Attempting to go beyond the tourist cliche of Prague as the "golden city", this book seeks to bring out all the mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden fascination of the city on the Vltava. Rippellino slips into the style of melodrama and ghost stories, blending fact and fiction as he writes of the time of Rudolf II, the alchemists, the Jewish quarter, the Golem, the pubs, Meyrink and Zech Dadaists, and of Hasak and Kafka. During his tour through the city, Rippellino pauses to point out not only the splendours of the Gothic and Baroque, but highlights the refuse of the junk sellers, the flea market remains, the crumbling relics, which are equally important to understand the city's history. This book aims to be much more than a literary and cultural history of Prague: it is both a celebration and requiem for an oppressed culture.