Prague in Black and Gold

Millions of visitors come to Prague each year, drawn by its rich cultural heritage and visual splendour, yet knowing little of its extraordinary past. Peter Demetz’s Prague in Black and Gold is an incredible account of Prague’s historical and cultural wealth, allowing us to unravel layer upon layer of startlingly symbolic sites and buildings to reveal the real Prague.

In this erudite, paradoxical history Demetz dispels the popular sentimental image of his hometown as he tells the story of this great city from its origins through the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, the elegant eras of Mozart and Dvorák and the bleak, modern city depicted in Kafka's disturbing work, to the euphoria of the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Demetz’s brilliant prose and digressions are an exceptional guide which inspires and marvels.



“Prague in Black and Gold is an exceptional work - and exceptionally reliable ... I am sure that this will be an important and exciting guide for all who wish to learn more about the famous people and important events in the history of the Czech lands and their capital” - Ivan Klima, The Times

“A dramatic and compelling history of a city Demetz admits to loving and hating … He embraces myth, economics, sociology, linguistics and cultural history … His reflections on visiting Prague after almost a half-century absence are a moving elegy on a world lost through revolutions, velvet or otherwise” - Gary Lachman, Literary Review

“Demetz, with great erudition and profound engagement, has made it possible for us to come closer to understanding Prague” - Larry Wolf, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author
Peter Demetz is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Yale University. He grew up in Prague but fled Czechoslovakia in 1949, settling in the United States.