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The Radetzky March Paperback – April 7, 2022
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'One of the greatest novels ever written' Philippe Sands
Set against the doomed splendour of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Radetzky March tells the story of the celebrated Trotta family, tracing their rise and fall over three generations. Theirs is a sweeping history of heroism and duty, desire and compromise, tragedy and heartbreak, a story that lasts until the darkening eve of World War One, when all is set to fall apart. Rich, epic and profoundly moving, The Radetzky March is Joseph Roth's timeless masterpiece.
- Print length369 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGranta Books
- Publication dateApril 7, 2022
- Dimensions5.08 x 1.1 x 7.72 inches
- ISBN-101783788453
- ISBN-13978-1783788453
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Product details
- Publisher : Granta Books (April 7, 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 369 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1783788453
- ISBN-13 : 978-1783788453
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 1.1 x 7.72 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #180,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,582 in War Fiction (Books)
- #5,765 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #11,923 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Customers praise the book's writing quality and historical accuracy. They find it readable, with beautiful writing that is nostalgic. The book is described as an intelligent description of an era, set in the Habsburg Empire during the early 20th century.
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Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the author's writing style and consider it an essential read if interested in the historical novel. Many readers also mention it's one of the best books they have ever read.
"This historical novel is essential reading if you have any interest in the decline of the Habsburg Empire." Read more
"...A beautiful condensed text about people who in spite of the fact that they are relatives or are acquainted are very alienated from each other...." Read more
"...Hofmann’s new translation of The Radetzky March from the German is very readable...." Read more
"...to Anna Karenina and pointing there say,"Those are the two best books I have ever read." Go figure!" Read more
Customers appreciate the historical accuracy of the book. They find it a well-written and intelligent description of an era, set in the Habsburg Empire during the early 20th century. The book is considered one of the great works of fiction of the 20th century.
"One of the great works of fiction of the 20th century." Read more
"Roth's historical novel is wonderful, but the Hofmann translation is arbitrary and self-centred...." Read more
"An interesting and well written book which reflects author's disappointment with life." Read more
"An inteligent description of an era" Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2024This historical novel is essential reading if you have any interest in the decline of the Habsburg Empire.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2014A non sentimental family saga taking place in the last decades of Austria-Hungarian monarchy. A beautiful condensed text about people who in spite of the fact that they are relatives or are acquainted are very alienated from each other. They pass their lives in a strict pattern and when unusual things suddenly happen they have great difficulties to accept it and handle it. They are very rigid in their positions in life and although the world is changing around them they continue to go on in the same direction. The pattern of their behavior is a result of tradition, honor and obedience to a accepted system. Their feelings and emotions are always subjected to the previous.
Beautiful language and great portrait of vanished world.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2019In the early 1930’s, writing in Paris, novelist Joseph Roth created his masterwork The Radetzky March, a story spanning three generations of a patriotic Austrian family whose individual fates over time mirror those of Emperor Franz Joseph and the Austrian Empire itself. In 1856 during the battle of Solferino with Napoleon III’s army, a young Lieutenant in the Austrian army from Slovenia throws himself in front of his young emperor who has unknowingly strayed into the front lines and takes the sniper’s bullet meant for the heart of young Franz Joseph. In gratitude, the emperor gives him a title, which the family then maintains as three successive generations of Trotta provide dedicated service to the emperor and his polyglot empire. From Galatian Jews living on the Polish border to Bosnian Muslims to Serbian Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Balkans to the ruling Austrian Roman Catholics, all revered the emperor, and order prevailed. But after almost 60 years of peace, long brewing nationalistic conflicts tore apart the tolerant cohesion of the various races, and the now aged Franz Joseph was utterly incapable of controlling the profound changes taking place in his vast empire. In this sense, The Radetzky March moves inexorably toward the looming catastrophe of World War I, much like the strident martial music of Strauss’ famous march. As Count Chojnicki says to Herr von Trotta (the elderly District Commissioner and father of the young Carl Joseph who is stationed on the far eastern border of the empire with Russia), “[The empire], it’s falling apart as we speak. An old man with not long to go, he keeps his throne by the simple miracle that he’s still able to sit on it. The age doesn’t want us anymore!”
