The String of Pearls

by Joseph Roth

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. The String of Pearls has also been published under the title The Tale of the 1002nd Night .

Genres: Fiction, Classics, German Literature, 20th Century, Novels, Literature, Historical Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Joseph Roth, journalist and novelist, was born and grew up in Brody, a small town near Lemberg in East Galicia, part of the easternmost reaches of what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire and is now Ukraine. Roth was born into a Jewish family. He died in Paris after living there in exile.

http://www.josephroth.de/

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this book was published after Roth’s death, I don’t know by whom but whoever is responsible certainly didn’t do him any favours as I’m sure Roth himself would never have published this second-rate novel. The themes are much the same as in ‘Radetzkymarsch’ and revolve around decay, loss, and exploitation. In fact much of the book reads like sketches for ‘Radetzkymarsch’ and many of the characters would have been right at home there. As one would expect from a writer of Roth’s stature, the storytelling is first rate and the cast of characters is conceived superbly (my favourite is Trummer: ‘Himmel sakra no amoi!’) but the novel does not hang together very well and the introduction of the Shah of Persia and his exotic entourage at the beginning and end of the book seems a bit out of place and unnecessary.

[Olaf Gütte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nachdem ich jetzt sieben Romane Joseph Roths hintereinander "konsumiert" habe,
fällt mein Fazit grundsätzlich positiv aus.
Die Handlungen spielen fast ausschliesslich in der Zeit der k.u.k. Monarchie
und der Autor lässt seine Protagonisten am Ende stets am Abgrund stehen.
Dennoch gut erzählt und unterhaltsam.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich liebe ja Roth, wenn er jüdisches Leben und persönliche Schicksale, tiefe Figurenentwicklung, Beziehungsanalyse und Humor mit politischen Umbrüchen verknüpft.
Diesmal hat er sich aber auf einen Betrugs-Intriganten-Stadel mit moralischen Implikationen eingelassen. Sowas konnte meiner Meinung nach Arthur Schnitzler einfach wesentlich besser beschreiben, wahrscheinlich weil er viel mehr integraler Bestandteil dieser Gesellschaft war als Roth.

Dabei war der Anfang dieses Romans meiner Meinung nach noch sehr witzig und grandios, gerade weil die politischen Komponenten zu Beginn noch im Vordergrund standen. Schon auf Seite 2 stellte sich bei mir Begeisterung ein, mit der Anspielung auf die drei verhunzten Türkenbelagerungen und dem in Wien bekannten Witz mit der Sichel auf dem Steffel.

Zusätzlich habe ich einen Fehler gefunden, übrigens den ersten überhaupt in einem Roth Roman und ich habe schon sehr viele gelesen. Der Schah fährt von Triest nach Wien. Wieso kommt er am Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof an? Der liegt ja im Norden also die Gmünd, Budweis Prag- Strecke nach Wien Logisch wäre der Südbahnhof bei der Reise aus Triest kommend. Nach einer intensiven Recherche war klar, das ist tatsächlich ein Fehler der erste Zug Wien Triest verließ 1857 den Südbahnhof. Die Franz-Josefs-Bahn mit gleichnamigem Bahnhof ging über Gmünd Budweis7Pilsen & Zweigstrecke nach Prag. Alle Bahnhöfe waren aus militärischen Gründen außerhalb der Innenstadt (Keine Menschenansammlungen seit der Revolution 1848) & Kopfbahnhöfe. Wenn der Schah wirklich von Triest gekommen wäre, hätte er mindestens zwei Mal vom Südbahnhof vom Zug in die Stadtbahn innerhalb Wiens umsteigen müssen 1902 Südbahnhof-Meidling-Heilgenstadt- Franz-Josefs-bahnhof. Dieser Fehler ist aber sicher kein Schlampigkeits- oder Unwissenheitsfehler, so etwas traue ich dem Roth auch im Pariser Exil nicht zu, sondern wahrscheinlich eine absichtlich gesetzte Unlogik, weil es namentlich so schön klingt, wenn der Kaiser den Schah am Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof empfängt. Ist ja auch charmant der Bahnhof heißt übrigens so, weil dort eine Statue des Kaisers stand. Roth hat wohl geglaubt, nach den Umbrüchen nach dem 1. Weltkrieg im Wiener Verkehrsnetz und in Paris sitzend fällt das keinem auf.

Wie gesagt, der Beginn hat mir noch gefallen, auch die Szenen mit dem Schah, der in einer Fremden Stadt mit einem anderen Monarchen und völlig anderen gesellschaftlichen Regeln nicht alles tun kann, was er will, aber dennoch gewohnt ist alles zu kriegen, und kein NEIN akzeptieren muss, was seine Entourage arg in die Bredouille bringt. Der Schah will nämlich eine verheiratete Baronin schnackseln, die er auf dem Ball des österreichischen Kaisers gesehen hat. Er ist gewohnt, das zu kriegen, was er will, was aber dem österreichischen Kaiser und der Moral der Wiener Gesellschaft diametral widerspricht. Der Baron Taittinger hat die Lösung: seine ehemalige Geliebte und Prostituierte ist eine Doppelgängerin der Baronin, die er auch nur gewählt hat, weil er die verheiratete Frau nicht kriegen konnte.

