Reprint of the original, first published in 1860.

A stunning elegy to a vanished time, Caroline Heller’s memoir traces the lives of her parents, her uncle, and their circle of intellectuals and dreamers from Central Europe on the eve of World War II to present-day America. In this unforgettable dual memoir of her parents’ lives and her own, Caroline Heller brings to life the lost world of European café culture, and reminds us of the sustaining power of literature in the most challenging of times. Heller vividly evokes prewar Prague, where her parents lived, loved, and studied. Her mother, Liese Florsheim, was a young German refugee initially drawn to Erich Heller, a bright but detached intellectual, rather than to his brother, Paul. As Hitler’s power spreads and World War II becomes inevitable, their world is destroyed and they must flee the country and continent. Paul, who will eventually become the author’s father, is trapped and sent to Buchenwald, where he survives under hellish conditions. Though Paul’s life nearly ends in Europe, he reunites with Liese in the United States, where they marry. Their daughter Caroline, restless and insecure, carries the trauma of her parents’ story with her, but her quest to make peace with her heritage is eased by her love of books and writers, part of her family legacy. Through the darkest years of Hitler’s rule, Caroline’s parents and uncle had turned time and time again to literature to help them survive—and so she does as well. Written with sensitivity and grace, Reading Claudius is a profound meditation on the ways we strive to solve the mysteries of our pasts, and a window into understanding the ones we love. Praise for Reading Claudius “This fine book contains moments of emotion so pure that in the end, we too fall in love with the writer’s past.”—The New York Times Book Review “Heller plunges us lovingly and convincingly into [a] lost world.”—The Boston Globe “Caroline Heller writes with both honesty and delicacy. I was particularly enthralled by her finely drawn portrait of prewar Central Europe: a lost world whose memories are inestimably valuable and fiercely beautiful but which, without accounts like this, would fade forever.”—Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down “Reading Claudius is much more than a work of riveting personal history. It is a feat of passionate, radical integrity. Caroline Heller has wedded the greatest level of care in her scholarship to an even deeper form of search: that in which imagination becomes not only an act of love but an instrument of truth.”—Leah Hager Cohen, author of No Book but the World and The Grief of Others “A deeply felt and deeply thought memoir, it manages to unearth a whole lost world with aching tenderness and regret.”—Phillip Lopate, author of Portrait Inside My Head From the Hardcover edition.

Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, an event that signalled an end to nearly fourteen years of French domination, Florence seemed to enter a new cultural 'golden age' and by 1824 was described as 'an Earthly Paradise' by the political and liberal writer, Pietro Giordano. Politically, economically and culturally, the city prospered in this new era. After 1814 it seemed as if the Enlightenment had found a new beginning in Florence. Aubrey Garlington, a scholar of long standing in the music of early nineteenth-century Florence, considers the roles played by John Fane, Lord Burghersh, an English aristocrat, diplomat and dilettante composer together with his wife, Priscilla, in the development of the richly homogeneous culture that blossomed in Florence at this time. Burghersh, known today for being instrumental in the founding of the English Royal Academy of Music, composed six operas that were performed privately on numerous occasions at the English Embassy, his best known work being "La Fedra". Lady Burghersh became known for her painting and dilettante theatrical performances. Garlington provides a thorough re-examination of the categories 'professional' and 'dilettante' which were so important in the concept of music at this time. The notions of boundaries between public and private activity are discussed, and the operas themselves are examined specifically. Through the contemplation of the Burghershs's sixteen year stay in Florence, the significance of dilettante orientations are demonstrated to have been essential components for the city's musical and social life. Garlington draws together an impressive compilation of documentation regarding the part music played in shaping society and culture. In this way, the book will appeal not only to opera historians, musicologists and critics working on the nineteenth century, but also to historians and scholars of cultural theory.

In 1814 the five reigning dynasties of Europe, Alexander I of Russia and ministers such Metternich and Talleyrand, descended upon Vienna. The Vienna Congress marked one of the great turning points in diplomatic history; the first attempt to create an 'international order' to secure peace for the nineteenth century. The blueprint for modern-day global governance models such as the UN, it was a response to Napoleon's expansion across Europe, and sought to build upon the state systems he left behind whilst shoring up the privileges and power of Europe's elite. Here, Mark Jarrett argues that the Congress of Vienna in fact marked the beginning of the end for the Ancien Regime, yet, despite its disintegration following the suicide of Castlereagh, the 'congress system' has had an enormous influence up to the present day. The role of diplomacy as a means to conflict resolution, the workings of multi-lateralism and the emphasis on international organizations to guarantee national sovereignty were all long term by-products of the 'congress system'. A new synthesis of archival material, The Congress System is a fresh exploration of a key event in the history of International Relations and Diplomacy.