Radetzky March by Joseph Roth chronicles the decline and fall of the Austro–Hungarian Empire via the story of the Trotta family’s elevation to the nobility. The Radetzkymarsch is an early novelistic example of a story featuring the recurring fictional narrative participation of an historical figure, the Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria ; the Trotta family story continues in The Emperor's Tomb . Radetzky March relates the stories of three generations of the Trotta family, professional Austro-Hungarian soldiers and career bureaucrats of Slovenian origin — from imperial zenith... to First World War nadir. In 1859, the Austrian Empire was fighting the Second War of Italian Independence , against French and Italian belligerents: Napoleon III of France, the Emperor of the French, and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In northern Italy, during the Battle of Solferino , the well-intentioned, but blundering, Emperor Franz Joseph I, and his cavalry cohort, are almost killed; to thwart snipers, Infantry Lieutenant Trotta topples the Emperor from his horse.
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| Author: | Joseph Roth |
| Genre: | Novel, Fiction, Historical fiction |
| Year published: | 1932 |
| Number of editions: | 16 |