Hier kommt noch Roths großartiger, subtiler Humor a bissi schlüpfrig, dennoch elegant präsentiert zum Vorschein. Baron Taittinger trifft seine ehemalige Geliebte, der er ein Kind angehängt hat im Puff wieder. Nun ist er im moralischen Dilemma: eine Leistung zu bezahlen, die er vorher schon gratis hatte, ist dumm, vor ihr mit einer anderen rummachen ist moralisch verwerflich."

Nun erschließt sich auch der ungewöhnliche kluge Titel des Romans. Die Doppelgängerin der Baronin befriedigt den Schah einigermaßen und wird nach dem Märchen von 1001 Nacht mit einem teuren Geschenk überhäuft. Plötzlich ist sie sehr reich. Nach dieser 1001en Nacht in der 1002en Nacht kann sie aber wenig damit anfangen. Nutte geht nimmer, sie reist herum, ist einsam, entwurzelt und dadurch Freiwild für Betrüger – herrlich.

Das Geschenk war eine unsagbar wertvolle Perlenkette. Die Analogie zur Halsbandaffäre der Marie Antoinette kann ich irgendwie nicht vollziehen, ich meine das sind zwei sehr unterschiedliche Handlungsabläufe.

Ab dem Zeitpunkt als Roth Betrügereien und Intrigen einführte, fand ich das Werk etwas im Niveau der Figurenkonzeption und des Plots gesunken, und ob der Präsentation eher dem Schnitzler ähnelnd. Hin und wieder flicht aber Roth en passant politische Highlights ein, wie beispielsweise Vertreter der Polizei, Presse und Militärs, die sich in einem Café darüber echauffieren, dass ihnen dieser langweilige Frieden auf den Geist geht, weil einfach nix passiert. Aus Langeweile und Eigennutz wurde ja auch mit Kriegstreiberei von oben genannten Berufsgruppen intrigiert, indoktriniert und herbeigeschrieben, sodass ganze Kohorten junge Männer 1914 mit einem Lied auf den Lippen lustvoll und kriegsgeil ins Verderben rannten.

So plätschert die Story dahin, der Aufstieg und Fall der Prostituierten Mitzi Schinagl und die Beschreibung aller, die sie übers Ohr hauen und um den Erlös der Perlenkette erleichtern. Zudem auch noch der stete gesellschaftliche und finanzielle Abstieg des Baron Taittinger, der die Geschichte mit dem Schah eingefädelt hat. Am Ende beweist Roth wie immer, dass er hervorragend eine Klammer im Plot zu setzen weiß, das kann er der Roth, wenngleich jene im Radetzkymarsch weitaus ausgeklügelter konzipiert ist. Diesmal kammt der Schah erneut nach Wien und gibt dem Verderben unserer beiden Protagonisten unwissentlich einen letzten Stoß. Diese Klammer ist weitaus nicht so vielschichtig konzipiert wie im Radetzkymarsch, fast schein es so als probiere er eine schlechte Kopie seiner eigenen Ideen und der Wiederholung eines bewährten eigenen Konzepts.

Fazit: Leider nur Mittelmaß, noch immer nicht schlecht, aber so mediokre Schreibe bin ich von einem Roth einfach nicht gewöhnt.

[Armin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wiederlesen macht (mehr) Freunde, dank Wiedererkennen.

Der Erstkontakt stand am Ende einer Serie von Einführungsseminaren für Studienanfänger, die ich als Tutor begleitet habe, gleichbedeutend mit jeder Menge Roth-Meilensteinen und Diskussionen darüber auf der Uhr. Zudem litt ich damals noch sehr unter einem gewissen Identifikationszwang. Ein Bedürfnis, das von einem erzdummen und herzenskalten Liebespaar, dem auch sonst wirklich gar nichts gelingt, natürlich nicht befriedigt werden kann. Wohl selten hat ein Autor so gründlich und subversiv den Versuch eine Liebesgeschichte aus dem alten Wien zu schreiben unterlaufen.
Diesen Anlauf zur leicht verkäuflichen Ware hat Roth jedenfalls gründlich sabotiert, aber sobald der Schmalz des Anfangs abbröckelt, wird ein richtig gutes Buch daraus, zumal sich bei der Lektüre subjektive (Paarbeziehungen/Rummelplatzverhältnisse wie bei Ödön von Horvarth) und leicht nachvollziehbare Querverbindungen (Alexandre Dumas/Auguste Macquet: Das Halsband der Königin) auftaten.
Die parallele Lektüre des dritten Teils des Zyklus um die französische Revolution und Roths Versuch eine Schnulze zu schreiben war reiner Zufall. Aber etliche Deja-Vu-Erlebnisse bei der Beschreibung der Lokalitäten, die sich zuletzt umkehrten, als ich mit Roth fertig war und in der Ruine der früheren Existenz von Cagliostro dieselben Verfallserscheinungen auftraten, die ich gerade erst bei der Schilderung des traurigen Zustands des Guts gelesen hatte, auf dessen Elend der Großstadtflaneur Major Taittinger nun zurück geworfen war.
Fazit:Sicherlich kein Radetzkymarsch, aber längst nicht so weit davon weg, wie zunächst angenommen.

