The story of the 1002nd nights
The story of the 1002nd Nights is a novel by Joseph Roth that was published posthumously in December 1939 by De Gemeenschap , a Bilthoven publishing house.
The plot can be summarized as follows: Mizzi Schinagl wants a little love, but cannot get it from a man or from his own son. The ambivalent intriguer Taittinger pays a high price in the end, even a higher price than the clear intriguers Josephine Matzner and Franz Lissauer. Beauty, fame and fortune are deceptive goods.
time and place
The novel is set in Vienna around 1880 and partly in Persia and the then Austrian Carpathians .
content
The Shah of Persia is tired of his harem women . He longs for "exotic countries". So he travels to Vienna. At a ball given in his honor “in the Redoutensaal ”, he coveted Countess Helene W. from Parditz in Moravia . The Countess, married to Count W., a "Section Head in the [Vienna] Ministry of Finance", once loved the young Rittmeister Alois Franz Baron von Taittinger. It was precisely this Baron von Taittinger who, as luck would have it, “assigned for special use” during the Shah's state visit. When the countess is supposed to be brought to the Shah for a night of love and the awkward Viennese hosts seem to have found the problem almost unsolvable, Taittinger takes action. He thinks Countess W. looks like his girlfriend Mizzi Schinagl like a twin sister. Mizzi, daughter of the stove setter Alois Schinagl from Sievering , “works” with Mrs. Josephine Matzner in the brothel. The prostitute had given birth to the baron and named him Alois Franz Alexander. Taittinger does not pay alimony, but has Mizzi set up a Pfaidlerei . Besides, Mizzi is still "working" in the brothel.
With the cloakroom of the Burgtheater , Mizzi is dressed up as a noblewoman, and the Shah is launched into the brothel with the alleged “Countess”. The ruler is so satisfied with Mizzi in bed that the next morning he has a necklace made of three rows of heavy, large pearls worth “about fifty thousand guilders ” as a present. Suddenly, Mizzi is a rich woman. Josephine Matzner knows how to use the wealth of her employees for herself. In addition, a certain trust in Franz Lissauer creeps into Mizzis and opens up a lively "trade" with Brussels lace in the Pfaidlerei . When Lissauer's fraud is exposed, the stingy Ms. Matzner, whose money is partly in the Pfaidlerei, has to complain about a bitter financial loss. You are bringing a lawsuit against Lissauer. The fraudster is convicted, but Mizzi also gets sixteen months in prison as a "side effect" and has to sit in the Kagran Female Prison . The prisoner writes Taittinger letters. The baron realizes that the Matzner's greed for money has put Mizzi behind bars.
The editor Bernhard Lazik publishes the story of Mizzis and thus also Taitinger's "embarrassing affair" under the title The Pearls of Tehran . The baron pays Lazik two thousand guilders for the publication of his works. In addition, Lazik also wants to be financially supported by section head W. for writing his “shit books”. The count turns to Taitinger's military superior. The baron has to say goodbye because his nerves are attacked. The Rittmeister has no vigor for a civilian profession. Life outside the barracks has no meaning for him. Mizzi, released early from prison, realizes that her misfortune is not due to the pearls, but to Taittinger. Nevertheless, she loves the baron - as does her now grown up, failing son. Mizzi wants to be a baroness for the rest of her life, but the baron mostly stays away. Taittinger realizes that he has “acted recklessly all his life”. Just as he is applying to the army again, the Shah is about to make his next state visit to Vienna. "The police are digging up [Taittinger's] old files". The application is rejected. The baron shoots himself.
analysis
The title suggests something oriental and ties in with the tradition of the Arabian Nights . The Shah appears at the beginning and at the end of the novel and provides the “pearls of misfortune” for Mizzi's ephemeral wealth.
reception
- Helmuth Nürnberger sees the novel as a "graceful and ironic game" by the author.
- Heinz Lunzer discusses the genesis of the novel.
- Marcel Reich-Ranicki highlights Roth's skilful handling of the sentimental.
- Thomas Düllo interprets the novel in his dissertation in the chapter The Power of the Unmotivated and the Curse of the Public .
- According to Ulrike Steierwald, Taittinger flees from its own history. The occidental subject conception is confronted and “ironized” in the novel “with non-European thinking”. By giving money to the journalist Lazik, Taittinger finances “the prevention” of his own “present”.
- Wilhelm von Sternburg points to two essential elements of the narrative, namely the satire and the image of the lovable old Austria-Hungary.
filming
Peter Beauvais filmed the novel with Johanna Matz , Walter Reyer and Hans Jaray for television. The work aired on December 25th and 26th, 1969.
literature
Issues (in chronological order)
- Joseph Roth: The story of the 1002nd night. Novel. 1939. In: Ders .: Works 6. Novels and Stories 1936–1940 , ed. by Fritz Hackert. With an afterword by the editor. Frankfurt am Main 1994, pp. 347-514. 815 pages, ISBN 3-7632-2988-4 .
- Joseph Roth: Novels 4. The story of the 1002nd night . Cologne 1999, pp. 131-297. 297 pages, ISBN 3-462-02379-9 (edition cited here).
- Text output at Projekt Gutenberg-DE
Secondary literature (in alphabetical order)
- Theo Bijovet, Madeleine Rietra: Joseph Roth and 'De Gemeenschap' . In: Kessler, Hackert (ed.): Joseph Roth. Interpretation - criticism - reception. Tubingen 1990.
- Thomas Düllo: Chance and Melancholy: Investigations on the contingency semantics in texts by Joseph Roth . Diss. Münster 1991. 336 pages, ISBN 3-89473-819-7 .
- Benoît Ellerbach: L'anti-conte de J. Roth: Le conte de la 1002ème nuit ou l'implacable loi du rang . In: Philippe Forget, Stéphane Pesnel (eds.): Joseph Roth, l'exil à Paris . Rouen 2017, p. 273-288 (French).
- Michael Kessler, Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth: Interpretation - Criticism - Reception. Files from the international, interdisciplinary symposium 1989, Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Stauffenburg Verlag / Brigitte Narr, Tübingen 1990 (second edition 1994). ISBN 3-923721-45-5 .
- Heinz Lunzer: The versions of Joseph Roth's novel "The story of the 1002nd nights". Text-critical considerations . In: Kessler, Hackert (ed.): Joseph Roth. Interpretation - criticism - reception. Tubingen 1990.
- Wolfgang Müller-Funk: Joseph Roth . Munich 1989. 131 pages, ISBN 3-406-33160-2 .
- Helmuth Nürnberger : Joseph Roth . Reinbek near Hamburg 1981. 159 pages, ISBN 3-499-50301-8 .
- Marcel Reich-Ranicki : The novelist Joseph Roth. In: Kessler, Hackert (ed.): Joseph Roth. Interpretation - Criticism - Reception , Tübingen 1990, pp. 261–268.
- Ulrike Steierwald: Suffering from history. On the modern conception of history in the texts of Joseph Roth. Diss. Munich 1992. 198 pages, ISBN 3-88479-880-4 .
- Wilhelm von Sternburg : Joseph Roth. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009 (second edition 2010). ISBN 978-3-462-05555-9 .
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . Stuttgart 2004, p. 519. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 .
Remarks
- ↑ At the beginning of May 1940 the Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands (Sternburg, p. 471, 11th Zvu).
- ↑ See, for example, the first section in the third chapter : Reference to the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna .