Athens : A Cultural and Literary History - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1902669819 ISBN 13: 9781902669816

Publisher: Signal Books Ltd

Synopsis

Modern Athens is a bustling, overgrown city, continually coming to terms with its illustrious past. Dominated by the Parthenon, the world-famous symbol of classical antiquity, it has been touched by every aspect of Greece's turbulent history, suffering invasions and occupations, sieges, division and dictatorship, and has grown dramatically into a metropolis of four million people. Mixing old and new, the Greek capital is a treasure house of eastern Orthodox and western culture, rich in the visual arts, architecture and poetry. - THE CITY OF VISITORS: treasure hunters and Philhellenes; Byron and Chateaubriand; Thackeray and Mark Twain; Freud, Virginia Woolf and Winston Churchill. -THE CITY OF OLYMPIANS: host of the first modern Games of 1896 and the Olympiad of 2004; the revival of the Olympic idea. -THE CITY OF ATHENIANS: classical soldiers and thinkers; poets, politicians and princes; migrants and refugees from Greece and beyond.

About this title

About the Author:

MICHAEL LLEWELLYN SMITH is a historian who has lived and worked in Athens for more than ten years as a student, teacher and diplomat. He was British Ambassador to Athens between 1996 and 1999.

Review:

"Among a large pack of guides-cum-histories released for the Olympics, this should take the gold." - The Independent "... readers will discover for themselves the depth of the author's love for Athens past and present." - ekathimerini.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Signal Books Ltd
• ISBN 10: 1902669819
• ISBN 13: 9781902669816
• Binding: Paperback