The Silent Prophet

by Joseph Roth

Book Overview

"The Silent Prophet" is a vivid attempt to explain the Russian Revolution and its betrayal by exposing the personal motivations of its leaders. It focuses on the power struggle between the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585674214
• ISBN13: 9781585674213
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The loneliness and alienation of an individual who feels no true sense of home

Joseph Roth was a Jewish writer born in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire in what is now Ukraine. He emigrated to Paris when the Nazis came to power and died there of alcoholism. His works, of which the Radetzky March is the best known, are concerned with the dislocation felt by rootless, wandering people, especially Jews and former citizens of the Austro-Hungary after the collapse of the monarchy during the First World War. Much of Europe before then had consisted of a mosaic of ethnic groups, nationalities and principalities and the author's works often express nostalgia for the vibrant cosmopolitanism of the old monarchical empires. The Silent Prophet is the story of Russian born Friedrich Kargan (a pastiche of Trotsky), an individual oppressed by his statelessness and lack of social identity due to his illegitimacy. In search of a place and a cause that will give meaning to his life he moves to Vienna where he encounters revolutionaries and reactionaries alike in a period of intense political uncertainty and upheaval in Europe. While there he falls in love for the only time in his life. However, on his first trip back to Russia he is caught by the authorities and sent to Siberia where he escapes (rather easily) back to Europe. Once again he becomes involved in political agitation and returns to Russia after the Revolution fired with idealism. He quickly becomes disillusioned at what he finds; the betrayal of the cause and the embourgeoisement of the former proletariat. Although a thinly-veiled critique of the cynical personal ambitions of the leaders of the Russian Revolution The Silent Prophet is also a treatise on the loneliness and alienation of an individual who feels no true sense of home and who discovers that the cause with which he aligns himself with boundless hope and devotion turns out to be merely an illusion.