[Fábio Martins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um fresco em filigrana,da vacuidade, superficialidade e palermice sociais. A forma como Joseph Roth constrói personagens de vidro, frágeis, vazias,ocas e ... realistas, é incontornável. Tornei-me fã instantâneo do autor,e a feira do livro, hoje, alimentou a vontade.

[Georgi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Отново удивителен Йозеф Рот, който успява да разкаже така увлекателно за продължителното, спираловидно пропадане на човека, който е изтеглил къса клечка, но и не блести с особени качества, за да промени съдбата си. Какви герои само - с толкова недостатъци, толкова слепи за последиците от действията и бездействията си, толкова подвластни на пороци... И, разбира се, на фон е империята с цялата й порочна същност, административна, военна и институционална помпозност и фалш, така умело и със сарказъм предадени от Рот.

Самото издание е много голям компромис, пълно с грешки, с грапав превод, бих прочел книгата отново на английски може би.

[Jacob Sebæk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have lost count of how many nights passed between our introduction to Baron Taittinger and his tragic end.

Even the framework of the tale is one, of several, state visits paid by the Shah of Persia to Europe and specifically to Vienna, the story is not about the Persian emperor.
Correct, without him we would not have had some very important elements in the story, but it could as well have been the King of Farawayland.
When Roth picks this frame for his tale, it is more a matter of making the scene recognizable to his audience.

Nevertheless, the Persian Shah is a mirror to our antihero Baron Taittinger.

To a degree, they are both bored stiff with their life, the first has total power and in the long run it is not fun to have everything you like when you feel you have tried it all before.
The latter is a man of convenience, not without means or influence but unable to see any real meaning with life and perhaps most important, not very good at attaching himself to anyone.
Going with the flow, occasionally picking the fruits of others´ labor and not really paying attention to what tomorrow may bring.

When one day the two men meet, the fuse for a time bomb is ignited …

While attending the state ball, arranged in his honor, the Persian Shah from a distance lays his eyes on a beautiful young woman. Immediately he realizes that this was what he in his long time of boredom and restlessness was waiting for, and he declares that this woman must be procured for him.

Alas, the woman is married and not to be given away as a state present.

What to do? Our master procurer and man of convenience has the answer, a look-a-like must be found …

Thus, Mitzi Schnagel is introduced and doing her duty for king and country she is royally rewarded for services rendered.

This episode shortens the fuse of said time bomb.

Until the very end of the story, when everyone finds a kind of peace, Roth touches the themes of loneliness and what we do to overcome it, how you can feel lonely when surrounded by people and how circumstances you would otherwise consider happy can change your life for the worse.

If we take all the political hints and historical context away, which at time of writing gave the story even more dimensions, it is a tale of the downfall of mankind. Either by pride, greed, lack of attachment or neglect.

There are no pointed fingers, no moral high horse attitude, just a picture of a bunch of people doing a common crossword puzzle not realizing no one knows the right words or even how to spell them.

[Amaranta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mille e una sono le favole che la bella Sherazade racconta al sultano Harun al Rashid per avere salva la vita. E qui Roth ci illude che ce ne sia un’altra. Un’ultima storia a celebrare le bellezze dell’Oriente e la vita. Partiamo così dalla Persia con una storia che delle mille e una notte ha l’ironia, la freschezza e l’ingegno per arrivare a Vienna in una serie di vicende che si dipanano un anello dentro l’altro facendoci scoprire personaggi che all’inizio sembrano essere secondari ma che sono i veri protagonisti della storia. Il barone Taittinger, che ama solo se stesso, che non si cura di nulla. Il denaro, le donne, le sue proprietà sono solo cose che gli scivolano addosso senza importanza per lui. Solo nel momento in cui si rende conto di aver perso tutto, anche la sua rispettabilità di militare, qualcosa si rompe dentro di lui e il gelo che avvolge la sua persona sembra squarciarsi e sciogliersi. Trova un obiettivo e cerca di perseguirlo ma sarà dura. Attorno a lui ruotano la signora Matzner, tenutaria di una casa di tolleranza, una donna avida, infida e cattiva; e la giovane Mizzi, innamorata del barone e che cercherà di coinvolgerlo nella sua rete fino alla fine.
Ma perché l’autore ci inganna? Forse per darci una lettura diversa delle favole, uno smacco al “felici e contenti” , un pessimismo che si coglie perfettamente nell’ultima fase della vita di Roth, che si dimostra sempre un grande caratterista dei personaggi, scuri e con l’animo vuoto, con una cura alle immagini e alla parola eccezionale, come il color miosotide che torna e ritorna nella prima parte della favola nera, o l’immagine di portagioie paragonati a gole di velluto turchino che inghiottono i loro preziosi, o avventure paragonate a palloncini che si tengono a mano finchè interessano per poi farli volare via quando annoiano, lasciandoli scoppiare fra le nuvole dopo averli seguiti lontano con lo sguardo. C’è solo una fine possibile a questa notte.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel there is only one virtuous man. Everyone else is weak, empty and selfish. The characters don't have enough will power to change their unhappy circumstances. The novel is pessimistic to the core. All personal improvement is an illusion;even those characters who tried to better themselves end up returning to their original ineptness.

However, their unhappiness, whilst fed by their own inability to cope, finds its origins in the caprices and follies of powerful men. Thus, like a pyramid of responsibility, you realise what happens when the people who lead, those who ought to be good and virtuous, turn petty and cruel. You realise the overreaching consequences of living according to the whims and acts of a tyrant. Roth explains how cowardice and selfishness spread through society like a plague that slowly but surely destroys its members.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I might be capable of making figures that have heart, conscience, passion, emotion and decency. But there's no call for that at all in the world. People are only interested in monsters and freaks, so I give them their monsters."

The String of Pearls (or, The 1002nd Night) was one of the last books Joseph Roth finished. Like Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb, it is set during the twilight years of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and although the trajectories of the main characters' lives are tragic, Roth wrote the story with a light hand. The novel is book-ended by two visits by the Shah of Persia to Vienna, with the eponymous string of pearls referring both to an actual pearl necklace that he presents to a certain lady, as well as the sequence of events that follow his visit.

Roth's literary career lasted less than two decades (from the early 1920s to the end of the '30s). In this relatively short span of time he wrote more than a dozen novels, a book's worth of short stories and novellas, and several volumes of journalism and essays. There is nothing in his oeuvre that I would not recommend -- Roth's insights into the times in which he lived, and the hearts and minds of people of both "...the 'beau' monde, the 'demi-monde' and the underworld" is always illuminating and interesting, and his writing always concise, humorous and often elegant. While the incontestable masterpiece is Radetzky March, The String of Pearls is cut from the same cloth, and equally engaging and readable.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un ritratto impietoso e velato di pessimismo del degrado morale sotto l'impero asburgico, il tutto presentato come una commedia degli equivoci che si rivela alla fine dal sapore tetro e malinconico. Roth scrittore sublime nel raccontare le miserie umane.

[ΠανωςΚ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Οι τρεις λέξεις που είπα με την ολοκλήρωση της ανάγνωσης: έξοχο, έξοχο, έξοχο!

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Roth died in 1939, just months before the outbreak of the Second World War. Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht, his novel published in English as The String of Pearls (and translated by Michael Hofmann), is so infused with the sense of a way of life coming to an end that it is difficult not to sense Roth’s unease about the transformation of Europe in those fag end days of the 1930s, of a war he knew must be coming. But The String of Pearls is set in the nineteenth century, and so it tells of another world now lost – the court life of Old Vienna – but by binding such loss to more contemporary losses and fears, Roth turns his novel into a requiem for all.

The Shah of Persia has come to Vienna. Whilst in court, he spots the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and desires her. Captain Taittinger, a young cavalry officer, wishes to avoid a diplomatic debacle that could arise should the Shah proposition this woman of standing, finds a solution: his former lover, now a prostitute, looks very much like this countess – and so perhaps the Shah can be fooled… From this comedy of duplicity, Roth’s frothy, pungent prose slices through the social mores of Vienna, and brings to life a story of such profound sadness it is difficult not to be moved.

Mizzi Schingal, the prostitute is “lacking all understanding of the male of the species – which was inevitable following a stint in a so-called house of ill-repute, where one learned as much about the real world as one might in a girls boarding school – [she] judged the men she met now by the same standards that she applied to the hourly guests at Frau Matzner’s establishment. It was no surprise therefore that she took conmen and scoundrels for gentlemen from good backgrounds.” Yet she is given a gift, of a string of pearls, by the Shah but fails to understand their significance and so pawns them to begin a life of wealth and luxury – but fails even in this. Roth’s prose is sweeping and expansive – it takes in high society and the prisons, happiness to loss – and it is exemplified by the love, or lack of love, between Mizzi and Captain Taittinger, whose story forms the spine of his quite wonderful novel.

For what is such a brief looking novel (just 250 pages), Roth manages to encompass a whole lost world. It closes the circle between the old world and the now-all powerful Nazi party, and becomes an elegy of great power. It is full of flawed men and women, all looking out for themselves and nobody else, and missing the deeper human connections that could bind them all together. A great novel.

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel's translator Michael Hofmann described "The Tale" craftily as “a fairy tale that had swallowed a novel,” A strange and brilliant piece of fabulist fiction. "The Tale" chews up structures of historical power and class stratifications on a large and somewhat fantastical scale and spits them out in the form of a warped story about a Baron and officer, the Captain of Horse, and his former lover Mizzi Schinagl, who goes from pauper to princess after being given a gift of pearls from the Shah of Shahs during a visit Vienna. (He's come search of pleasure or romance, something to get at his gnawing, growing malaise.)

Roth invites us into a world in which people are spiritually adrift, at once helplessly, innocently incapable of escaping their own destiny, in the sense of circumstances they are born and drawn into, and at the same time horrifically guilty of an absurd failure to puzzle circumstances through in any satisfying way. The novel weaves realism and fairy-tale elements together in seamless, edgy ways that keep us from getting too close to characters and from judging them. It is as if we are to read the circumstances of each character with the same helplessness they feel at each step of the way.

This novel was written in the late 1930s as Roth struggled to make sense of the loss of both the idea and actuality of a Europe he knew and loved, and that, he thought, once loved him. It was published the year he died, in exile. I have read, in differing accounts, he drank himself to death, he died of pneumonia, of tuberculosis. Clearly he had lost his will to live. No one in "The Tale" can get enough traction to change the course of history in a meaningful way, and though this is a comic novel in tone, it isn't hard to sense the clouds of a gathering storm of unimaginable proportions.

[Steve Middendorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this were the first of Joseph Roth’s books that I had read, rather than the last, I might have reacted differently. At a first reading I would have been taken with the exquisite insight Roth provides into the decadence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the banal insouciance and ineptitude of its aristocrats who attached to the military to give their lives meaning. I would have raged at the inequality of the classes. I would have smelled the shit on the cobblestone streets of Vienna which spring to life under the clip clop of horses pulling rubber wheeled carriages.  As it was, The Radetzky March was my introduction to Roth. It was so memorable and so important, it caused me to read all of his works.

Perhaps to you coming first and not last to The Tale of the 1002nd Night this book will swing open Roth’s door to you and invite you in to an 1880's cafe in Vienna to share a slivovitz. I surely hope so.

[Marisol · Rating 4 out of 5]

El imperio austro húngaro era lo más parecido a ese poder absoluto que envuelve a los monarcas de oriente, hay muy pocos escritores que puedan capturar su espíritu, y Josep Roth lo logra, a través de una historia que inicia como sacada de Las mil y Una noches, con un Sha de Persia visitando Vienna, se suceden una serie de acontecimientos que parecen tan mágicos, y al mismo tiempo sin sentido, pero que sin saberlo son el comienzo de la debacle, el protagonista un Barón perteneciente al ejército con una buena vida, mujeriego y soltero, por suerte del azar o de su cerebro, entra a un humilde comercio y la chica que atiende es idéntica a un amor de juventud, este encuentro inocente marca el destino del Barón, y durante todo el relato vamos siendo testigos de cómo se van dando las circunstancias, los personajes y sobre toda las conexiones para ir de una aparente solidez en la vida a un declive lento pero implacable.

Inclusive sientes que existe una similitud entre la vida de este Barón y la forma en que un imperio que se percibía sólido y hasta de ensueño cayó estrepitosamente.

Los personajes son muy buenos, y todos necesarios, entran y salen como si de una obra orquestada se tratara, como si eso que llamamos destino realmente existiera y se hiciera presente en cada momento, te da pie para analizar de qué manera las decisiones que vamos tomando van construyendo nuestra desdicha o nuestra felicidad futura.

[Danny Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het sprookje van de 1002e nacht’ van Joseph Roth gaat over Mizzi Schinagl, een meisje van plezier. Zij brengt een nacht door met de sjah van Perzië als dubbelgangster voor de mooie gravin die de oosterse vorst eigenlijk begeerde. De sjah laat haar rijkelijk belonen, maar het geschenk staat aan het begin van een reeks dramatische gebeurtenissen die Mizzi en haar minnaar baron Taittinger in zijn stroom meesleurt. In prachtige taal en beelden beschrijft Roth nog eenmaal zijn geliefde oude Habsburgse monarchie en schetst met een mengeling van intellectuele scepsis, ironie en kinderlijke goedgelovigheid haar onstuitbare ondergang. Ook al weet je dat Roth dit boek louter om den brode schreef - zijn geldnood was steeds erg groot - boet het nergens aan kwaliteit in. Weer met veel plezier gelezen dus.

[Aurora.Maiasofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Già dal titolo, "La Milleduesima notte", questo romanzo richiama alla mente ambientazioni esotiche, appunto da mille e una notte; abbiamo infatti un sovrano persiano e racconti di terre lontane, ma questa è la "milleDUEesima" notte, questa è una storia completamente diversa. Non è la Persia ad essere esotica, è Vienna l'esotica terra del mistero, la custode degli usi, costumi e misteri del lontano occidente.

La visita dello Scià di Persia alla capitale asburgica è l'espediente narrativo che dà il via alle vicende dei protagonisti, l'evento scatenante di una serie di reazioni a catena, le quali vedono incontrarsi e scontrarsi le vite della giovane Mizzi Schinagl, del barone Taittinger e di una serie di personaggi minori. Al centro dell'intreccio, come motore dell'intera vicenda, una preziosissima collana di perle, causa di ricchezza ma anche di perdizione, per chiunque ne entri in possesso.

Siamo dunque di fronte a un romanzo che riflette, in primo luogo, sul caso, su come sia facile che la propria vita cambi nel giro di una notte, solo grazie a una casualità. In secondo luogo, viene posto l'accento sull'importanza delle decisioni; su come sia facile decidere a cuor leggero (senza preoccuparsi dei danni che si potrebbero arrecare al prossimo), e su come poi queste decisioni prese con leggerezza finiscano poi per ritorcersi contro, chiedendo un ipotetico "conto".

