Set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's decline, this novel follows Anselm Eibenschütz, an artillery officer who transitions to a civilian role as an Inspector of Weights and Measures. His journey into a secluded territory near the Russian border leads him into a world of corruption and moral decay. The story poignantly explores themes of identity, destiny, and loneliness, capturing the essence of a good man's unraveling amidst the chaos of early 20th-century Eastern Europe. It is celebrated for its lyrical prose and philosophical depth.
Set against the backdrop of post-World War I Europe, this novel explores themes of exile, identity, and the search for belonging. The narrative follows a group of displaced individuals as they navigate the challenges of a world transformed by war and upheaval. Through rich characterizations and poignant storytelling, Roth delves into the emotional and psychological struggles of his characters, capturing the essence of a society in flux. The book reflects on the enduring impact of conflict and the quest for hope amidst despair.
New translations of the six greatest short stories by Joseph Roth, collected in a beautiful edition Joseph Roth's sensibility--both clear-eyed and nostalgic, harshly realistic and tenderly humane--produced some of the most distinctive fiction of the twentieth century. This collection of his most essential stories, in exquisite new translations by Ruth Martin, showcases the astonishing range and power of his short stories and novellas. In prose of aching beauty and precision, Roth shows us isolated souls pursuing lost ideals and impossible desires. Forced to remove a bust of the fallen Austrian emperor from his house, an eccentric old count holds a funeral for it and intends to be buried in the same plot himself; a humble coral merchant, dissatisfied with his life and longing for the sea, chooses to adulterate his wares with false coral, with catastrophic results; young Fini, just entering the haze of early sexuality, falls into an unsatisfying relationship with an older musician. With the greatest craft and sensitivity, Roth unfolds the many fragilities of the human heart.
The novel follows the harrowing journey of Mendel Singer, a Jewish Torah teacher in the shtetl of Zuchnow, Russia, and later in America, from 1900 to post-World War I. Mendel faces profound tragedies that challenge his faith and devotion as he navigates the struggles of raising a family, particularly with the birth of his son Menuchim, who suffers from severe developmental issues and epilepsy. As Mendel grapples with his distrust of medical treatment, his family's dynamics become strained, leading to cruelty from his other children towards Menuchim. Despite their hardships, Mendel and his wife Deborah cling to hope.
Set against the backdrop of World War I, the narrative follows Nikolaus Tarabas, a Catholic landowner's son from the Galician village of Koryla. After participating in an assassination attempt, he is sent to America by his father. A fortune teller's ominous prediction foreshadows his dual fate as both a murderer and a saint. Returning to Koryla amid the war, he grapples with personal turmoil and military leadership during the revolution, all while navigating complex relationships, particularly with his cousin Maria. Joseph Roth's work explores themes of fate, power, and identity.
Mendel Singer is an ordinary God-fearing Jew who lives through great oppression in both Tsarist Russia and the unforgiving streets of New York. Like Job in the Old Testament he needs a miracle after falling ill, losing his family and suffering.
Now available for the first time in English, this important addition to the Roth canon is rich in irony and exemplary of Roth's keen powers of social and political observation. A novel fragment that was discovered among Joseph Roth's papers decades after his death, this book chronicles the life and times of Alexander Perlefter, the well-to-do Austrian urbanite with whom his relative, a small-town narrator, Naphthali Kroj, has come to live after becoming orphaned. The colorful cast of characters includes Perlefter's four children: foolish Alfred, with his predilection for sleeping with servant girls and widows and boasting of the venereal diseases he contracts; the hapless Karoline, whose interest in math and physics and employment at a scientific institute seem to repel serious suitors; the flamboyant Julie, a sweet, pale, and anemic girl who likes any man who is inclined toward marriage; and the beautiful and flighty Margarete, besotted with a professor of history. Written circa 1928-30, Perlefter represents Joseph Roth at the very peak of his literary powers-it was penned just after the publication of The Silent Prophet and just before his masterpieces Job and The Radetzky March.
GENERAL & LITERARY FICTION. 'What seething activity in this world, an hour before its end! The ministers, Europe's racing waiters, run from one lost position to another and fresh misfortune flourishes in the ruins!' Having fled to Paris in 1933, following Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Joseph Roth wrote a series of articles in that 'hour before the end of the world', that he foresaw was to come and which would culminate in the Second World War. This collection of Roth's haunting journalistic essays has never before been translated into English and forms the latest installment in Hesperus' bestselling On series. Incisive and ironic, the writing evokes Roth's bitterness and despair at the coming annihilation of the free world while displaying his great nostalgia for the Hapsburg Empire into which he was born and his ingrained fear of nationalism in any form.
