In 1920, Joseph Roth, the most renowned German correspondent of his age, arrived in Berlin, the capital of the Weimar Republic. He produced a series of impressionistic and political writings that influenced an entire generation of writers, including Thomas Mann and the young Christopher Isherwood. Translated and collected here, these pieces record the violent social and political paroxysms that constantly threatened to undo the fragile democracy that was the Weimar Republic. Roth, like no other German writer of his time, ventured beyond Berlin's offical veneer to the heart of the city, chronicling the lives of its forgotten inhabitants - the war cripples, the Jewish immigrants, the criminals, the bathhouse denizens and the nameless dead who filled the morgues - as well as more whimsical aspects of the city - the public parks and the burgeoning entertainment industry. Warning early on of the threat posed by the Nazis, Roth evoked a landscape of moral bankruptcy and debauched beauty, creating in the process a memorable portrait of a city.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Roth is one of the great German-language authors of the 20th century. He's still relatively neglected here, and this first translation into English of a selection of his journalism is very welcome - part of Granta's highly commendable ongoing Roth project. Roth was an exacting observer of Berlin during the heady and ill-fated Weimar Republic - and a clear-eyed and outspoken witness of the rise of Nazism. The pieces here range from descriptive forays into red light districts, night-clubs and cafes, to an account of the Jewish ghetto and a superbly indignant, steely, unanswerable statement on the persecution of German-Jewish writers. Roth being Roth, though - a writer with an exhilarating eye for detail and lightness of touch - what most engages you is his sheer immersion in the city. An outstanding read.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Maße
Höhe: 224 mm
Breite: 143 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-86207-578-8 (9781862075788)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Joseph Roth's (1894-1939) books include The Legend of the Holy Drinker, Right and Left, The Emperor's Tomb, The String of Pearls and The Radetzky March Michael Hofmann is a poet. As a translator his work includes Kafka's The Man who Disappeared (Amerika). He has also translated Joseph Roth's The Legend of the Holy Drinker, Right and Left and The String of Pearls.
