The Silent Prophet (24 page)

Roth's other works include
Rechts und Links
(1929), set in Berlin, a disappointment for Nazis and leftists critics,
Hiob
(1930, Job: The Story of a Simple Man), a modern-day analogy of the biblical story, in which Roth paid his tribute to his Jewish background
. Das falsche Gewicht
(1937) depicted a weight-and measures inspector in the borderlands of the Tsarist Empire,
Die Legende vom heiligen trinker
(1939) was an self-ironic examination, in which Andreas the drinker is suddenly charged, by a total stranger, with the task of delivering a large sum of money to the shrine of St. Therese.

In his last novel,
Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht
(1939) Roth examined the theme of self-deception. The Shah-in-Shah, the great ruler and overlord of all the lands of Persia, feels sick and in 1873 decides to visit Vienna, saying that "Muslims have been there once before, many years ago." His Chief Eunuch, Patominos, corrects him: "Sire, they were unfortunately unable to enter the city. Had they done so, St. Stephen's Cathedral would have not a cross, but a crescent moon on top of it!" In the course of the narrative, the principal figures - Baron Taittinger, the brothel keeper Frau Matzner, and the prostitute Mizzi Schinagl - fall victim to the rewards they have reaped the Shah. He has slept with Mizzi and sends her a string of pearls. She ends in prison and Taittinger shoots himself.
Juden auf Wanderschaft
(1927, The Wandering Jews) was a fragmented account about the Jewish migrations from eastern to western Europe in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In 1937 Roth wrote a new preface for the book, seeing how temporary the period of peace and shelter was.

For further reading:
Understanding Joseph Roth
by Sidney Rosenfeld (2001);
Encyclopedia of World Literature
, vol. 3, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999);
World Authors 1900-1950,
ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996);
Joseph Roth
by Rainer-Joachim Siegel (1995);
Joseph Roths Fluch und Ende
by Soma Morgenstern (1994);
Co-Existent Contradictions
, ed. by Helen Chambers (1991);
Joseph Roth
byWolfgang Müller-Funk (1989);
Ambivalence and Irony in the Works of Joseph Roth
by C. Mathew (1984);
Von der Würde des Unscheinbaren
by Esther Steinmann (1984);
Joseph Roth und die Tradition
, ed. by D. Bronsen (1975);
Joseph Roth: Eine Biographie
by David Bronsen (1974);
Weit von wo
by C. Magris (1974);
Lontano da dove
by Claudio Magris (1971);
Joseph Roth: Leben und Werke
by H. Linden (1949) –

Key writers of Vienna after WW I
: Karl Kraus (1874-1936) wrote a satirical play about the Great War,
The Last Days of Mankind
, 1922; Herman Broch (1886-1951) wrote
The Sleepwalkers
(1932) and the prose-poem
The Death of Virgil
(1946), the first volume of Robert Musil's (1880-1942) novel
The Man Without Qualities
(1930-43) was immediately hailed as a great and unusual work. Franz Werfel's (1890-1954)
Barbara; oder, Die Frömmigkeit
(1929) examined the problem of political action in its relation to the significance of religiousness, and Elias Canetti published his first and only novel,
Die Blendung
, in 1935. Joseph Roth wrote his
Radetsky March
(1932) in Berlin's hotels and restaurants. Musil's favorite place in Vienna was Café Museum. Soma Morgenstern, the best friend of Roth, also brought him to that café.

SELECTED WORKS:

1.      
Hotel Savoy,
1924 -
Hotel Savoy
(tr. by M. Hofmann, 1984)

2.      
Die Rebellion
, 1924 -
Rebellion
(tr. by Michael Hofmann) - Kapina (suom. Ilona Nykyri) - films: TV film 1962, dir. by Wolfgang Staudte, cast: Josef Meinrad, Erna Schickl-Wegrostek, Hans Putz, Ida Krottendorf; TV film 1993, dir. by Michael Haneke, prod. Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF)

3.      
April,
1925

4.      
Der blinde Spiegel,
1925

5.      
Juden auf Wanderschaft
, 1927 -
The Wandering Jews
(tr. by Michael Hofmann)

6.      
Die Flucht ohne Ende
, 1927 -
The Flight Without End
(tr. by Ida Zeitlin, 1939; David Le Vay, in collaboration with Beatrice Musgrave, 1977) - TV film 1986, dir. by Michael Kehlmann, prod. Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)

