Switzerland: More Recommended Reading and Viewing
To get in the mood for your trip, consider these books and films, which take place partly or entirely in Switzerland.
Non-Fiction
La Place de la Concorde Suisse (by John McPhee, in English); Living Among the Swiss (memoir by Michael Wells Glueck); Why Switzerland? (socioeconomic commentary by Jonathan Steinberg); The White Spider (by Heinrich Harrer, on the first Eiger ascent in the 1930s); The Climb Up to Hell (by Jack Olsen, on a 1957 Eiger climb); and A Tramp Abroad (by Mark Twain).
Fiction
The Magic Mountain (by Thomas Mann); Hotel du Lac (by Anita Brookner); A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway); Daisy Miller (by Henry James); The Prisoner of Chillon (epic poem by Lord Byron); The Night Manager (by John le Carré); I'm Not Stiller (by Swiss author Max Frisch, available in English); and Heidi (children's book by Johanna Spyri).
Films
Three Colors: Red (1994); Five Days One Summer (1982); The Eiger Sanction (1975); Third Man on the Mountain (1959); and Heidi (1937). In addition, the following 007 films feature scenes of James Bond skiing in Switzerland: Goldeneye (1995); A View to a Kill (1985); The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, with scenes of the Schilthorn, in the Berner Oberland);and Goldfinger (1964).
For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Swtizerland guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours in Europe.