Description
With his new book, Karl Schlögel has written a historical pièce de résistance: two perfumes, the French Chanel Nº 5 and the Soviet Red Moscow, provide him with the material to explore the dramatic events of 20th-century European history from an unusual perspective. The turmoil of the Russian Revolution brought the formula for a fragrance, which had been created for the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs, to France. It provided the basis for Coco Chanel’s Nº 5 and its Soviet counterpart, which is still produced today under the name »Red Moscow«. Polina Zhemchuzhina, wife of Foreign Minister Molotov, was director of the state-run perfume industry. She later fell victim to a cleansing campaign while Coco Chanel collaborated with the German occupiers. An apparently insignificant coincidence leads Karl Schlögel to a series of astonishing discoveries about an epoch we thought we knew well.
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English World (Polity), France (Circé), Italy (Rizzoli), Russia (Text), Slovenia (Beletrina), Spain (Acantilado)
Author Biography
Karl Schlögel born in 1948, studied philosophy, sociology, Eastern European history and Slavonic studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, in Moscow and Leningrad. Until 2013 he was Professor of Eastern European History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt am Oder. He was awarded the 2016 Preis des Historischen Kollegs for Terror und Traum (Hanser, 2008). Last published by Hanser: Entscheidung in Kiew. Ukrainische Lektionen (2015).
Hanser Literaturverlage Translation Rights
The Carl Hanser publishing house represents diversity that is second to none: Ranging from contemporary authors to international literary classics, and featuring children’s and young adults’ books as well as an informative, thought-provoking non-fiction programme, Hanser’s list is both stimulating and inviting.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Hanser
- Publication Date February 2020
- ISBN/Identifier 9783446267442
- Pages192
- Publish StatusPublished
- IllustrationWith photographs
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