Franz Joseph I, last Habsburg
emperor and central to Joseph Roth's novel 'Radetzkymarsch'
Joseph Roth
(1894 – 1939)
Joseph Roth was an acute chronicler of the downfall of the
Habsburg empire and the reverberations for the Austrian
people. He worked traumatic experiences of World War I into
his prose, experiences which where shared by many of his generetion.
Also a journalist with an interest in social issues Joseph Roth's
writing met with success mostly because of the somewhat glorified
depiction of imperial Habsburg. By this he contributed to establishing
the Habsburg myth.
Although glorifying might well be too harsh a word. Especially
in his novels 'Radetzky Marsch' and ensuing 'Die Kapuzinergruft'
he depicts the melancholy of a people suddenly reduced to comparable
insignificance combined with severe economic troubles. Three
generations of a family called Trotta hold the readers attention
in their strive for fortune and fame and their eventual doom
when the empire crumbled.
'Hotel Savoy' introduces the hotel as a transitory place
for people in misfortune, a setting that would gain in importance
in the literature to follow.
