Perlefter : The Story of a Bourgeois

Now available for the first time in English, this important addition to the Roth canon is rich in irony and exemplary of Roth's keen powers of social and political observation A novel fragment that was discovered among Joseph Roth's papers decades after his death, this book chronicles the life and times of Alexander Perlefter, the well-to-do Austrian urbanite with whom his relative, a small-town narrator, Naphthali Kroj, has come to live after becoming orphaned. The colorful cast of characters includes Perlefter's four children: foolish Alfred, with his predilection for sleeping with servant girls and widows and boasting of the venereal diseases he contracts; the hapless Karoline, whose interest in math and physics and employment at a scientific institute seem to repel serious suitors; the flamboyant Julie, a sweet, pale, and anemic girl who likes any man who is inclined toward marriage; and the beautiful and flighty Margarete, besotted with a professor of history. Written circa 1928-30, Perlefter represents Joseph Roth at the very peak of his literary powers—it was penned just after the publication of The Silent Prophet and just before his masterpieces Job and The Radetzky March . Now available for the first time in English, Perlefter: The Story of a Bourgeois is a novel fragment that was discovered among Joseph Roth's papers decades after his death. The book chronicles the life and times of Alexander Perlefter, the well-to-do Austrian urbanite with whom his relative, a small-town narrator, Naphthali Kroj, has come to live after becoming orphaned. The colourful cast of characters includes Perlefter's four children: Foolish Alfred, with his predilection for sleeping with servant girls and widows and boasting of the venereal diseases he contracts; the hapless Karoline, whose interest in math and physics and employment at a scientific institute seem to repel serious suitors; the flamboyant Julie, a sweet, pale and anemic girl who likes any man who is inclined toward marriage; and the beautiful and flighty Margarete, besotted with a professor of history. Written circa 1928-30, Perlefter represents Joseph Roth at the very peak of his literary powers #x96; it was penned just after the publication of The Silent Prophet and just before his masterpieces Job and The Radetzky March. Rich in irony and exemplary of Roth's keen powers of social and political observation, Perlefter is an important addition to the Roth canon Now available for the first time in English, this important addition to the Roth canon is rich in irony and exemplary of Roth's keen powers of social and political observation A novel fragment that was discovered among Joseph Roth's papers decades after his death, this book chronicles the life and times of Alexander Perlefter, the well-to-do Austrian urbanite with whom his relative, a small-town narrator, Naphthali Kroj, has come to live after becoming orphaned. The colorful cast of characters includes Perlefter's four children: foolish Alfred, with his predilection for sleeping with servant girls and widows and boasting of the venereal diseases he contracts; the hapless Karoline, whose interest in math and physics and employment at a scientific institute seem to repel serious suitors; the flamboyant Julie, a sweet, pale, and anemic girl who likes any man who is inclined toward marriage; and the beautiful and flighty Margarete, besotted with a professor of history. Written circa 1928-30, Perlefter represents Joseph Roth at the very peak of his literary powers{u2014}it was penned just after the publication of The Silent Prophet and just before his masterpieces Job and The Radetzky March A gripping combination of espionage and tragic love is set against the backdrop of the tropical Bahamas and the celebrated murder of Sir Harry Oakes, the wealthiest man in the British EmpireTom Hamilton, a young American undercover agent, arrives in Nassau in late 1942, when German U-boats are sinking dozens of Allied merchant ships in the Caribbean. Posing as a playboy, Hamilton has been sent by his Washington bosses to investigate Nils Ericsson, a Swedish industrialist with known ties to the Nazis, whom he suspects is building a case for the U-boat fleet in Hurricane Hole. Hamilton falls in love with a beautiful Englishwoman, Evelyn Shawcross, but with her affiliation to both Ericsson and the Duke of Windsor, wartime governor of the Bahamas, his operation to foil the plot could not only ruin his operation to foil the plot but proves hazardous and deadly Joseph Roth ; Translated From The German By Richard Panchyk. Originally Published: Köln : Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1978.