{"product_id":"the-gilded-chalet-off-piste-in-literary-switzerland","title":"Padraig Rooney: The Gilded Chalet [2015] hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the summer of 1816 paparazzi trained their telescopes on the goings on of poets Byron and Shelley - and their womenfolk - across Lake Geneva. Mary Shelley babysat and wrote Frankenstein. Byron dieted and penned \u003ci\u003eThe Prisoner of Chillon\u003c\/i\u003e. His doctor, Polidori, was dreaming up \u003ci\u003eThe Vampyre\u003c\/i\u003e. Together they put Switzerland on the map.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSwitzerland has always provided a refuge for writers attracted to it as an escape from world wars, oppression, tuberculosis... or marriage. While often for Swiss writers from Rousseau to Bouvier the country was like a gilded prison or sanatorium. The Romantics, the utopians (Wells, D. H. Lawrence) and other spiritual seekers (Hesse), viewed Switzerland as a land of milk and honey, as nature's paradise. In the twentieth century, spying in neutral Switzerland, spawned espionage and detective fiction from Conan Doyle to Maugham, Fleming, and Le Carre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePadraig Rooney finds the rooms crammed with curios: lederhosen and Lepidoptera, spas and spies, fool's gold and numbered accounts. Literary detective work and treasure chest, history and scandal, \u003ci\u003eThe Gilded Chalet \u003c\/i\u003ewill make you strap on your skis and go off-piste to find out the real Swiss story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rooney, Padraig","offers":[{"title":"Good","offer_id":47898759037267,"sku":"XG81857886368","price":12.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":53053299884371,"sku":"XV81857886368","price":12.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"New","offer_id":53053299917139,"sku":"9781857886368","price":28.57,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/rooney-padraig-padraig-rooney-the-gilded-chalet-2015-hardback-1221380976.jpg?v=1771357989","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/the-gilded-chalet-off-piste-in-literary-switzerland","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}