The Radetzky March

Josef Roth is now recognized as one of the greatest German writers of the twentieth century. As a historian myself, I was entranced by reading it by the way in which the book catches the vast temporal arc of the transformation and then fall of a society that had for centuries been a major force in European history, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now forgotten, this was the world of Vienna’s great resplendence, then fall.

The story is told through the generational story of one family, the von Trottas. Impending loss is conveyed alongside great affection as a whole world is lost… show more.

This book offers a panorama of the Austro-Hungarian empire from the mid-nineteenth century to its collapse in the aftermath of World War I through the lives of three generations of minor provincial nobility. With the possible exception of War and Peace, there are few better examples of the intertwining of personal lives with world events.

The book offers a striking account of the inner life of a ruler, Emperor Franz-Josef, and a deeply felt account of the decay and collapse of an empire.

Joseph Roth, an alcoholic, itinerant journalist who never had a proper home, was a friend of Stefan Zweig but enjoyed nothing like his success; yet I think this is one of the greatest neglected novels ever written. The last, collapsing days of the Austro–Hungarian empire are depicted through a family saga whose characters burn themselves onto one's mind. Claustrophobic, unremitting, reminiscent in some ways of Kafka at his best, for my money this knocks Zweig's Beware of Pity into a cocked hat! A depiction of a degenerate society at its last gasp surely also has strong parallels with the modern… show more.