The double eagle: Vienna, Budapest, and Prague

by Stephen Brook

The subjects of this book, the three principal cities of the old Hapsburg Empire - Vienna, Budapest and Prague - are as different from one another as the languages spoken, and since World War II these differences have if anything increased. Looking at all aspects of life in Vienna, Budapest and Prague, this book looks at the food and wine, the culture, the buildings, the politics and, above all the people of these three cities.

Genres: Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Stephen Brook has been a contributing editor to Decanter since 1996 and has won a clutch of awards for his writing on wine. The author of more than 30 books, his works include Complete Bordeaux, now the definitive study of the region and in its third edition, and The Wines of California, which won three awards. His most recently published book is The Wines of Austria. Brook also fully revised the last two editions of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion, and he writes for magazines in many countries.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book back in 1992 and was generally underwhelmed with it, probably because it had been originally published back in 1988 so the genesis of the book was pre-the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. Reading about these places, which were in the midst of remarkable change, as they were just before everything changed with the fall of the Berlin Wall was quite frankly frustrating - particularly as, like so much journalistic writing on Eastern Europe prior to 1989/90, Mr. Brook writes as if the cold war/communistic block world was a fixture of enduring solidity. That he like so many failed to even perceive cracks in this monolithic structure made his judgements instantly dated and possibly questionable.

In 1992 the book seemed an irrelevance, I don't think the passage of time has made it any less an irrelevance.

[Caryatid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been so much better, torpedoed by presumably the publishers. Too dense and light a font, not enough paragraph breaks.
Strangely I bought three of his books together starting with this one then moving on to the Texan. An example of extremes. The earlier Texas travel book suffers from too large a font, appearing glib and superficial.
I know, petty criticisms but even so...