Bask - Shop now
Buy new:
-31% $15.14
FREE delivery Tuesday, April 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.14 with 31 percent savings
List Price: $22.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, April 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Tomorrow, April 11. Order within 7 hrs 46 mins.
In Stock
$$15.14 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.14
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$1.90
Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... See less
$3.98 delivery Monday, April 21. Details
Or fastest delivery April 16 - 18. Details
Only 7 left in stock - order soon.
$$15.14 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.14
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by glenthebookseller.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Claudio Magris
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea (FSG Classics) Paperback – October 28, 2008

by Claudio Magris (Author), Patrick Creagh (Translator)
3.6 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.14","priceAmount":15.14,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"14","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6o9vk9PWukrJKleCHKkM%2FYuUdS035AnruJfdm1LrCcIXQwLXFd9VxOyLDcftM8G72HUB%2FZEzCSvFjXfjqzdKHXsIvaK1KynsqW9iZcllN7ekiiobhlPQypGLuT%2FIs79YlKTIOvh9uT0%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$1.90","priceAmount":1.90,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"90","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6o9vk9PWukrJKleCHKkM%2FYuUdS035Anr6PyJR0RRFyiDmdRP70RLJ3qf%2Fb2xaYyc7nP6fJBxtfKS%2BTRYtaooFxBo88FiRsDqAJddw9s7FFMAaGosxPtlgv%2FfpvzxuuaVqNRoUrfHambUfQ99OXMk1%2Fed3gi9Wy7ghUeAWUferd8xqvy%2By7PHS8U86m5Cqwyv","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In this acclaimed international bestseller, Claudio Magris tracks the Danube River, setting his finger on the pulse of Central Europe, the crucible of a culture that draws on influences of East and West, Christianity and Islam. In each town he raises the ghosts that inhabit the houses and monuments, from Ovid and Marcus Aurelius to Kafka and Canetti, in "a fascinating blend of anecdote and history" (San Francisco Examiner).

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  4. Publication date
    October 28, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    5.45 x 1.1 x 8.15 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0374522456
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0374522452
Next slide of product details
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea (FSG Classics)
This item: Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea (FSG Classics)
$15.14
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 15
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Danube: A Cultural History (Landscapes of the Imagination)
$29.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 15
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889
$15.69
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 15
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A work of originality . . . This is the best introduction to the culture of Central Europe, its genius and its tragedy.” ―The Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Claudio Magris contributed to Danube from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (October 28, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374522456
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374522452
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 1.1 x 8.15 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Claudio Magris

Claudio Magris

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
83 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers praise the book's erudition, describing it as an immensely erudite cultural-historical travelogue, and many consider it a classic. However, the readability and writing quality receive negative feedback, with several customers finding it boring to read and describing the writing as terrible.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

17 customers mention "Knowledge"14 positive3 negative

Customers find the book informative and erudite, with one customer describing it as an immensely erudite cultural-historical travelogue.

"...Well written and very informative." Read more

"...dabbler in Italian politics--here has written an immensely erudite cultural-historical travelogue as he follows the Danube from its origins in the..." Read more

"This is a delightfully translated, rich and ornate, not so much travelogue as intellectual and literary history, of what Magris is pleased to term..." Read more

"It was beautifully written, informative, and thought provoking; it was an humanities class of central Europe between pages...." Read more

8 customers mention "Pacing"8 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's pacing, describing it as a classic that serves as an ideal choice for historical philosophers.

"...This book is an excellent primer for those interested in the history of the area. Well written and very informative." Read more

"When this book was first published it was heralded as an immediate classic in its field, quickly translated from Italian into several other..." Read more

"This is a delightfully translated, rich and ornate, not so much travelogue as intellectual and literary history, of what Magris is pleased to term..." Read more

"excellent, comprehensive but too detailed for my tastes, An ideal choice for the historical philosopher." Read more

4 customers mention "Readability"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the book boring to read.

"...The book is an artistic tour de force but really boring if you just want information you can remember...." Read more

"...It’s also really boring to read if you don’t have a thorough understanding of Europe’s history and geography already...." Read more

"does not catch the readers attention just meanders along like a river,winding river" Read more

"not a good read..." Read more

4 customers mention "Writing quality"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book terrible.

"...In an odd way, the writing is at the same time dense and spacy. A bit of diarrhea of the thoughts...." Read more

"...The bad stuff: Really hard to read fluidly. There are a lack of commas to break up thoughts, which were very distracting...." Read more

