the Danube 1

"Wise, turbulent and great" 1

A Bridge to the Future 5

"The greatest Hungarian" 10

The Enchanted Garden 13

Gloomy Sunday 15

A Friend of Hungary? 19

The People's Poet 22

The National Theatre 24

Chapter 2 Avenue of Dreams 29

Budapest's Champs-Elysees 29

The Opera House 32

Forever Smiling? 34

A Hungarian by Choice: Liszt 35

'An instrument accessible to all": Zoltan Kodaly 39

Bartok and his Times 43

Two Writer-Kings 48

Avenue of Nightmares 52

Gypsies and Princesses on Stage: Puppets and Operetta 55

Champagne Louise and Miss Arizona 59

Chapter 3 City of Cafes 61

Coffee House Castles 61

Twists of Fate 64

Revival 69

Chapter 4 Heroes and Others 73

Now You See It-Now You Don't 73

Temples of Art 79

Funerals for Heroes 82

A People's Park 85

The Throbbing Hearts of 1896 88

Chapter 5 Hearts and Minds 93

1919: Revolutionary Interlude 93

The Inter-War Years: Irredentism and Everyday Life 103

The 1950s: The Stalinist Era 107

After Stalin 112

The 1990s: Changing the Face of the City-Statues and Street Names 116

Chapter 6 City of Baths 123

Spa City 126

Chapter 7 Written in Stone 129

Parliament 129

Crowning Glory 133

Every Statue Tells a Story 135

Imre Nagy and the 1956 Explosion 140

In Place of a Prison 143

Art Nouveau and Romantic 147

Soviet and American 151

Chapter 8 From Markets to Menus 153

Market Colours 153

Love and Stuffed Cabbage 155

Chapter 9 Music Fusion 159

Folk Music Capital 159

Cold Outside, Warm Inside 161

Ivory and Enamel 165

Chapter 10 Jews and Gentiles 167

Politics of Inclusion 167

Denominations and Differences 171

Around the Dohany utca Synagogue 173

A Tragic Twist 176

From Inclusion to Exclusion 178

The Jewish Tragedy 181

Imagining the Holocaust 183

Chapter 11 Above the City... 189

Castle Hill 189

The National Gallery 194

Minus a Century 197

The Church on the Hill 198

Chapter 12 ...and Below 203

With a Pure Heart: Attila Jozsef 203

On the Margin: Lajos Kassak 207

The Spirit of Joseph Town 209

Penetrating the Language Barrier 212

Expatriates and Bank Robbers 214

A Clothes Hanger Perspective 219

Further Browsing 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-230) and indexes.

ISBN:

0195314948

9780195314946

0195314956

9780195314953

OCLC:

77716934

Online:

Publisher description