The Radetzky March

In the awesome THE RADETZKY MARCH, Joseph Roth uses males in three successive generations of the Trotta family to examine the social and military ethos of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1859 (the Battle of Solferino) through the brutal beginnings of The Great War. In this period, the Trotta males are:o Joseph Trotta: an obscure officer in the infantry with a peasant background who, through a quirk of fate, saves the life of the Emperor. In response, the Emperor elevates Trotta to the nobility and a sinecure in government. But this Trotta is uncomfortable with his apotheosis to national hero, which is a distortion and glamorization of a simple and spontaneous deed.o Franz Trotta: This Trotta, the beneficiary of his father’s fame and position, is a stuffy but respected civil servant in a small town and embodies the style and methods of the Empire. He is a true believer in both its social codes and well-ordered and hierarchical society. He means well. But he eventually regrets subsuming his responsibilities as a father within his role of government executive.o Carl Joseph Trotta. The grandson and son, Carl is a lieutenant in the army in the waning days of the Empire. Through Carl’s life, a reader sees how the heroic codes and style of the Empire that his grandfather resisted and that his father embodied have calcified into dangerous nonsense and an obsolete political system that cannot survive.In telling this generational story, Roth focuses on the relationship between Franz and his dutiful son, who tries but fails to find a fulfilling role in the Austro-Hungarian system. The scion Carl is a slightly passive but normal young man who has reckless, but still normal, adventures with sex and alcohol. But, from the start, Carl isn’t really up to his remote father’s expectations.Roth uses a three-part structure in TRM to explore the dilemmas of young Carl Trotta. In the first, he shows the demoralized Carl growing up and trying to find a place in his father’s rigid world. The brilliant Roth ends this section with a tragic demonstration of the obsolete social codes of the Empire. In Part-Two, Roth transfers the innocent but louche Carl to a remote outpost near the Russian border, where alcohol, gambling, and an improbable affair nearly destroy him but also help him find his way. Part-Two ends with a show of the doddering Kaiser, still enjoying the pageantry of the army, operating as the head of state. In Part-Three, Roth shows a great social event that Carl’s military superiors think will both alleviate the boredom of a remote posting and affirm the stature of the army. Instead, this great event inadvertently reveals the divisions in the crumbling Empire, as the Great War, cold-blooded and arbitrary in Roth’s hands, begins.Roth writes with lots of insight, is funny, and creates very rich sentences and descriptions. The dilemmas of his characters are fully persuasive and tied seamlessly into a great historical web, where their choices range from admirable to futile. THE RADETZKY MARCH, BTW, ends with a fabulous twist, which suggests that the Trotta clan was, in a way, a curse on the Empire.This is a tremendous novel and maybe a masterpiece. Highly recommended.

This is a very interesting 1933 novel set during the final days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the verge of World War I, which would lead to its disintegration. The author was an important Austrian journalist and author, whose reporting on Nazi Germany was especially impressive (see for example his "What I Saw: Reports from Berlin"). Roth has chosen in this novel to trace the deterioration of the Empire through one noble family's three generations. During all three generations, Kaiser Franz Joseph was in charge, gradually growing less in touch with his subjects and toward the end somewhat losing touch with reality at the very time when clear-headed incisive leadership was essential as the storm clouds grew ever darker. At the same time, the von Trottas themselves undergo deterioration as they decline from a disciplined and principled founder to a grandson who is beset with alcoholic, financial and emotional challenges.Roth skillfully traces how the noble family grows weaker and weaker in terms of discipline and upholding the old standards. So, as the Empire declines, so too do the von Trottas personally. The principal character is Carl Joseph who goes from a disciplined young man into one undergoing several crises, just as the Empire is facing its challenges. As a military officer, he is stuck out near the Russian border where the main activity of his regiment's officers is drinking and gambling themselves into debt. Roth's point is that the paralysis of such regiments is a prime reason the impact of war was so devastating.Interestingly, many wonder how the polyglot Empire could survive from 1867-1918, and especially under Franz Joseph. Ironically, from the novel's perspective, Franz Joseph was the principal reason this diverse collection of various races and cultures remained loyal; all amazingly worshiped the Emperor and his ineffective administration. But as war approaches this weakened government, Roth shows how nationalism and pressures for more economic equality undermined even the affection for Franz Joseph. As one character well puts it, the Empire "is disintegrating while still alive."So Roth traces parallel disintegration in the family with that afflicting the Empire of which it is a tiny part. Failure to obey the rules and uphold the old values is a disease at both levels. Franz Joseph has become "an old man from an old era," as things spin out of control, just as Carl Joseph's personal world explodes. It is no surprise that things fall flat when war comes--how could it be otherwise with the extent of personal and institutional rot present? Roth continues the saga in "The Emperor's Tomb (1938), which I intend to read next. Incidentally, Nadine Gordimer has contributed a helpful introduction to the book.