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Persia sono state scritte le novelle delle 1001 notte, e Roth ci regala invece quella che dovrebbe essere la milleduesima novella della serie.
La Persia è però solo un pretesto, dato che è lo Scià di Persia, preso da giovanile inquietudine esistenziale, a dare avvio agli avvenimenti recandosi a Vienna, capitale dell'Impero.
Presunto avvio, in realtà, che il vero avvio degli avvenimenti è frutto della noia e della nobiliare vanagloria di un inutile barone, vero e proprio paradigma dello spleen dell'Impero nel momento del suo tramonto.
E ognuno dei personaggi pensa di fare del suo meglio, e invece fa del suo peggio, o meglio, esattamente quello che serve per andare in rovina.
Così il barone e così lo Scià, che tornerà a Vienna, e non capirà perché ci è venuto la prima volta.
L'unico che sa esattamente che cosa fare, e l'inutilità del farlo, è l'eunuco di corte, e solo perché, come dice egli stesso all'inizio, è un castrato.
L'ambiente in cui si muove Roth è lo stesso di Marai, ma la sua scrittura è più moderna e scevra di artifici, e ci fa vedere meglio il nulla in cui si dibatte la società di cui parla.

[Misael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó bastante. Cruel, lenta y con bastante de cuento oriental

[María Alcalde · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Todos los relatos de Las mil y una noches comienzan con una "aparición del destino" que se manifiesta a través de una anomalía, y una anomalía siempre genera otra. Entonces se establece una cadena de anomalías. Y cuanto más lógica, estrecha y esencial sea esta cadena, más hermosa será la historia. Por "hermoso" me refiero a vital, absorbente y estimulante. La cadena de anomalías siempre tiende a volver a la normalidad. El final de cada cuento en Las mil y una noches consiste en la 'desaparición' del destino, que se hunde en la somnolencia de la vida cotidiana ... El protagonista de las historias es, de hecho, el destino mismo." Pier Paolo Passolini


Un viaje del Shah de Persia a Viena ocasiona una disparatada cadena de embrollos dentro de los entresijos de ambos imperios. Sus cortes, a disposición de los deseos e insolencias de sus majestades, intentan mantener el equilibrio entre las costumbres y culturas de ambas y para ello artimañas no les faltan; todo sea por el bien de los imperios pero sobretodo por el de sus propios cuellos.

Cómo no, el destino y la nostalgia serán las protagonistas de esta historia. Un relato que encuentra su comodidad entre la transfinitud y los ecos de “Las mil y una noche”.
“La noche mil dos” retrata la sociedad vienesa que fue testigo tanto de la grandiosidad como de la decadencia de un gran imperio mediante la utilización en trama de una exposición de ritmo inicial vertiginoso que se encamina hacia su propio declive, así como de la presencia de un sino, inagotable, que persigue a sus protagonistas en una extraña y tránsfuga normalidad, aquejada por la singular melancolía vienesa.


Diálogos despiertos con notas de humor irónico y la utilización de técnicas narrativas presentes en los cuentos de las Mil y una noche son manejadas brillantemente por Joseph Roth para deleite del lector mientras los remordimientos y el afán por la búsqueda de enmendar el pasado, o desear su vuelta, harán el resto. Todo ello otorga la seguridad de encontrarse con buena literatura en menos de 200 páginas.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this novel many years ago after stumbling across it in a charity shop. I had not long finished The Radetzky March and I seized it with alacrity. I loved it, I love all the writers I shelve under Mittel Europa because their works are always redolent of what was thrown away so easily by the dominant European culture, lets be plain, the non Jewish European culture eviscerated itself when it tore out and threw away the likes of Roth and countless others.

It is too long since I read this novel to comment properly, that will come once I reread it, but this is not an exercise gemütlich Habsburg nostalgia, Roth wasn't seeking a resurrection of some kitsch past of gilded coaches and ostrich plume hats, he was trying to describe what was lost while being devastatingly honest about the absurdity and cruelty of that world.

A brilliant novel by an outstanding writer. If you haven't read Roth then you haven't read twentieth century literature at its best.

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

La prosa del centroeuropeo Joseph Roth es deliciosa: por sus páginas pasa el gusto por contar historias llenas de vida, sin escatimar personajes e hilvanando sus vidas como un auténtico maestro hilandero.

En “La noche mil dos” la nostalgia del Shah-in-Shah de Persia dará lugar a una visita a la Viena de finales del s. XIX. En un baile, mientras resuenan los valses de Strauss, se encapricha con una joven y demanda pasar una noche con ella.

Una vez cumplido el capricho se desatará la verdadera dimensión de la novela: el Shah no satisfizo su deseo con la dama en cuestión, sino con una joven prostituta sosias de ésta y vigilada de cerca por la policía secreta del Imperio Austrohúngaro.

Cuál es el desenlace de esta situación a todas luces moralmente cuestionable y quién es el verdadero personaje central de esta novela solo podrán averiguarlo los que se acerquen a ella. Una obra increíble.

