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S'està carregant… The Tale of the 1002nd Night (1939)de Joseph Roth
S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. I really like Joseph Roth's books about the decay of the old Habsburg Empire. In this one, the Shah of Persia visits Vienna and lusts after a Countess at a ball. To satisfy him without sullying the Countess, a courtier suggests that they pull a switch and loan the Shah the courtier's former lover, who resembles the Countess; the Shah rewards her with a string of pearls, which are promptly sold. Selling is the unifying theme--the pearls are sold, Mizzi's virtue is sold (over and over), pamphlets retelling the story of the Shah's affair and the crass character of a court where this could occur are sold to a voracious readership, then used to blackmail the courtier, and on it goes. Almost no one here has any backbone: everyone goes along making vague schemes to get by, to choose the most expedient solution, to sell themselves, and to steal or blackmail. The only solid person is a soldier "of the people", a breath of decency in the novel, whose advancement can only happen if he leaves the centre and goes off to the fringes of the empire to work as a paymaster in the army. This probably sounds horribly depressing, but it isn't. There's a kind of satirical gaiety to it that got me through. De sjah in sjah, heerser en keizer van alle Perzische staten, reist met zijn gevolg naar Wenen. Tijdens het bezoek geeft hij te kennen dat hij de nacht wil doorbrengen met een adellijke dame die hem op een galabal is opgevallen. De gastheren besluiten om deze gravin niet aan de Pers uit te leveren maar leveren een dubbelgangster. De nacht wordt georganiseerd door een officier voor ‘speciale taken’, de ritmeester Baron Taittinger. Wanneer de sjah terugkeert naar zijn land blijft de vrouw, bij wie Taittinger overigens een zoon heeft verwekt, rijk beloond achter. Het boek beschrijft de levens nadien. Met milde ironie en lichte spot schildert Roth zijn personages en maakt van het verhaal bijkans een sprookje over het verval van het oude Oostenrijk. De levensloop van de ritmeester Taittinger mag dan gelden als metafoor voor de aftakeling van de Habsburgse monarchie; het raam van de vertelling kan echter gevonden worden in de onvergetelijke conversaties tussen de sjah en zijn oppereuneuch Patominos. De roman vormt een goed verhalende compositie, die met trefzekere karakterschetsen wordt uitgevoerd. Gewoon, een heerlijk boek om te lezen. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this book, since I've enjoyed everything else by Joseph Roth I've read, but it just didn't grab me: I kept putting it down, forgetting who the characters were, etc. It tells the tale of what happens after the Shah makes a visit to the Emperor in Vienna in the 1800s, spends the night with a prostitute masquerading as a countess he fancies, and through his Chief Eunuch gives her a valuable string of pearls. The consequences then unfold over the course of several years for a variety of characters, who are said to paint a picture of life in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire before its decline. Roth has some really wonderful turns of phrase, and acidic insight into the empty-headedness and greed of some of his characters, but I never got into the story. I would hazard a guess that Roth was trying to make a larger point about history and the consequences of actions and the decline from grandeur to almost farce, but that didn't make a big impact on me either. Finally, I note that the translator is the much commented-on Michael Hoffman. Not only did he write what for me was an annoying introduction, but there was one place where the translation itself irritated me: there is a low-life character who doesn't speak good German, and Hoffman renders his speech in contemporary and late 20th century street slang -- it was jarring to me. I'm sure there's a way of showing that someone is speaking that way without jumping over 100 years into the future. "A fairy story that has swallowed a novel..." Michael Hofmann, in the Introduction to his translation of Die Geschichte der 1002en Nacht sums up Joseph Roth's artistry admirably. Roth's writing is indeed Dickensian in style "but at a third of the length" - an even more admirable quality in my books. This volume published by Granta books London is delightful to hold and delightful to read. It is not without its disturbing qualities. And by disturbing I don't mean scary or unpalatable; I mean disquieting, uncomfortable and rousing the reader to deep contemplation of the world and its human occupants. The story is set in 18-- and for the most part in Vienna. It starts in Persia however with the Shah-in-Shah who is "sick". His Chief Eunuch diagnoses boredom but not in so many words and so the royal delegation and all its retinue head off to Vienna in search of variety. The Shah's visit has unintended consequences for various unsuspecting individuals which I won't reveal for fear of spoiling the story. This is my first experience of Roth. I will definitely be going back for more. So many of the passages in this book are spine-chilling in their accurate observations of human frailty. His characters often commit "monstrous" acts and yet the reader is still compelled to observe them with compassion if only out of a knowledge of shared weaknesses. Here is one little quote: "Experiences, when one encountered them, looked bright, colourful, floating. You held on to them as to a balloon on a string, for as long as they were fun. Then, when you got bored, you let go. They floated off prettily into the air, you watched them go with gratitude and affection, and they they went quietly pop somewhere in the clouds. But a few hadn't gone pop at all. Instead, treacherous and invisible, they had hung around somewhere for years, in defiance of all the rules of Nature. And then, full of ballast, they fell back like lead weights on the head of poor Taittinger." Roth's observation of humanity is almost scientific in its accuracy but mercifully he softens it with a large dollop of droll humour. Enjoy! Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Pertany a aquestes col·leccions editorialsBiblioteca Adelphi (69) Bibliothek des 20. Jahrhunderts (Dt. Bücherbund) (Roth, Joseph) KiWi (140) Tascabili [Bompiani] (294) Premis
While visiting Vienna, the Shah of Persia falls for a beautiful countess. The Austrian officials arrange for him to spend the night with the countess, but unbeknown to the Shah she is a prostitute who merely resembles the countess. From this night follows a chain of ruinous consequences. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)833.912Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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Roth is by turns poetic, socially critical and yet sympathetic to his characters. Even as he shows them at their meanest, he seems to know that they are doing the best that they can. It is the interaction of these self-serving but surprisingly often well-meaning people that creates the inevitable crises that bring each of them down until one of them cannot get up again. ( )