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

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.

Amazing level of detail

While I learned a great deal from this book, the author’s personality was a lamp through the museum of an obsolete world. His meditations on the scope of the history are always helpful context.

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.

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.