4 - “Europe is committing suicide”: Joseph Roth's Radetzkymarsch

Summary

Europa begeht Selbstmord und die langsame und grausame Art dieses Selbstmordes kommt daher, daß es eine Leiche ist, die Selbstmord begeht.

— Roth, letter to Stefan Zweig, 23 October 1930

Mein stärkstes Erlebnis war der Krieg und der Untergang meines Vaterlandes, des einzigen, das ich je bessessen: der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie.

— Roth, letter to Otto Forst de Battaglia, 28 October 1932

A Historical Novel?

PART 3 OF MUSIL'S Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften and Roth's Radetzkymarsch were both published in late 1932. Both works are ostensibly set in imperial Austria: Musil's in the twelve months from August 1913 until the outbreak of war; Roth's in the closing decades of the empire. Both authors had grown up in that empire, served in the Austrian army (in Roth's case, with no actual front-line experience), and witnessed the dissolution of the empire in 1918. Despite these external similarities, it would be hard to imagine two more different novels. To begin with the difference that is most apparent to any reader, Musil's work is highly reflective and avoids narration at almost every stage, whereas Roth's appears to be simple and provides the reader with a storyline. Musil “tells” and Roth “shows,” yet it could be argued that the two novels are a perfect example of what Wayne Booth has called the “radical inadequacy” of these terms. It should be stressed at the outset that the distinction between these novels is not that one is complex and the other simple.