{"product_id":"the-coral-merchant-isbn-9781782275978","title":"The Coral Merchant","description":"\u003cb\u003eNew translations of the six greatest short stories by Joseph Roth, collected in a beautiful edition\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoseph Roth's sensibility--both clear-eyed and nostalgic, harshly realistic and tenderly humane--produced some of the most distinctive fiction of the twentieth century. This collection of his most essential stories, in exquisite new translations by Ruth Martin, showcases the astonishing range and power of his short stories and novellas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn prose of aching beauty and precision, Roth shows us isolated souls pursuing lost ideals and impossible desires. Forced to remove a bust of the fallen Austrian emperor from his house, an eccentric old count holds a funeral for it and intends to be buried in the same plot himself; a humble coral merchant, dissatisfied with his life and longing for the sea, chooses to adulterate his wares with false coral, with catastrophic results; young Fini, just entering the haze of early sexuality, falls into an unsatisfying relationship with an older musician. With the greatest craft and sensitivity, Roth unfolds the many fragilities of the human heart.‘One of the greatest writers of the first half of the tormented 20th century’ \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Simon Schama, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Roth is Austria's Chekhov'\u003cb\u003e--William Boyd \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Joseph Roth is counted among the great novelists of the twentieth century'\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eTLS\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e‘What Roth sees and hands on is a unique essence, conveying the fragility of what is truly human in us, the ridiculous and the tragic'\u003cb\u003e — \u003cb\u003eNadine Gordimer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eRoth is   Austria's Chekhov. --William Boyd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e What Roth sees and hands on is a unique essence, conveying the fragility of   what is truly human in us, the ridiculous and the tragic. --Nadine GordimerJoseph Roth was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Brody in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied first in Lemberg and then in Vienna, and served in the Austrian army during World War I. He went on to work as a journalist, travelling widely, staying in hotels and living out of suitcases, while also being a prolific writer of fiction, including the novels \u003ci\u003eJob\u003c\/i\u003e (1930) and \u003ci\u003eThe Radetzky March\u003c\/i\u003e (1932). Roth left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933 and settled in Paris, where he died in 1939.Career\u003cbr\u003e 1920\u003cbr\u003e He had been the junior bookkeeper with the firm of Reckzügel \u0026amp; Co., a wholesale exporter of\u003cbr\u003e saddles and bridles, for twenty-three years, and he earned 350 crowns a month.\u003cbr\u003e And his name was Gabriel Stieglecker.\u003cbr\u003e The other thing to be said about him is that, to keep from starving to death, he went\u003cbr\u003e looking for more work to supplement his income, and found some. For a few days at the end\u003cbr\u003e of each month he helped out at the firms of Pollacek Brothers, Simon Silberstein and Brother,\u003cbr\u003e and Rosalie Funkel. Altogether, Gabriel Stieglecker received 675 crowns a month. And he\u003cbr\u003e had now been dying on that amount for three years and five months.\u003cbr\u003e He was an excellent, prompt and reliable bookkeeper. Thanks to his efforts, the firms of\u003cbr\u003e Pollacek Brothers, Simon Silberstein and Brother and Rosalie Funkel were able to manage\u003cbr\u003e without a bookkeeper of their own. He kept their accounts in order, knew what had to be\u003cbr\u003e hidden from the taxman and the police, and was as discreet as a borehole.\u003cbr\u003e Gabriel Stieglecker loved his job. He preferred green ink over blue, and red above\u003cbr\u003e that. But his favourite was violet. Every other bookkeeper in the world wrote their figures in\u003cbr\u003e black imperial ink. But all of Gabriel Stieglecker’s figures were violet. He claimed to know\u003cbr\u003e for a fact that the violet ink was more permanent than the others, and soaked into the pores of\u003cbr\u003e the paper with unparalleled intensity. Yes, one might even suppose that numbers written in\u003cbr\u003e violet ink would go on existing long after the paper had disintegrated, as transparent images\u003cbr\u003e in the air.\u003cbr\u003e As for the numbers written by Gabriel Stieglecker, it is worth remarking that they\u003cbr\u003e could never be mistaken for anyone else’s. They had a personal touch, a distinct character,\u003cbr\u003e they were individuals. The 3 had no belly, the 2 no hunchback, the 7 no tail. All the numbers\u003cbr\u003e had a “nice line”, they were slender and willowy like modern women, and their artistic\u003cbr\u003e panache was second only to the drawings of models in the latest fashion magazines.\u003cbr\u003e For Gabriel Stieglecker loved the numbers he created. He breathed his own breath\u003cbr\u003e into them, so to speak, and that was why they looked so undernourished. He played with\u003cbr\u003e them as a boy plays with tin soldiers, mustering them in double rows, and marking the edge\u003cbr\u003e of his parade ground with a grass-green line. Or he would use red ink to start a bloodbath\u003cbr\u003e among them – though it was never permitted to spill everywhere willy-nilly, but channelled\u003cbr\u003e into neat furrows with a ruler. Order had to prevail at all times.\u003cbr\u003e If you didn’t know this, it would be impossible to understand that Gabriel Stieglecker\u003cbr\u003e has now entered the sixth month of his fourth year of dying on this income of 675 crowns. I\u003cbr\u003e use the word “dying” not, say, out of forgetfulness; it is entirely deliberate. For the story is\u003cbr\u003e true: Gabriel Stieglecker is not this man’s name, but he is a living person. The story is in any\u003cbr\u003e case too remarkable for anyone but Life to have come up with it – as you will see.\u003cbr\u003e Gabriel Stieglecker had a seat at the regulars’ table in Café Aspern, where he went\u003cbr\u003e every Sunday for a black coffee with saccharin. And every Sunday, while he was busy\u003cbr\u003e thinking about the strange sheen of the violet ink he’d purchased the day before, the other\u003cbr\u003e regulars would reproach him. Why hadn’t he asked for a raise yet? Couldn’t he see that he\u003cbr\u003e was being despicably exploited? In this day and age? By that firm? That honest company?\u003cbr\u003e In order to forget these reproaches quickly and completely, Gabriel Stieglecker went\u003cbr\u003e into the office every Sunday afternoon and wrote out numbers. Gabriel Stieglecker completed\u003cbr\u003e all his work for Monday morning and would have gone to bed well pleased with his efforts,\u003cbr\u003e had he not been plagued by the worry that the next morning, he would have nothing to do.\u003cbr\u003e And so Gabriel Stieglecker’s Sunday nights were tormented and anxious. Gabriel\u003cbr\u003e Stieglecker was generally not in favour of Sundays.","brand":"Pushkin Collection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301968990437,"sku":"NP9781782275978","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782275978.jpg?v=1767738835","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-coral-merchant-isbn-9781782275978","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}