Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy [Hardcover]

Avram Davidson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This invaluable collection of Avram Davidson's resonant, witty short stories describes some incidents in the career of many-times-Doctor Engelbert Eszterhazy, loyal subject of the Triune Monarchy of Scythia- Pannonia-Transbalkania, located in a nineteenth-century Europe whose political landscape will be, after a little reflection, familiar to most fantasy readers. Enquire with Doctor Eszterhazy into curious matters--- the lurley; the old woman who lived with a bear; gingerbread men; dancing goats; and more. NB: Read the stories in the order written, beginning with "Polly Charms", and turning back to read the later stories at the front.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Owlswick Pr; First Thus edition (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913896284
• ISBN-13: 978-0913896280
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,038,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The unrivaled master of historical myth, July 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy (Hardcover)

Long before the words "magical realism" ever cropped up in literary criticism, Avram Davidson was quietly creating a spectacular body of erudite, eloquent, evocative history-as-myth. The Dr. Eszterhazy stories, along with the Vergil novels and "Adventures in Unhistory", are the pinnacle of his accomplishment.

No one has ever had a better ear for dialect, a better sense of the self-importance of minor officials, a better notion of how Balkan politics play out in the back-alleys of minor capitals. And certainly no one has ever had such a perfect (and reverent) sense of the ridiculous, when it comes to the probable behavior of the Vicar-at-Large of the Unreconciled Zwinglians, or the demands of the Frores for an independent Bureau of Weights and Measures, or the universal value of a glass of shnopps, wudky, or St. Martin's.

If you do not love these stories, you're probably just not ready for them yet.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The more you know about European history, the funnier!, June 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy (Hardcover)

Each of the "short stories" is long enough for a meaningful theme. The elderly Catholic titular queen of Carinthia's summary of the history of the Reformation alone is worth the price of the book, as Dr. Calvin flees from France to Germany, changes his name to Luther, is thrown out by the local ruler, goes to Switzerland, changes his name to Zwingli, and that's why the Switzers have to come to France to be confirmed.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imagine if phrenology, alchemy, etc., were real sciences, December 22, 1997

By 

Dean L. Surkin (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy (Hardcover)

Avram Davidson imagines a world where science is slightly skewed: alchemy works, phrenology (studying the bumps on a skull to determine personality) is a real science, etc. The author takes each "scientific" dead end of the late 19th century (and earlier centuries) and builds witty, cohesive stories around each one. His characters are great and all his plots neatly resolve. The more you know about European history, the more fun you'll get out of his books (Mr. Davidson is, I believe, a professor of an arcane branch of European history).