Radetzky March (German: Radetzkymarsch ) is a novel by Joseph Roth published in 1932.
Roth continued the story of the Trotta family in his later novel The Emperor's Tomb (German: Kapuzinergruft), published in 1938.
The story of three generations of the Trottas, a family of soldiers and bureaucrats, is set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy from the height of its power to descent into the war that would lead to its breakup. Roth...
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Radetzky March (German: Radetzkymarsch ) is a novel by Joseph Roth published in 1932.
Roth continued the story of the Trotta family in his later novel The Emperor's Tomb (German: Kapuzinergruft), published in 1938.
The story of three generations of the Trottas, a family of soldiers and bureaucrats, is set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy from the height of its power to descent into the war that would lead to its breakup. Roth pioneered in the use of an historical figure (the Emperor Franz Joseph) as a recurring fictional character in the novel. The well-meaning but blundering Emperor nearly gets himself and other soldiers killed at the Battle of Solferino in the late 1850s. Young Lieutenant Trotta knocks the Emperor down in order to save him from sniper fire. When the Emperor decides that Trotta has saved his life, he knights Trotta. Using exquisite irony, Roth shows how this seemingly ennobling event leads to the ruination of the Trottas, paralleling the decline...
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