Joseph Roth’s literary accomplishment is no less impressive than that of other more famous ex-patriate writers living in Paris at the time: the Irishman James Joyce; the Americans Henry Miller, Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Roth’s masterwork is a waltz of colorful characters mingling and separating to the music of a now-faded epoch. An example: “Frau von Taussig loved the Lieutenant [Carl Joseph] with the same passion she had evinced for Lieutenant Ewald ten years previously, on the same piece of track, at the same time of day . . . Desire came cascading over memory, and washed away all traces.” Another example: “The Emperor was an old man. He was the oldest emperor in the world. All round him, Death was drawing his circles, mowing and mowing. Already the whole field was bare, and only the Emperor, like a forgotten silver stalk, still stood and waited.”
Michael Hofmann’s new translation of The Radetzky March from the German is very readable. Joseph Roth’s work should be part of the collection of any fan of 20th Century literature.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024This may very well be the best or at the vey least among the best books I have ever read. I can place it in my bookshelves next to Anna Karenina and pointing there say,"Those are the two best books I have ever read." Go figure!
- Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2014This work chronicles the decline of a rigidly-educated boy, at the beginning of the twentieth century - going straight from a military-based school into the Austrian Army. His father, a civil District Commissioner, is a man of over-controlled emotions unable to express any affection for his son, and himself the son of a soldier who became a hero of the Battle of Solferino, almost accidentally saving the life of the Emperor Franz Josef, who then ennobled the saviour and his descendants with a heredity barony.
The sagging fortunes and dissipation of this grandson of the Hero of Solferino keep pace with the slow collapse of the rigidities (under gorgeous costumes) of the Austrian Army which, as we know, fought so feebly in the First World War and brought the Austro-Hungarian Empire to a sudden end .
The joy of the book is the beauteous writing - as nostalgic as any Elgar music.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2008I bought two books of the Radetkzy March. Although seen and written through the eyes of a Jewish writer, it is a befitting memorial to one of the imortal pieces of music written about the multinational monarchy of one of Europe's great powers. At least for me, it evoked the days of the grand Habsburg power that sadly ended with an insane Serbian assassin. Lately the world got a taste of Serbian nationalism which provided the death knell to an empire of multinational cohesion. I hope in this case, history will not repeat itself.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2015One of the great works of fiction of the 20th century.
Top reviews from other countries
- CaclReviewed in Spain on July 31, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
If you like the history of the Austro-hungarian empire, you will love this book. Nostalgy of a time which would be great to live.
- Vasiliki MazisReviewed in Australia on February 8, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and beautifully written
A stunning glimpse into the last world of the Austro-hungarian empire. Rich imagery and a fascinating array of characters. A must read
- jmkjReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best and most beatifully written novels I have ever read
I ordered this book (with Roth's The Emperor's Tomb) prior to a visit Slovenia and I hoped together they would give me a picture of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - and they did. What I did not expect was the beauty of the prose and Roth's ability to paint vivid portraits of both people and scenery; at times I thought I was reading poetry. Truly what was described on the cover is what you find in the books - they take one into the collapse of this great empire "through the prism of three generations of the Trotta family" from Solferino to the collapse of the Austrian army on the Russian frontier. I had taught this period for many years but only as I read the two books did I fully realise the emotional impact on the inhabitants of the Empire. Don't bother about ignorance of the historic background, read them as "an anthem for a vanished world" as the Daily Telegraph reviewer wrote.
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A reader 2011Reviewed in Japan on August 26, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Joseph Rothのファンなのであります.
彼のジャーナリストとして活躍した経歴やその時代をとらえる鋭いセンスと小説家としての天性が、簡潔にして心に沁みる文体を完成させたのだろうと推察。ドイツ語を知らないので英訳で読みましたが。いずれにしても、彼の小説を読むには、ユダヤ人の歴史的背景を知っておくおくことと、ハプスブルグ時代および20世紀初頭のヨーロッパ全体の政治的背景を知ってから読むのが良いと思います。
- Oscar ArtoReviewed in Spain on November 23, 2014
4.0 out of 5 stars The Habsburgs at their decline
A great vision of an Europe who was gone one hundred years ago. The end of a world and the beginning of ours