Secrets of a suitcase : the countess, the Nazis, and middle Europe's lost nobility
Terreehorst, Pauline2024
Book
When Pauline Terreehorst bid for a vintage Gucci suitcase at Sotheby's Amsterdam, she had no idea what was inside. After picking up her prize, she found that the case was filled with dresses, fur collars and lace voiles, and accompanied by two brown boxes of postcard albums showing churches and castles in Austria, France, England and Scotland. This curious correspondence was addressed to an Austrian countess, businesswoman and philanthropist called Margarethe Szapry, and her daughter. These unexpected family treasures open a window onto a lost world. The Szaprys' social, cultural and political landscape disappeared in the upheavals that seized Europe during the first half of the twentieth century a time when borders were redrawn, old cities received new names, communities changed loyalties, and the transnational, monarchist aristocrats of Middle Europe had to decide whether to become Germans under Nazi rule. What did Margarethe choose, when her neighbour Hermann Goring came knocking? What were the consequences for her and her children? And how did her family's suitcase cross war-torn Europe and survive decades of rupture to end up in Terreehorst's hands?
Main title:
Secrets of a suitcase : the countess, the Nazis, and middle Europe's lost nobility / Pauline Terreehorst ; translated from the Dutch by Brent Annable.
Author:
Terreehorst, Pauline, authorAnnable, Brent, translator
Imprint:
London : Hurst & Company, [2024]©2024
Collation:
viii, 260 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), maps, genealogical tables ; 25 cm
Notes:
Originally published in 2020 as Het geheim van de Gucci-koffer by Uitgeverij Prometheus, Amsterdam.Includes bibliographical references and index.Translated from the Dutch.
ISBN:
9781911723394 (hbk)9781911723394 (hardback)
Dewey class:
943.6
LC class:
DB36.3.H46
Language:
EnglishDutch
Added title:
Subject:
BRN:
821427
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| City Library | -History | HISTORY 943.6 TERR | Available |
| East Melbourne Library | -History | HISTORY 943.6 TERR | Available |