[Richárd Janczer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roth conferma la sua magistrale abilità narrativa, il suo genio si cela bene tra i dettagli. È cinico, ironico, oggettivo quasi fino alla sterilità e riesce molto bene a ricreare l'illusione di un romanzo orientale o, per meglio dire, orientalista. È conscio degli stereotipi colonialisti e della reciproca ignoranza dei mondi e riesce a svilupparla bene. Il problema, a mio modesto parere, è la trama poco avvincente che costituisce la parte centrale e la maggior parte del romanzo. Una post-favola popolata di automi, di robotiche statue di cera, in cui i sentimenti sono nascosti, se non addirittura inesistenti, e rimane solo la rovina o la saggezza di chi delle favole non è mai stato protagonista.

P.s. traduzione alquanto antiquata.

[Anna Rita Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devo ammettere che non è proprio il mio genere, ma mi è comunque piaciuto molto. La lettura è stata scorrevole e Roth ha saputo tenermi incollata alle pagine. Sicuramente leggerò qualcos'altro di suo 😊

[Mathijs Loo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misschien niet het beste werk van Roth, maar hij weet zoals vanouds weer een paar prachtige personages in zijn boek op te voeren. Lange tijd wist ik niet waar het verhaal naar toeging, maar toch is het mooi afgerond.

[Babs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roth obviously writes absolutely beautifully but reading this as my second book to The Radtezky March, I was probably only ever going to feel a little underwhelmed. I feel like several of the pieces were there, only jumbled; and some weren't there. It was entertaining, and sad, and even in translation, written with wit and colour, but I felt this was a rambling bagatelle. Quite possibly my error as it was recommended by someone whose taste I very much respect, and I read this on-and-off over quite a few months. (In fact, I recommended Naples '44 in return, and he seemed similarly moderate in his praise of it, so maybe both simply exhibit the 'No-one loves your favourite books as much as you' catch).

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good read. I hadn’t read Roth before, and now will look for his other books, for example, The Radetzsky March, which I believe is his most well-known book.

The book takes place mainly in the Vienna of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire. The characters are from the high world and the low -- the nobility and shop-keepers, brothel-keepers and clients, members of the imperial court and eaters and drinkers at railroad station restaurants. It is a fictional world that is very full considering the relative shortness of the novel. It is a story that came out of the world in which Richard Strauss wrote his opera Der Rosenkavalier, and the book and the opera share humor and wistfulness and fast pace and personal reversals.

Given the echo in my brain of Der Rosenkavalier, I have been asking myself why the book's title is an obvious reference to the 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights. Is the title simply a whimsical reference to the Shah of Persia whose visit to Austria affects the lives of the book's high and low characters directly and for good? Is it meant as an irony of how the life of Scheherazade and “her” Shah must have ground on in an ordinary way and not so marvelous way. Is the book a kind of inside-out Arabian Nights tale in which the characters are really as two-dimensional and lacking in inner lives as the wonderful heroes of the Tales? Perhaps, harking back to Strauss' opera, the title is a reference to a bygone world that seems wonderful, theatrical, romantic and crazy all at the same time — its own Arabian nights.

Roth is able to tell a somewhat complex, somewhat improbable story with beautiful attention to detail and to at least the sensations of his characters. There are some lovely passages that made me warm up to the characters — for example, when the Baron/cavalryman considers how he loves his two horses each in its own way, how Madame Metzner retires from running her brothel and suffers the pangs of a retired life, how Mitzi can be so totally witless as to achieve wealth (legitimately) and still end up in prison. And then, of course, how the Baron can at last push through to self-understanding.

Lawrence says: Check this out.

[Silvia Sirea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si tratta del primo romanzo di Joseph Roth che mi capita tra le mani - grazie ad un'adorabile bancarella dell'usato.

Il romanzo comincia e si conclude con la visita dello spocchioso Scià di Persia a Vienna, capitale dell'Impero Asburgico. E' questo il pretesto che l'autore utilizza per scatenare la vicenda principale del romanzo.

I personaggi che si incontrano durante la lettura hanno più difetti che pregi e non è affatto facile affezionarcisi: a partire dal barone Taittinger, un presuntuoso inetto capitano di cavalleria, fino a Mizzi Schinagl, una donnetta - non riesco a trovare un altro termine a lei adatto - ingenua e abbastanza sciocca, passando per la signora Matzner, ex proprietaria di una casa chiusa, e la coppia Kreutzer-Trummer, due individui loschi e non molto affidabili.
Secondo me, è proprio questo il fine ultimo di Roth: dipinge una serie di personaggi "negativi" perché è quello che il popolo vuole e richiede - non a caso, infatti, il romanzo si conclude con una battuta emblematica.
Il personaggio di cui l'autore si serve per dare voce alla saggezza, invece, è il primo eunuco dello Scià che sembra essere l'unico a conoscere la vera natura dell'uomo perché, come dice al suo signore e padrone, è castrato.

Ho deciso di dargli tre stelline perché mi piace il modo in cui le vicende si susseguono e si intrecciano fin quasi a confondere il lettore, nonostante la trama non sia poi così complicata.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the spring of the year 18——, the Shah-in-Shah, the great, exalted and holy monarch, the absolute ruler and overlord of all the lands of Persia, began to feel a sense of malaise of a kind he had never experienced before.

