New York Sun, by Adam Kirsch - If you could choose to be a fly on the wall at any event in history, you could do worse than to pick the ball that inaugurated the Congress of Vienna, on October 2, 1814. Adam Zamoyski, whose fascinating new book “Rites of Peace” ( HarperCollins, 634 pages, $29.95) is a history of the spectacle as well as the substance of the Congress, uses the words of some of the less famous attendees to set the scene. What struck them first was the light. Sixteen thousand candles and thirty-two chandeliers lit up two ballrooms in the imperial palace, where the glass windowpanes had been replaced with mirrors, redoubling the splendor.

Objavljeno pod svet |