Product Description
Attempts to refute that Shakespeare had no politics. The author holds that Shakespeare had a very strong conception of what was good in society just as he had a fully developed sense of what was good in conduct.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. ... Read more

Product Description
novel, Austria, tr Edwin & Willa Muir ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Science and Madness
In his protagonist, Richard Hieck, Broch has presented us with a companion to Robert Musil's Ulrich: both are men influenced by the unsettling theories of their time and both search for meaning within the maddening cacaphony of ideas, but where Ulrich is swallowed by the din Broch presents us with an intriguing resolution to the problems of disorder.Hieck is a mathematician, an astronomer, a scientist - he is a lonely man who pursues knowledge down all of its blind alleys and dead ends purely for the sake of the pursuit, certain that there is no end, no ultimate goal.All of his relationships with the world are kept at an uneasy distance; from his half-demented mentor Doctor Weitprecht, his saintly younger sister Susanne (whose own response to the chaos of her times is to become a true "Bride of Christ"), his bohemian artist brother Otto - all are as equally inscrutable to Richard as are the millions of stars which pattern the night sky.And throughout his quest he remains haunted by the memory of his father, himself a scientist who succombed to the madness of the universe; it would seem that Richard is doomed to an obscure life and unrepented death.Can he be saved?
I mention the comparison to Robert Musil's masterpiece, "The Man Without Qualities" not only because it bears a relation to Broch's work but also because the respective authors seemed to have know of their connection.No less an authority that Elias Canetti - who knew both men - explains the animosity between the two thusly: Musil believed Broch to be an amateurish writer and was suspicious that Broch could claim to have "solved" the ideas presented in his works so quickly ("The Unknown Quantity" was written in six months while Musil's own opus went unfinished after a lifetime of work).Broch believed Musil a "king of a paper empire" whose life's work mirrored the chaotic unfathomability of the time.This writer's spat aside, I think that it illustrates Broch's conclusion, perhaps his "solution" to the Unknown Quantity.
Broch suggests that the missing element in the equation of Richard Hieck's life is simply love: "an awkward kiss released from all willing, released from Being, upborne by a wave of darkness." p.132When Hieck accepts that there are no answers to be discerned from the infinity of stars above, when he allows himself to recognize the beauty that is next to him in the person of the devoted Ilse Nydhalm, when he understands that he cannot make himself desireless - only then is Richard Hieck saved from the world of pure knowledge."[I]n the lonliness of the heart everything is absolute, in the heart there are no statistically approximate values, there the law is valid, and that is all that there is to say." p.176The Unknown Quantity is elusive for Richard, but it is also his salvation.
I recommend this novel as a fine introduction to Hermann Broch, who is at his most accesible in this, his fourth work (published in 1933).It presents many of the same themes which dominate Broch's works, from his "Sleepwalkers" trilogy down to "The Guiltless."A challenging writer and a satisfying read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The essence of jewishness
To my mind it is the best book by Lion Feuchtwanger. If anybody wants to know what the essence of Jewish identity is, he/she should definitely read it. By painting the controversial (for Jews) historical character of Josephus Flavius, the author actually disputes about modern Jewish identity. It is easy to read, it involves, inspires, makes you think and strive for more knowledge.

Incredible that this trilogy should be out of print!
The epoch chronicled by Joseph ben Matthias, former priest of the High Temple in Jerusalem, military commander (of sorts) in Galilee against the opening Roman onslaught and historian of that war, is an extremely significant crossroads of civilization and religion.

Josephus was a champion of his maligned people in the waning years of his life. His life and works were shunned by his beloved Jews as he was considered an arch-traitor who became a Roman lackey. That his works were preserved was only due to
the dligence of certain Christian prelates in the early Church, who (after tampering with some revered passages) found in Josephus a witness to the life and resurrection of Christ outside the Gospels. What a marvelous subject for a novel. Lion Feuchtwanger rose to the occasion. His characters are not the antiseptic saints or the demons of Lew Wallace's Ben Hur, but
conflicted, vacillating and at times just plain goofy people who almost accidentally were placed center stage in one of history's most crucial turning points.

Is F's history a little fudged? Well certainly, but his own essay on the historical novel makes it clear that he is
a "political message" writer who takes liberties here and there to make his tale relevant. When he wrote, Jews throughtout the diaspora wrestled with the notion of Zionism... reestablishment of a Jewish polity on ancient ground. The countervailing movement was that Jews had to become "world citizens", contributing to civilization in the countries of their birth, even as rising fascism and antiSemitism closed in upon them.

So Josephus' famed Antiquities is given a bit of a spin to conform with Feuchtwanger's Germany and the Palestine under the British Mandate. To the purist, distortions such as having
the aristocratic priest Josephus be an early advocate of a Zealot faction called the Makkabees might be a bit jarring.
Was Queen Berenice a Jewish patriot in her own way? Well it's possible, and the real Josephus may have wanted to mute this
characterization, as the Jews in Rome were under suspicion and censure under Domitian. Did Nero's consort, Poppaea Sabina
flirt coquettishly with Josephus while testing his knowledge of Jewish aspirations in Judaea and the world? Why not? We know she showered Josephus with gifts and that she was sympathetic
to the Jews's situation....though not a very saintly person in her personal affairs to put it mildly.

Reading these works, one can only wonder why they were never brought to the screen, let alone allowed to go out of print.

A MUST READ FOR ANY CULTURED PERSON
Feuchtwanger is probably the best historical novelist in the world - truly superb in erudition and majestic in his literary style. While this German Jewish writer is famous for his Josephus trilogy detailing the scenes of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, he has also written breathtaking historical novels on Goya the artist, J.J.Rousseau the philosopher, and last but not least, on Benjamin Franklin ("Arms for America"). "Jew Suss" (another masterpiece) is about medieval Europe and the Jewish presence there, sometimes a very visible presense, sometimes kabbalistically hidden. All of these books are a tour-de-force of the highest caliber.

A truly magnificent book
A must read for every Historical Fiction lover. It displays a fascinating view of the Great Uprising at 70 C.E., and a truly unique study of the human nature and its drives. Josephus is a book with fully fleshed, multy-faceted personalities, well built background and wondrous plotline. Plenty of material for thought.

One of the traits I most appreciate in Feuchtwanger is that he does not attempt to idolize his characters, but presents them as the humans they were, with all the complications and wonders of the concept.

Aside from a few errors in Jewish religious terminology, and questionable historical moments (without which Historical Fiction is impossible) his portrait of the time is accurate, vivid and irresistable.

The book is bound to sweep every reader immediately, and never let go.

One of his greatest books
In this real masterpiece Lion Feuchtwanger has incredibly successfully showed the very nature of jews and their religion. Through the book the reader can not only understand what this people feel and why they live how they do. He starts to love them, to see their tragedy, destiny, future. It's absolutely impossible to stay indifferent. The next two parts of the trilogy ("The sons" and "The day will come") accomplish the history of life of a profound historian Josephus Flavius, but personally I admire this book the most. ... Read more