"terrible writing. Read a couple of pages and put it down." Read more

"Utterly unreadable" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Larry
    5.0 out of 5 stars River Cruiser
    Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this book because we will be taking a cruise along the Danube. This book is an excellent primer for those interested in the history of the area. Well written and very informative.
    5 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Avid reader
    3.0 out of 5 stars Too Little and Too Much
    Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    When this book was first published it was heralded as an immediate classic in its field, quickly translated from Italian into several other languages and even became an astounding commercial success. Having had this book on my radar screen for many years, I finally sat down to read it and found it--to my own surprise--disappointing. Magris--who has been a professor of German literature at the University of Trieste, a novelist, a journalist, and even a dabbler in Italian politics--here has written an immensely erudite cultural-historical travelogue as he follows the Danube from its origins in the Black Forest to its delta in Romania. M. surrounds his discoveries with ample philosophical, literary, historical ruminations many of which are quite acute, some of them (e.g. his reflection on the cruelties of Dr. Mengele's Auschwitz experiments) struck me as a bit "geschmacklos" (in bad taste) other as just too clever by half. Still, the book worked for me, on the whole, as long as he traveled through German-speaking lands (Germany and Austria). Once he enters Hungary (the second half of the book) things slow down and I found most of the information increasingly tedious as it seemed to be addressed to experts in a number of fields too far removed from those of even an educated reader. Of course, M. had the bad luck to follow the Danube through the Eastern block countries of Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria in the last years of their stifled and stifling existence. Still, he is well-connected with the cultural establishments there. But these establishments are about to disappear and those voices that will come to the fore when these countries shake off their frozen existences, seem not to belong to his acquaintances. In the long list of current authors that M. discusses and that often made my eyes glaze over where is the Hungarian Nobel prize winner of 2004, Imre Kertész? The German-Romanian Herta Müller (Nobel prize winner of 2009) gets a very perfunctory mention as does the highly esteemed Hungarian György Konrad. He does not seem to have met either of them. Even the praise of the Romanian-born Elias Canetti (Nobel prize of 1981) is half-hearted at best. Great literary foresight does not seem to be one of M.'s many strengths. In the end I felt it was time to turn tables on M. and level the criticism he had reserved--quite unfairly--for Canetti at M. himself: "The result is that he says too little and too much at the same time" (p.358).
    7 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Daniel Myers
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Danube of The Mind
    Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    This is a delightfully translated, rich and ornate, not so much travelogue as intellectual and literary history, of what Magris is pleased to term Mitteleuropa. Indeed, the reader looking for actual descriptions of the Danube will fine them few and far between, whereas the intellectual - capital I - reader will find a Smörgåsbord of poets and writers of all sorts who have dwelt along the banks of the Danube for centuries.

    Magris, though his prose may come across as dense at times, is actually a bon-vivant with a rather breezy, hedonistic take on life. This is fortunate, for it serves to leaven the sometimes ponderous meditations the reader comes across.

    This duality of text and attitude is nicely encapsulated in the first two paragraphs of the chapter entitled "Believing In Ulm".

    On the one hand, in the first paragraph:

    "But all that is real is being erased each instant, even if luckily not always in the bloodstained theatre of phosphorous bombs. Little by little, however, things are imperceptibly erased, and one cannot do otherwise than believe that they nonetheless exist."

    On the other hand, in the second:

    "We are happy in the company of people who make us feel the unquestionable presence of the world, just as the body of the beloved gives us the certainty of those shoulders, that bosom, that curve of the hips, the surge of those as incontestable as the sea."

    In general, there is a tendency to delve to a greater or lesser extent into the life and works of a writer or thinker, whetting the reader's appetite, and then, quite often, drolly cock a snook at said individual before moving on to a writer who dwelt further down the Danube. This is nowhere more evident than in his treatment of the Hungarian writer Georg Lukács, on whom Magris dwells for some time before jauntily quipping in the penultimate paragraph that: "From his window he could see the great Danube, but he probably had little appreciation of it, insensitive as he was to nature, which in his eyes was blemished by not having read Kant or Hegel."

    The result of all this? A bit of a mixed bag, I should say. As Magris says of another writer, "The result is that he says too little and too much at the same time." Be this as it may, the author is widely read and the book is quite fun to read for the intellectual traveller who doesn't mind being taken down a Danube of history and ideas, if not the actual river.
    15 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • John F. Folker, Jr.
    5.0 out of 5 stars It was beautifully written, informative
    Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    It was beautifully written, informative, and thought provoking; it was an humanities class of central Europe between pages. In addition, it provided
    insight into the mental gymnastics a Marxist intellectual had to put himself to be able to justify to himself European Communism.
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • RJN
    1.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware. Creative but poetically verbose.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    If you are buying this to learn something about the river before a trip, be warned. The book is an artistic tour de force but really boring if you just want information you can remember. I only read a few pages but scanned ahead and the creative writing continues the same.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Beth H Worth
    2.0 out of 5 stars Danube
    Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this as a guide before my cruise on the Danube. It was not what I expected. I took put it in the library on the ship.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • John A. Clark
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    excellent, comprehensive but too detailed for my tastes, An ideal choice for the historical philosopher.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Pat S. Conti
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mind-blowing erudition
    Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Mind-blowing erudition. Allusions to literature, philosophy, psychology, history, mythology. . . the author's range knows no bounds. Could not put this book down!
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • D. Pelletier
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wide culture is essential to the enjoyment of this book
    Reviewed in Canada on June 23, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Depth, intelligence and, occasionally, a dry sense of humour. A wide culture is essential to the enjoyment of this book; otherwise many casual references without further explanations will prove frustrating. The author takes deep culture as a given. A superb book.
    Report
  • Claudio Rossi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Cernjanski “Migrazioni”
    Reviewed in Italy on August 14, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Libro fondamentale per capire che i Balcani sono Europa
    Report
  • Jan Vadovic
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Author's knowledge about Danube's states is remarkable.
    Report