And so begins Joseph Roth's novel, The String of Pearls. If it seems like the beginning of a fairy tale, or folk tale, then its original title, Die Geschichte von der 1002en Nacht (The Tale of the 1002nd Night) would probably support that. For me the beginning of this novel felt so much like a Maupassant story that I wondered how Roth was going to spin it out for the whole length of a novel. But Roth is playing a different game here; what it is I'm not quite sure, but he's certainly playing around with our expectations of how the story is going to proceed.

So, the story begins around 1870-ish, with the Shah of Persia deciding to visit Vienna as a means to improve his physical and psychological health. After some amusing delays (you will have to read it to discover these) he arrives in Vienna and is treated with respect by the authorities and great interest by the populace. We are introduced to Baron Taittinger, Captain of the Ninth Dragoons, who has been seconded to assist with the running of the Shah's visit. The Baron is a bit of a loveable idiot who likes to split human beings into three categories: 'charmers', 'so-so's' and 'bores'; there are too many bores around for the Baron's liking. Meanwhile the Shah is treated to all sorts of entertainments, and it is whilst attending a ball that he is smitten by the Countess W. Bored with his harem of 365 wives he wants to fall in love with a Western woman.

He had come to Europe to enjoy the singular, to forget the plural, to trespass on individual property, to break the law, just once, to experience the pleasure of unlawful possession and taste the particular, sophisticated pleasures of the European, the Christian, the Westerner.

Used to geting what he wants the Shah demands that the countess is brought to him that evening. So what can the Austrian courtiers do? The Countess can't be treated like a common prostitute and the Shah will feel snubbed if they refuse him his wish. It turns out that the Baron, who had been involved briefly with the countess before her marriage, had also had a brief fling with a girl, Mizzi Schinagl, daughter of a shopkeeper, who looks as if she could be the twin sister of the countess; it's decided that she should 'stand-in' for the countess and be presented to the Shah. Mizzi, who is currently working in a brothel, is persuaded to do this and everything goes to plan. As a gift, the Shah gives Mizzi a string of pearls.

It is here that the focus of the story becomes more fluid as we now follow Mizzi Schinagl and her relationship with the Baron and the brothel owner Frau Matzner. We have already been told how Mizzi had given birth to a son by the Baron; the Baron however had no interest in the boy and it was left to Mizzi to bring him up. Frau Matzner advises Mizzi to marry Xandl, her longstanding fiancé and to put money into the haberdashery that had been bought for her by the Baron. But Mizzi is in love with the Baron—her love for the Baron persists throughout the novel, despite the Baron's apparent indifference. Mizzi sells the pearls and ends up losing the money and going to prison over a scam. The String of Pearls has an enormous number of characters for such a small book and it is from this point in the novel that it became a bit disorienting for me as I was no longer sure who was the main focus of the book; we switch from Mizzi to Matzner to the Baron to a writer called Lazik and back to the Baron. In the end the book is about the Baron's and Mizzi's relationship, but being rather an unconventional one, we are taken on a circuitous journey. Roth's description of the Baron is rather entertaining:

He took the Captain as he was, and was fond of him, with his cheery heartlessness, his incapacity to think beyond a couple of thoughts, for which his skull was far too roomy, his insignificant love affairs and childish infatuations, and the pointless and unconnected remarks that came out of his mouth, seemingly at random. He was a mediocre officer, who didn't care about his comrades, his men, his career.

The Baron is a bit of a blockhead who just breezes through life but as his money runs out and he is forced to resign from the army, due to a scandal over some dodgy literature, he has to depend on others. But it's too late for any drastic changes to be made to his life. In telling this story Roth avoids giving us what we want, instead he veers away at the last minute from doing so. For example, near the end of the book it looks like the Baron realises that he loves, or at least cares for, Mizzi and contemplates making an honest woman of her...but then he doesn't do anything about it; he appears to just forget about it. We expect the Baron to realise the errors of his way of life but he does no such thing, instead he misses the army life where he was happiest and tries to turn the clock back.

This crazy book is the kind of book that only begins to make a bit more sense once we've finished it. What seemed quite random at the time makes a bit more sense now that I've completed it. But it was a fun read full of strangely compelling characters and bizarre scenes. In his introduction the translator, Michael Hofmann, sums the book up brilliantly:

...The String of Pearls is a strange book: frothy, highly decorated, full of money and costumes and ambience and light, a pitiless morality with the cruelty of fable. The novelist keeps skipping ahead of the reader, into ever more distressing and constricting settings and situations—but he never stops skipping. Its scenes and images live in the memory: in this short book there is enough for many books.

It's certainly packed with a multitude of characters and memorable scenes that it will be difficult to forget. The novel comes full circle with another visit by the Shah but this time the Baron is in disgrace. The last paragraph contains a comment by a writer that could easily be Roth's justification for writing the novel.

I might be capable of making figures that have heart, conscience, passion, emotion and decency. But there's no call for that at all in the world. People are only interested in monsters and freaks, so I give them their monsters. Monsters are what they want!

This was read as part of German Literature Month VI.