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From the author of A Nervous Splendor, a dazzling portrait of the epicenter of the apocalypse that was World War I. Thunder at Twilight is a landmark of historical vision, drawing on hitherto untapped sources to illuminate two crucial years in the life of the extraordinary city of Viennaand in the life of the twentieth century. It was during the carnival of 1913 that a young Stalin arrived on a mission that would launch him into the upper echelon of Russian revolutionaries, and it was here that he first collided with Trotsky. It was in Vienna that the failed artist Adolf Hitler kept daubing watercolors and spouting tirades at fellow drifters in a flophouse. Here Archduke Franz Ferdinand had a troubled audience with Emperor Franz Josephand soon the bullet that killed the archduke would set off the Great War that would kill ten million more. With luminous prose that has twice made him a finalist for the National Book Award, Frederic Morton evokes the opulent, elegant, incomparable sunset metropolisVienna on the brink of cataclysm.
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ON THE EVENING OF JANUARY 13, 1913. VIENNA'S BANK EMPLOYEES' Club gave a Bankruptcy Ball. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
ON THE EVENING OF JANUARY 13, 1913. VIENNA'S BANK EMPLOYEES' Club gave a Bankruptcy Ball. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Focusing on just two climactic years, 1913 - 1914, Frederic Morton recreates Vienna in all its splendor during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The vibrant social, intellectual, and cultural life of Vienna is examined within the context of the seething nationalism of the Balkans, the Machiavellian intrigue among the political rulers of the European nations and Russia, and the human frailties of the seemingly larger-than-life national leaders, which assure that the twilight of the empire will eventually be overtaken by darkness.
Rigorously selective in his choice of detail, Morton brings to life the varied activities of a broad cross-section of Viennese society, and reproduces the intellectual milieu which eventually leads to the rise of some of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century--Trotsky, Stalin, Adler, Freud, Jung, Lenin, Hitler, Tito, and a host of others, all of whom are part of Vienna life.
Morton's seriousness of purpose and his scholarship are undeniable, yet his primary contribution here, it seems to me, is his ability to make historical personages come to life, to make the reader feel that they were real, breathing humans with both virtues and frailties, and not the cardboard characters one finds so often in history books. Vienna, as we see it here, has a real heart, albeit one that beats in 3/4 time.
From the masquerades and balls held by all classes of society, to the revolutionary movements, innumerable newspapers and pamphlets, lively coffee houses, and seemingly endless games of political maneuvering, one feels the ferment and activity which must lead, eventually, to change. The liveliness of the city, as depicted here, is a visual and intellectual contrast to the formality and frailty of Emperor Franz Josef, making the twilight of his empire understandable and its demise inevitable. Even the empire's demise is stylish, however. According to Morton: As "The World War [came] to the city by the Danube, [it came] dressed as a ball. Tra-la...Hurrah!" pp Mary Whipple
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Building on his experiences writing his previous 2 year background to the death by suicide of the previous Austrian Crown Prince (Rudolf) ("A Nervous Splendour: Vienna, 1888-89"), Morton has developed in confidence as a social historian. I think the best thing about his writing is that it is so stuffed with snippets of information that you select in your own mind the themes that best attract you.
All I particularly knew about the subject was "archduke assassinated, Sarajevo-start of World War One." Franz Ferdinand, a second uneasy peace-making prince in waiting to the aged Emperor Franz Josef dies a tragically violent death on his wedding anniversary after surviving the previous assassination attempt earlier that day. With him dies his wife Sophie- who he married for love in defiance of the Establishment. In revenge the Establishment forced him to accept that her mere descent from nobility rather than through the Habsburgs's centuries long inbreeding scheme meant that she would always be several turns down in official ceremonies and that their children could never inherit. Court officials would even snootily deny her accommodation in Imperial Palaces until the ageing Franz Josef had graciously dispensed with the natural order - for that one occasion only. Naturally in 21st century Britain we can look down on this royal flimflam from a bygone age (Don't mention the Duchess of Cornwall! I did once, but I think I got away with it). He receives no state funeral. He liked roses a lot.
What Morton emphasises is how strange it is that in the previous year Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler and Tito were all present in smugly conventional Vienna. In fact the Austrian authorities were happily nurturing the seeds of the Russian Revolution. Anything to allow a thorn to stick in the side to Tsarist Russia. He reflects Freud's psychoanalytical dogmatic battles with the more sensible upstart Jung- contrasting Franz Josef's reaction to another annoyingly passionate rebellious heir.
That and King George V was too scared to ride his horse in a London park anymore because he didn't like suffragettes jeering at him. Superb- ~I couldn't put it down.
All I particularly knew about the subject was "archduke assassinated, Sarajevo-start of World War One." Franz Ferdinand, a second uneasy peace-making prince in waiting to the aged Emperor Franz Josef dies a tragically violent death on his wedding anniversary after surviving the previous assassination attempt earlier that day. With him dies his wife Sophie- who he married for love in defiance of the Establishment. In revenge the Establishment forced him to accept that her mere descent from nobility rather than through the Habsburgs's centuries long inbreeding scheme meant that she would always be several turns down in official ceremonies and that their children could never inherit. Court officials would even snootily deny her accommodation in Imperial Palaces until the ageing Franz Josef had graciously dispensed with the natural order - for that one occasion only. Naturally in 21st century Britain we can look down on this royal flimflam from a bygone age (Don't mention the Duchess of Cornwall! I did once, but I think I got away with it). He receives no state funeral. He liked roses a lot.
What Morton emphasises is how strange it is that in the previous year Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler and Tito were all present in smugly conventional Vienna. In fact the Austrian authorities were happily nurturing the seeds of the Russian Revolution. Anything to allow a thorn to stick in the side to Tsarist Russia. He reflects Freud's psychoanalytical dogmatic battles with the more sensible upstart Jung- contrasting Franz Josef's reaction to another annoyingly passionate rebellious heir.
That and King George V was too scared to ride his horse in a London park anymore because he didn't like suffragettes jeering at him. Superb- ~I couldn't put it down.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was as readable as I expected. It was more informative than I expected about Ferdinand, the politics around him and his assassin.
While Freud's work and life in these two years is covered in adequate detail, I had hoped for slightly more of the artistic milieu. For instance, there wasn't as much about musical life in this period as I wanted. My other slight criticism is that the author writes some sections as if this was a historical novel. He will sometimes enliven situations with details which feel fictional rather than factual.
That said, the book has certainly improved my understanding of pre-war Viennese life and I would read more by this author.
While Freud's work and life in these two years is covered in adequate detail, I had hoped for slightly more of the artistic milieu. For instance, there wasn't as much about musical life in this period as I wanted. My other slight criticism is that the author writes some sections as if this was a historical novel. He will sometimes enliven situations with details which feel fictional rather than factual.
That said, the book has certainly improved my understanding of pre-war Viennese life and I would read more by this author.
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