Books: The Europeans By Orlando Figes

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - The 19th century saw a lot revolutions, political, technological & cultural. Orlando Figes, author of "The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture", tells over almost 500 pages how these changes influenced Europe`s cultural elite, at least some of them (amazon ). 

The author, an expert of Russia history, used the lives of 2 persons, a Russian writer and a Spanish/French female opera singer, as the frame of his report. I have never heard about them and didn`t care much about their stories, but their lives mingled with the lives of countless cultural important people and interesting developments.

The book has mountains of information and is almost arbitrarily stuffed with hundreds of names & places like a French Goose. The index stretches over 30 pages. I got tired after a while and started to browse the text, pickings just the tidbits.

                 Western Russophobia

Anyway, I learned about the evolution of copy rights, the economics of operas, serfdom in Russia, the struggles of the Impressionists, the popularity of spa towns, the cultural importance of railways and much more.

For instance:

George Sand was one of the thousands of poor students, would-be-writers  and artists living in the garrets of the Latin Quarter, the cheapest area in Paris at this time. The French called them "Bohemians" because of their scruffy appearance, which they associated with the gypsies from Central Europe, or Bohemia. The label was adopted by the students as a badge of non-conformity.

When Victor Hugo died "the whole of France came to a stop". When Verdi died shops and theaters closed their doors in a sign of national morning.

There was already a "Russophobia" (SIC) in the West, the dislike of everything Russian (page 68). Apparently the Russians have to share this fate with the Jews.

 

                 Frat Boys At Paris Opera

A chapter about Richard Wagner was particularly interesting. In 1861 the composer tried to start his career with his opera "Tannhäuser " at Paris Opera, but he run into difficulties. The opera management demanded that the opera has a ballet in the second act, because a group of young men, members of the so-called Jockey Club, used to visit the opera just for the ballet and to leave after (some had their mistresses in the ballet). Wagner did no think that a ballet would fit in his opera, but he had to compromise, so he put a ballet at the begin of the first act. The opera management cut their connections with Wagner because the Jockey club was displeased for needing to change their habits and to arrive earlier. This anecdote reminds me of today´s obnoxious frat boy parties in New York.

Even though the encyclopedian "Europeans" had much more information that I need, I find the more than 500 pages worth browsing and to discover interesting facts.