You can use your SAILS Library Network card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
1 of 1 copy available
This deeply moving, deeply philosophical story set in Ukraine touches on timeless themes of uprooted identity, destiny, and loneliness
Widely praised and rarely available in English, Weights and Measures builds on Roth's most famous work, The Radetzky March. Among his final works, this fable about the disintegration of a good man transports us back in time to Eastern Europe’s borderlands in the early 20th century.
In this haunting and poetic novel, scrupulous artillery officer Anselm Eibenschütz is persuaded by his wife to leave behind his job as an artilleryman in the Austro-Hungarian army and take up a civilian post as Inspector of Weights and Measures in a secluded territory near the Russian border. Once there, his discipline and quiet dignity begin to dissolve as he encounters a shadowy world of smugglers, fugitives, and runaways.
A deeply felt commentary on the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Weights and Measures registers on both a historical and personal level to portray the slow capitulation of a good man to insidious small-time corruption and to his own destructive passion.
Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: outstanding classic storytelling from around the world, in a stylishly original series design. From newly rediscovered gems to fresh translations of the world’s greatest authors, this series includes such authors as Stefan Zweig, Hermann Hesse, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Gaito Gazdanov.
-
Creators
-
Series
-
Publisher
-
Release date
October 29, 2024 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781805331261
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781805331261
- File size: 527 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Starred review from November 1, 2024
Roth's 1937 novella reveals the evanescent beauty and mystery of a fallen world where nothing is quite on the level. Abruptly transported from his regimented military life to a loveless marriage and a civil service sinecure as Inspector of Weights and Measures in Zlotogrod, a rough and rowdy Austro-Hungarian outpost on the Russian border, upright Anselm Eibensch�tz is befuddled and ultimately overmastered by a flood tide of casual turpitude that swiftly invades his own home. Filled with misgivings as he navigates scheming underlings, a hostile citizenry, and the denizens who congregate at a sleazy tavern on the edge of town, the inspector's inevitable confrontation with the notorious criminal Jadlowker proves less problematic than his infatuation with the outlaw's sometime lover, the prepossessing Euphemia. Eibensch�tz is a figure of huge pathos, portrayed with wry insouciance by a disillusioned yet sympathetic narrator who humbly observes, "Most people depart this world without having acquired so much as a grain of truth about themselves. Possibly they acquire it in the next world." VERDICT Roth's psychological insight and complex moral vision, deftly captured in David Le Vay's graceful 1982 translation, are distilled in this pitiable, poetic tragedy, which proceeds with the grim logic and economy of a fairy tale.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-