7.      
Zipper und sein Vater
, 1928 -
Zipper and His Father
(tr. by M. Hofmann, 1989)

8.      
Rechts und Links
, 1929 -
Right and Left
(tr. by Michael Hofmann, 1992)

9.      
Hiob
, 1930 -
Job: The Story of a Simple Man
(tr. by Dorothy Thompson, 1931) - film 1936:
Sins of Man,
dir. Otto Brower, Gregory Ratoff, starring Jean Hersholt, Don Ameche, Allen Jenkins, Ann Shoemaker

10.      
Panoptikum
, 1930

11.      
Radetzkymarsch
, 1932 -
Radetzky March
(translators: by Geoffrey Dunlop, 1933; E. Tucker, 1974; Joachim Neugroschel, 1995) -
Radetzky-marssi
(suom. Aarno Peromies) - films: TV film 1965, dir. by Michael Kehlmann, cast: Leopold Rudolf, Helmut Lohner, Hertha Martin, Manfred Inger; TV mini-series 1995, dir. by Axel Corti, Gernot Roll, starring Max von Sydow, Charlotte Rampling, Claude Rich, Claude Rich, prod. Satel Film

12.      
Le Buste de l'Empereur
, 1934 -
Die Büste des Kaisers - The Bust of the Emperor
(tr. by John Hoare)

13.      
Der Antichrist
, 1934 -
Antichrist
(tr. by Moray Firth, 1935)

14.      
Tarabas, ein Gast auf dieser Erde
, 1934 -
Tarabas
(tr. M. Hofmann, 1987) - TV film 1981, dir. by Michael Kehlmann, starring Helmut Lohner, prod. Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)

15.      
Die hundert Tage
, 1936 -
The Ballad of the Hundred Days
(tr. M. Firth, 1936)

16.      
Beichte eines Mörders
, 1936 -
Confession of a Murderer
(tr. by M. Hofmann, 1985; Desmond I. Vesey, 2003)

17.      
Das falsche Gewicht,
1937 -
Weights and Measures
(tr. by David Le Vay) - TV film 1971, dir. by Bernhard Wicki, starring Helmut Qualtinger, Agnes Fink, Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic, Evelyn Opela

18.      
Die Kapuzinergruft
, 1938 -
The Emperor's Tomb
(tr. by John Hoare, 1984) - film 1971: Trotta, dir. by Johannes Schaaf, starring András Bálint, Elma Bulla, Rosemarie Fendel

19.      
Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht
, 1939 -
The Tale of the 1002nd Night
(tr. by Michael Hofmann) - TV film 1969, dir. by Peter Beauvais, prod. Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

20.      
Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker
, 1939 -
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
(tr. M. Hofmann, 1989) - Pyhän juomarin legenda (suom. Heli Naski) - film 1988:
La Leggenda del santo bevitore
, dir. by Ermanno Olmi, starring Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas, Dominique Pinon, Sophie Segalen

21.      
Der Leviathan
, 1940

22.      
Werke,
1956-1976

23.      
Romane, Erzählungen, Aufsätze
, 1964

24.      
Der stumme Prophet
, 1966 (written in 1929) -
The Silent Prophet
(tr. by M. Hofmann, 1980)

25.      
Das Spinnennetz
, 1967 -
The Spider's Web
(tr. by John Hoare) - film 1989, dir. by Bernhard Wicki, starring Ulrich Mühe, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Corinna Kirchhoff

26.      
Der Neue Tag
, 1970

27.      
Briefe 1911-39
, 1971

28.      
Die Erzählungen,
1973

29.      
Perlefter,
1978

30.      
Berliner Saisonbericht
, 1984

31.      
Im Bistro nach Mitternacht
, 1999 -
Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939
(tr. by Michael Hofmann, 2004)

32.      
Collected Shorter Fiction
by Joseph Roth, 2001 (tr. by Michael Hofmann)

33.      
What I Saw: Reports From Berlin
, 1920-1933, 2002 (tr. with an introduction by Michael Hoffman)