Radetzsky March by Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth is a hero of mine. A non-religious Jew born in the eastern lands of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire, his numerous novels are a long elegy for a life and a civilization lost. After the First World War he found himself a displaced person in a changed world. The town of his birth was now in Russia but his language was German. He was not, however, an Austrian and felt little affinity with Vienna and the rump state of Austria.
The Radetzky March is his masterpiece. I have read it numerous times in three different English language translations, the latest being the fluent translation by Michael Hofmann. The novel is, at face value, a family tragedy on an epic scale – the rise and fall of a Slovene family within the Empire. There is, however, so much more to it. It is the story of the disintegration of feudal society, the rise of nationalist movements and the inability of an empire to deal with the challenges of the modern world.
The Radetzky March ends with the outbreak of the First World War but within the pages there is a sense of foreboding. Written in 1932 it is not difficult to hear within the prose a warning of greater tragedies to come. A work of immense power and great sadness I return to time and again because within the pages we glimpse a European writer of genius at work.
Guto Bebb is the Conservative MP for Aberconwy
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article!