THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JOSEPH ROTH PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Joseph Roth,Michael Hofmann | 288 pages | 17 Jun 2003 | WW Norton & Co | 9780393323795 | English | New York, United States The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth by Joseph Roth, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® Apr 27, Steve Kettmann rated it really liked it. The man died in Paris way back in , after all, and has never been included among the greats of 20th century European literature. But for anyone with a passion for great writing, it's well worth sorting through the uneven offerings presented here for a glimpse of a tremendous talent finding itself -- and also of a long-gone world of Jewish villages late in the Hapsburg Empire. What is amazing about Roth's short stories, though, is not their place in history, but his sense of fun and love of his characters. It takes love to craft someone as thoroughly awful as the thin-lipped, book-devouring, empty soul at the center of "The Honors Student," or as pathetic as the woman in "Barbara," whose dreary life of sacrifice for her only son ends up meaning nothing to the practical-minded son himself. Roth writes with the powerfully descriptive vividness of Babel, as when he describes the "slim white hands" of a train-wreck survivor lying still, atop her mink coat, like "two beautiful corpses. But as always, Roth uses his light touch to bring alive the inner longing of this coral dealer, one of many Roth characters who yearn to break out of the confines of their lives. Those longings are part of a human landscape that is anything but dated or dusty, but often haunting and always lively and moving. The stories cover a variety of settings, themes, voices - he is nothing if not eclectic. They are not easy reads in the best possible way and reward, indeed require, re-reading. Aug 16, Kenneth Duckworth rated it it was amazing. My mother purchased this book for me along with Roth's masterwork, the Radetzky March, after I read a review of his work in the New Yorker. My great-grandparents all immigrated to America from Austrian Galicia. They were Poles, living among Jews, Ukrainians and whatever nationalities that populated the borderlands of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. I have long been a student of the history and politics of this region, and had the good ortune to visit one of my ancestral villages when I was posted t My mother purchased this book for me along with Roth's masterwork, the Radetzky March, after I read a review of his work in the New Yorker. I have long been a student of the history and politics of this region, and had the good ortune to visit one of my ancestral villages when I was posted to the U. Embassy in Ukraine. Of course, there are no longer Jews nor even Poles in these villages anymore, and their cultural monuments are decrepit and crumbling. But reading these stories brought that part of Europe - as it was before the war - vividly to life, and I felt I was seeing the world as my great-grandfather my have seen it. I love Joseph Roth. He was a wonderful storyteller. His novel Radetzky March is one of my top five. The stories in this collection are a bit of a hodge-podge. The Galician stories, "Strawberries" and "This morning, a letter arrived. Some of the others are not as accomplished. But this translation by Michael Hofmann is a wonderful addition to your Roth library. And again, Roth's prose is marvelous, w I love Joseph Roth. And again, Roth's prose is marvelous, which is not surprising given he was the premier journalist of Weimar Germany. Jan 10, Erik rated it liked it. Apr 27, Navida rated it really liked it. These were lovely and sad. Jan 11, Mark rated it it was ok Shelves: 20th-century-austria , literature-german. I read only the story "Stationmaster Fallmerayer, which the translator called out as the finest. It's certainly an interesting story, well told and full of detail, but I found it to be utterly passionless. I find Stephan Zweig, Roth's contemporary, to be much moree penetrating, and his characters to be morre lively. Roth's characters are deadened, or at least his expression is, and I wonder to what extent that reflects his alcoholism. Or maybe it's depression, or perhaps both. Either way, if Sta I read only the story "Stationmaster Fallmerayer, which the translator called out as the finest. Either way, if Stationmaster is his masterpiece, I have no need to read further. The real charmer, for me, is "April", funny, sweet, well-done. Fine fine work. In some of the stories there is a sense of humor and the absurd which recalls Kafka, who had begun to publish about the time Roth began writing. Apr 03, James rated it liked it. Fine unread in like DJ. More information about this seller Contact this seller About this Item: Paperback. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. Seller Inventory CIN Norton Norton, Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Fine boards in a Fine dust jacket. Seller Inventory FFE Published by Norton About this Item: Norton, Condition: new. This item is printed on demand. Language: English. Brand new Book. Appearing in English for the first time, The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth includes seventeen novellas and stories that echo the intensity and achievement of his greatest novel, The Radetzky March. Spanning the entire range of Roth's brief life and showcasing the breadth of his literary powers, this collection features many stories just recently discovered. Roth's novellas and short stories will rank with Chekhov's as among the greatest of modern literature. Seller Inventory APC Condition: Near Fine. Minimal wear. Clean and unmarked. Minimal wear to DJ. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. Collected for the first time, they are are the only fictional works of Joseph Roth not to have appeared previously in English. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket Condition: New. A Minneapolis, MN, U. Publisher overstock copy. Condition: UsedAcceptable. Fine in fine dj. There are the little things close at hand and there is a remote eternity, and some relation between them that escapes our understanding. Maybe we would understand it, if love were to visit us; love relates the stars and the slinking cat, the lonesome whistle and the vastness of the heavens. In recent years, Joseph Roth has emerged as one of my very favourite writers. It is quite a puzzle that the author of such works as The Radetzky March, Job and Rebellion remains largely unknown to so many English-speaking readers - and even those well acquainted with modern European literature, and the likes of Thomas Mann. Several wonderful translators - not least of them, the poet Michael Hoffman - are helping to correct this sorry situation. Hoffman's rendition of The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth is the latest service in a great cause, as it shows Roth also had a gift for short fiction. With his characteristic lyricism, and precise depiction of conflicted, and all-too-human characters, Roth creates several more memorable stories. Anyone familiar with Roth's work might recognize the haunting Stationmaster Fallmerayer, as this is perhaps the best known work in this collection. Certainly they will recognize Stationmaster as vintage Roth, once read, as it is redolent of the writer's unique ability to capture the simple tragedy of simple lives, sensitively, but without sentimentality. A particular favourite of mine was Barbara, the responsible mother, "Didn't the name sound like hard labor", who knows responsibility to her son, but perhaps not to herself. How many writers, Chekhov aside, can distil with such poignancy a character's whole emotional life in a mere eight brief pages? It is a glorious collection. Buy it, read it, keep it by your side for future reference. Roth's cool-headed, knowing, bittersweet, deeply human, and, according to Brodsky, ultimately poetic collection is a delight that keeps on giving. True, a few of the stories included were still 'in progress,' or simply unfinished, but the aggregate offer a tantalizing glimpse at the breadth of Roth's story-telling power. It is a priceless portraiture of a vanished time and place whose dual emotional and entertainment value far outpace quite a number of his better-known contemporaries. It is high time this author received the attention his works richly deserve from the American ivory tower. Go to Amazon. The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth by Joseph Roth - AbeBooks Other Editions 4. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Aug 31, Russell Bittner rated it really liked it. I wondered: might they have something Kafkaesque in the original German that was simply untranslatable? By way of example, I give you this snippet on p. Even before he could hold a pencil, he was already a caricaturist. He had a low opinion of beauty and he loved crippledom and distortion. What men love in a woman is the perfection they think they see in her. Abel, though, had no use for perfection. Women suppose that male ugliness hides perfection or greatness. On the boat he saw, for the first time in his life, a beautiful woman. He took the next ship back to Europe. Roth needed time and space to work out a story, and the following paragraph on p.