Dietmar Grieser

Disappointing. This was supposed to be about the servants. Instead it is an excuse for gossip about those who hire them. And I find that boring.

Grieser offers a panoramic view of the streets and houses of Vienna through 37 portraits of famous visitors. He succeeds when the connection of the visitor to the city is strong: Casanova lived here for multiple years, Mark Twain became a local fixture, Vivaldi died in the city. When the visitors only brush through the city, one wonders why better candidates were not chosen. Karl May only gave a single lecture, Edison made but a five day tourist stop, Overall, an easy read that doesn't linger.

The individual essays were mostly quite interesting. As a collection, it got a bit tedious towards the end.

Grieser would have done better not to have included the introduction about 'firsts'. The various essays did not use the same definition of a 'first', and some were just historical trivia about Austria, and not really about any sort of 'first' at all.