Reading Number 1913 – A history of a year

1913 by Florian Illies will be the final book in my June challenge. It’s a history book about the year before WW1 starts and has been translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside and Jamie Lee Searle. I think that I bought it new but can’t now remember how or when I acquired it.

The book is divided into twelve chapters to match the months of the year in question. Each month is then described in a series of short snippets of information about notable people in the European cultural world and what is going on in their lives. There are also mentions of people who will be famous in the future such as Stalin, Hitler, Lenin, Tito, Louis Armstrong and Willy Brandt. Reference is made to world events briefly, but more time is given to the riot at the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the theft of the Mona Lisa.

The object of the book is to illustrate the vibrant cultural life in Europe at this time – and by Europe the author means Berlin, Vienna, Munich and Paris rather than London or New York. This is a time of new thought and movements with artists continually challenging the accepted way of doing things and dethroning the elite of the past. We are shown how psychology, philosophy, art, music, writing and dance are changing and the excitement that this brings to the creators and patrons. We are also offered an insight into some very messy lives and relationships. Over all of this is the fact that the world will be irredeemably changed in 1914 and Europe, as it is shown here, will never be the same again – we know this but the subjects of this book do not.

I liked the idea of this book but there was a real problem with it, at least for me. I just didn’t know enough about the artists and writers featured because I don’t know a lot about European culture. I hadn’t heard of some of the people featured but the author assumed that I did, and that I knew a lot about their work. I was at sea for quite a lot of this book and without much reference to Google I had no chance of understanding more. When I did understand the references I enjoyed what the author wrote and his often whimsical sense of humour.

This book was a disappointment for me but it may not be for others who know more about the subject matter. I shall, therefore, pass this book onto Oxfam for resale.