Danubia

A Personal History of Habsburg Europe

By: Simon Winder

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

From the end of the Middle Ages to the First World War, Europe was dominated by one family: the Habsburgs. Their unprecedented rule is the focus of Simon Winder's vivid third book, Danubia.

Winder's approach is friendly, witty, personal; this is a narrative that, while erudite and well researched, prefers to be discursive and anecdotal. In his survey of the centuries of often incompetent Habsburg rule which have continued to shape the fate of Central Europe, Winder does not shy away from the horrors, railing against the effects of nationalism, recounting the violence that was often part of life. But this is a history dominated above all by Winder's energy and curiosity. Thrillingly informative, Danubia is a treat that listeners will be eager to dip into.

©2013 Simon Winder (P)2018 Tantor

Lovely narration, brilliant book

Lovely narration, brilliant book with the serious material leavened by dry humor that reminds me of Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series. I should take some time to digest Danubia now that I’ve completed it, and I will reread it in e-book format, but now I want to go ahead and read Winder’s Germania.

Narrator ruins it

I want to like this book, I suspect it is interesting, but for me, the narrator ruins it. His voice is so monotone, it's difficult to keep attention on what he's saying, and I have to keep backing up the book because I realize I had tuned out.

Worse, though, is the fact that the narrator can't make it through a sentence without having to stop and inhale at least twice. While I feel bad for him with his apparent dyspnea, it's distracting.

I'm giving up on the audio version and will read the Kindle version instead.

Too scattered for me

Not finishing a book grates on me, but I abandoned ship on this one after 11 hours. It felt so scattered. Meandering history can be really wonderful, strolling off on interesting tangents and avoiding the most direct route from A to B, but I guess my sensibilities don't match the author's in this instance. You get a lot of Winder's artistic and musical preferences and musings, to the point that it felt as if a digression on putti in Habsburgs art got as much space as the Thirty Years' War. Again, I could even see that balance working in some books. It just didn't for me here. It's neither enough of a travelogue to feel immersed in a place nor enough of a history to gain a sense of the times (it's laid out in a nominally linear timeline ... but very nominally). Still, I do think it's well written, pleasantly not self-serious and obviously comes from a deep love of the subject matter. Other listeners might connect with more of the digressions.

Superb narration

Winder’s erudition and droll humor find their perfect expression in Stewart’s understated delivery. Highly entertaining.

Interesting subject for sure

I was fascinated by all the facts I didn't know about Central Europe, and am very grateful to the author for putting them all into words and sequence.
But for me personally it was hard to listen because of the unusual ( to me) manner of reading. And also it felt boring to be repetitively told about some personal experiences of the author . But this is me.
I just love facts and fluent narration.

full of detail and personality

Really enjoyed this and will read more by the author. He weaves in his personal travel and opinions, which adds to the narrative. He's also charmingly snarky, as only the British can be. Only challenge was the 'pause' style of the narrator, meaning a somewhat choppy cadence. If you want to know something about Eastern/central Europe and the Habsburg empire, I recommend this.

Magnificent history of the Habsburg Empire

First of all, I want to say that the narrator is terrific, as is this book. I had been looking for a history of Austria for some time, and Simon Winder's spellbinding history of the Habsburgs is perfect. Before reading it, I had some reservations as I thought it was a mix between a travel book and a history book, but the reality is that Danubia is a history book in which the author happens to travel to some of the most significant places of the former Empire and see history for himself in person. The travel part always support and reinforces the main narratives.
Additionally, Winder is a witty, sarcastically and erudite narrator, who provides some ironic comments now and then, but his voice never overwhelms the history being told, which is nothing less than fascinating. The Habsburgs were at the heart of Europe for centuries, in the middle of the religious wars, preventing the Ottomans from overwhelming the Continent, decisively tied to the history of Spain, fighting the Napoleonic Wars. As Winder points out, most of them were bores, but the history of the Empire was never boring, as from the beginning the Habsburg King was also the King of the Holy Roman Empire (until Napoleon and then Bismarck ended that). Winder not only recounts the history and the politics, but he is also immensely knowledgeable on the culture of the Empire, from the operas and the music created during the reign of Marie Therese and her son Joseph, through the novelists (like Zweig and Joseph Roth) and composers (Janacek) who witnessed the catastrophic end of the Empire.
Winder covers the immensity of the Empire, making stops in Hungary, the Balkans, Galizia, Bohemia, all places which were part of the Habsburg empire and which to this day are heirs to its greatness and haunted by its collapse.
I can't recommend this highly enough. Although I recently listened to Iron Kingdom, a history of Prussia, I can`t wait to listen to Germania. And then again, pay no attention to the guy who said the narrator is terrible, James Cameron Stewart does a great job, he is authoritative but sarcastic and witty when the narration calls for it. Perfect book.

Read, and Read Again

A remarkably beautiful, sympathetic, at times funny, and always emotional book. Part travel, part history, part memoir, I read it while traveling in Eastern Europe and found it essential to putting the place in some kind of intelligible context. I have since re-read it, and have highlighted something on nearly every other page. Sometimes for the writing, sometimes for the humor, sometimes for the shock value.

Hilarious and informative

This is the third book in Winder's series and it's as great at the other two. His historical approach and insights are first-rate while still being very funny. I can't recommend it enough. Narration is fantastic as well.

Informative and Entertaining

I throughly enjoyed this book both for it’s level of detail and it’s entertaining presentation. I found the author’s personal interjections and observations quite humorous and providing a dry wit that I very much appreciated. I had to refer to maps several times in order to remain situationally aware of the story and would highly recommend having a map handy as a reference while listening to this book. I am looking forward to listening to the author’s other works.