"Radetzky March" is an example of the way a good sociological novel should be written. And soon the Radetzky March will be relegated to the lumber room of non-vital history.
Francis Joseph himself is dead and the wind sown by Gavril Princip, who murdered the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to Francis Joseph's throne, is about to blowĭown the flimsy structure of the monarchy. It is one of the devices by which Joseph Roth manages to bind together his study of the disintegration of an empire, "Radetzky March." Through the novel the two-four military time keeps its beat, but at theĬlose the feet of the marchers are lagging, and many are out of step. Francis Joseph, fated to rule the Austro-HungarianĮmpire for some three-quarters of a century, was not born under a military star he went forth to battle and he always- well, almost always- fell.īut the Radetzky March played on. After his death came the evil days Austria was beaten by Louis Napoleon, by Bismarck, and, finally, in the World War. In the fact that during his lifetime Austria occasionally won a fight. The measure of his success, as chief of staff and Field Marshal, may be found For years he fought the red-tape artists who taught that military science, like the Rock of Ages, never changed. He lived to be over 90 and died in harness. Oseph Radetzky, a veteran of Marengo, Wagram and other smoky battles of the Napoleonic wars, was one of the military glories of the now defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Translated from the German by Geoffrey Dunlop.
Piano and Trumpet played by Peter Ringroseįirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013.OctoBooks of The Times By JOHN CHAMBERLAINīy Joseph Roth. Literary critic Harold Blom described Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March as "One of the most readable, poignant and superb novels in 20th century German". Joseph Roth's most celebrated novel is all about the ending of things: love affairs, friendships, individual lives, dynasties, an empire, a world.ĭramatised in two-parts by Gregory Evans.
Most of the action, however, is set in the early years of the 20th century and concerns the next two generations of Trottas, a bureaucrat and a soldier: the Baron - stiff, guarded, but secretly loving - and his son, the feckless, disaster-prone Carl Joseph. This is the story of the Trottas, a family of Slovenian peasants ennobled when Lieutenant Joseph Trotta saves Emperor Franz Joseph's life at the Battle of Solferino in 1859.
0 kommentar(er)
