House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War - Hardcover

Waugh, Alexander

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385520603 ISBN 13: 9780385520607

Publisher: Doubleday, 2009

Synopsis

From Alexander Waugh, the author of the acclaimed memoir Fathers and Sons, comes a grand saga of a brilliant and tragic Viennese family.

The Wittgenstein family was one of the richest, most talented, and most eccentric in European history. Karl Wittgenstein, who ran away from home as a wayward and rebellious youth, returned to his native Vienna to make a fortune in the iron and steel industries. He bought factories and paintings and palaces, but the domineering and overbearing influence he exerted over his eight children resulted in a generation of siblings fraught by inner antagonisms and nervous tension. Three of his sons committed suicide; Paul, the fourth, became a world-famous concert pianist, using only his left hand and playing compositions commissioned from Ravel and Prokofiev; while Ludwig, the youngest, is now regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In this dramatic historical and psychological epic, Alexander Waugh traces the triumphs and vicissitudes of a family held together by a fanatical love of music yet torn apart by money, madness, conflicts of loyalty, and the cataclysmic upheaval of two world wars. Through the bleak despair of a Siberian prison camp and the terror of a Gestapo interrogation room, one courageous and unlikely hero emerges from the rubble of the house of Wittgenstein in the figure of Paul, an extraordinary testament to the indomitable spirit of human survival.

Alexander Waugh tells this saga of baroque family unhappiness and perseverance against incredible odds with a novelistic richness to rival Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks.

About this title

Review:

"Excellent and astonishing. . . . Fits squarely among the long line of nonfiction masterpieces driven by the intoxicating richness of early century Vienna. . . . Riveting." --The New York Observer

"When it comes to dysfunction, the Wittgensteins of Vienna could give the Oedipuses a run for their money." --The New York Times Book Review

"Even in the exotic Vienna of one hundred years ago, the Wittgenstein clan stood out for its density of eccentrics. . . . [Waugh] has at least one stupefying anecdote per page as he describes this stunningly maladroit bunch of cultivated nuts, sweeties, intellectuals, philanthropists, and misanthropes." --Bloomberg

"The story in this book is so gripping and fascinating that it is remarkable that it has never been told in this way before. . . . It is hard to imagine another account showing such fluency, wit and attention to detail." --Literary Review

"A work of real discovery and rollicking narrative. This is a memorable biography, not to be missed." --London Evening Standard

"Waugh has done a masterly job, untangling a mass of financial and psychological complexities, while never over-encumbering the central, personal stories. His writing is brisk, confident and colourful . . . and the book is a pleasure to read." --Telegraph

"Marvellous, a sharp combination of some formidable scholarship . . . with a wonderful eye for absurdity . . . a magnificently refreshing and invigorating volume which deserves a wide readership." --The Independent

About the Author:

ALEXANDER WAUGH is the grandson of Evelyn Waugh and the son of columnist Auberon Waugh. He has written several books, including Classical Music: A New Way of Listening, Time, and God. He lives in Somerset, England, with his wife and three children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0385520603
• ISBN 13: 9780385520607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 333