J. M. Lau

Like other works in the "Then and Now" series, this book juxtaposes urban scenes as photographed in the past and present. The photographs commonly are taken from the same vantage point, and allow a comparison of scenes from over a hundred years ago with those today.

The photographs do reveal the large changes that Prague has undergone since the early 1900s; however, it's especially interesting to see how manifestations of the past are retained in what is now a contemporary city with modern buildings. The photos are rendered in full page format, with paragraphs of explanatory text beneath. One small point: I do wish that dates of the older (gray-scale) scenes were indicated, but suspect that such information was not available to the compilers of this work.

I read this book before visiting Prague, and after my return, enjoyed revisiting the sites it illustrates. I was especially pleased to see mention of sties of relevance to the life of Franz Kafka, a recent preoccupation of my own. I certainly recommend this work to readers and travelers interested in Prague and its history.… (mer)