he brief, brilliant flowering of the Hungarian form of Art Nouveau sprang from the peace and prosperity of the turn of the twentieth century. In the course of some twenty years thousands of buildings, both public and private, were erected, and many remain standing. Some of the finest have miraculously survived alteration and neglect through changes of fashion and economic decline, the ravages of the Second World War and the communist regime, and are now being preserved and restored to their former glory. The work of such architects as Ödön Lechner andhis school is receiving its due.

Hungarian Art Nouveau is distinctive in its lavish use of motifs familiar from Hungarian folk art and forms of peasant architecturre, expecially those of Transylvania. The book gives an illustrated account of 225 notable buildings and mentions hundreds more, ranging with maps and GPS coordinates beyond the frontiers of present-day Hungary into what are now neighbouring states. The reader is warmly invited to join the author in his very knowledgeable enthusiasm for a frequently spectacular art form.