Magic Prague

In an attempt to go beyond the tourist cliche of Prague, the author writes of the alchemists, the Jewish Quarter, the Golem and other items of fact and fiction. The author aims to bring out all the mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden facination of the city.

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'A superb, haunting, clotted mad masterpiece.'- John Banville, The Observer This unique cultural history attempts to go beyond the tourist clich of Prague as the 'golden city' to bring out all the mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden fascination of the city on the Vltava. Ripellino slips into the style of melodrama and ghost stories, the anecdotes of the enchanted traveller and the outlandish bad taste of beer-teller tales to bring out the sorcery of the Bohemian capital in a mixture of fact and fiction.