An examination of social structure (and eventual collapse) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the approx. 30 years before the start of World War I as told through the lives of three generations of the men of the von Tratta family. A slow read, this will most appeal to those who, like me, found they enjoyed Mann's Magic Mountain or Musil's A Man Without Qualities and will put off those who found those to be boring.

This novel is superb. Never heard of Joseph Roth until I stumbled onto TRM while looking for reading material set in Vienna. The setting is only occasionally in Vienna and ranges more broadly over remote parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. I wish I had found this book before traveling to Vienna but that is my only regret. This novel rewards the reader with a vivid description of life in the Empire from the point of view of characters at various rungs of the social order and with writing by someone who must have been a person of exceptional wit and understanding. Mr Roths novel reads very smoothly thanks to the near flawless translation.

I read this not long after reading Anna Karenina, and although the stories of the two books are very different, their effect on me was similar in one very important way: I was entirely absorbed in the two stories from start to finish, I felt as if I knew the characters personally, and continually wanted to know what was going to happen to them next.I have read very few other novels in my life which have had this effect on me, and I am particularly impressed by the abilities of both authors that they are able to write stories that would have this effect on me about historical subjects from a century ago which I would not in other circumstances be greatly interested in, i.e the lives of the Russian aristocracy, and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.Some superficial points in conclusion: Joachim Neugroschel did the translation for the Penguin version of the Roth book. Neugroschel was male. The picture shown here (and on the page here about him) is probably of a lady called Elfriede Jelinek. Also, what is the relevance of the picture on the front cover of the Penguin edition? How does a photograph of a Hungarian count jumping over a bench outside a castle somewhere in Croatia relate to this story? And finally, I found the first half of the introduction to the Penguin edition to be neither useful nor interesting, but the second half (a synopsis of the plot) was far more relevant

It conjures up with humour and pathos an era with much to commend it. Originally I bought the Granta edition and found the font absurdly small (and I have good eyes). The Penguin Classic edition was more readable.

The Hapsburg Empire's last years as illustrated by a military dynasty's origin and disintegration. Was the Austro Hungarian Empire actually such a stern masculine culture? Why did it collapse? The Radesky March is one way of exploring this era.

I had never heard of this 'classic' until I was listening to Barry Humphries' (yes, Dame Edna Everage et al.) book review on radio 4 while driving the length of the country one recent Christmas.The story of a family, socially elevated by a chance occurrance on a European battle field. It gives an interesting view into lives, and what was important to the people, in the final period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Of course, they didn't know it a the time, that it was the seed bed of the tensions which burst out into the fury of the First World War.The book left me melancholy. I usually read books for entertainment or information, so this was 'off base' for me. Well, I suppose, some of life is melancholy, it gives contrast to happier times.I'm glad I have read it, I had made a solemn, silent promise to Barry Humphries' voice, of course he doesn't know that.p.s. he is a learned man which belies his screen persona. But Barry, I wouldn't read it multpile times.Read, soak it up, pass it on.

Radetsky MarchOne of the great world classic novels. Prose,structure, characterisation, sense of place and historical time, all remarkable. I could not fault it. Anyone interested in serious literature would enjoy this novel. Subject - The decline of the Austria/Hungarian Empire and lead up,to the first world war.