Silver Age of Budapest

The Silver Age of Budapest refers to the period between the First and Second World Wars, especially the 1920s, when Budapest was presented as a fashionable destination for Europe’s wealthy elite. In the explanatory notes to Passing, the phrase places Clare Kendry’s European travels within a changing postwar continent; it provides historical context, not evidence that the novel stages a scene in Budapest.

Historical Period

The term identifies an interwar interval rather than a single event. The note sets its outer frame between World War I and World War II and emphasizes the 1920s as its characteristic moment. This dating situates Budapest’s social reputation amid the upheavals and transitions that followed the war, without suggesting that the city’s attractions erased the period’s broader instability.

Budapest as a Destination

Budapest is described as part of the Grand Tour, with spas and casinos drawing Europe’s wealthy elite. The note names novelist Evelyn Waugh and the Prince of Wales among its frequent visitors. These details establish the city’s appeal through leisure and fashionable travel: it belonged to an international circuit where elite visitors could seek recreation and display social standing.

Connection to Clare Kendry’s Travels

The reference appears in an explanatory note about Clare Kendry’s journeys through France, Germany, England, and Austria-Hungary during World War I and its aftermath, from 1914 to 1926. The note associates Budapest’s interwar reputation with the broader European setting of those travels. It does not state that Clare visited Budapest, so the term is best understood as contextualizing the routes and historical moment rather than adding a specific stop to her itinerary.

Place in the Novel’s Wider Geography

Passing’s principal action and denouement take place in New York City, while its opening encounter occurs in Chicago. The novel’s cities are associated with social and geographical mobility, diversity, and the anonymity that can permit imaginative self-presentation. Against that urban framework, the Silver Age of Budapest extends the book’s temporal and geographical horizon to interwar Europe. The reference marks the contrast between Clare’s experience abroad and the American settings where racial identity and the color line shape the central action.