Jud Süß [Power] (Feuchtwanger)
Sep. 20th, 2024 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnNote: not the basis for the Nazi propaganda film of the same title! (Which I had never heard of before hearing about this book, lol, but as selenak pointed it out, I put this here for readers who are more culturally literate than I am.)
I found this one quite compelling. It takes place during the buildup to and the tenure of Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg, in the 1700's, and chronicles how Karl Alexander came to power, his stint as Duke, and the aftermath. Karl Alexander was... well,selenak described him once in salon as a "Rokoko party boy" and yeah, that pretty much covers it.
But that's not what the book is about, that's just the background. It is actually the story of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, the Finance Director for Karl Alexander. Süss rises very high as the "Court Jew" as Karl Alexander rises in the world, and becomes very rich and distinguished, and all without giving up his religion. The history, of course, does not end well for Süss, and the book follows that through to the end.selenak tells me that an influential contemporary review for the English translation called it "a composition of intrigue, corruption, tyranny, injustice, ignorance, cruelty, uncleanliness and fornication," and, um, yeah, that's not a bad description! From about 60% to 80% the book is absolutely riveting. I mean, it's interesting in the other spots too, but this is where it kicks into high gear, as everything that has come before converges into what seems like an inevitable structure. (I also assume that most of this plot structure -- the motivations, etc. -- was made up by Feuchtwanger.) In contrast, the last 20% or so is more elegiac in tone, wrapping up everything slowly to the inexorable (historical) conclusion.
Feuchtwanger himself, of course, was Jewish, and it's interesting reading this book that there are so many places where he is remorseless in depicting anti-Semitism, in a way that is quite uncomfortable to read sometimes. It's not that he paints the anti-Semites as horrible cruel people; it's that they are ordinary people, sometimes quite nice, who do horrible cruel things, often unthinkingly, but also often in a way where fears and stresses override the rational and humanistic parts of their minds.
The style is interesting. I kept thinking that stylistically it reminded me of a fairy tale -- something like Hans Christian Andersen, where there is something of a mannered distance between the reader and the people on the page, while still being descriptive and compelling. It also had that fairy-tale-ish quality of making things seem beautiful in an almost dreamlike way sometimes.
Süss is definitely a hero, or anti-hero? in the true Feuchtwanger mold; he's handsome, popular with the ladies, intelligent, and significantly flawed, with the flaws often being part and parcel of his virtues as well -- he does not convert to Christianity, and to be sure there is a (somewhat murky) element of religious piety in that, but that's depicted as much less of his conscious motivation than an overwhelming pride that he can rise so high without converting, that he is one of of a kind and not just another rich Christian.
The book is of course (given its English title) also extremely concerned with power -- what it means that Karl Alexander has power both over his country (one of the major plot threads is about how he seeks to gain autocratic powers over Württemberg) and his Jew (he calls Süss that a couple of times). And what power does Süss have, given the above, but also given the fabulous wealth that he has made from being Karl Alexander's Court Jew, which he uses more than once to drive Karl Alexander in the way he wishes him to go? But also, you know, not to go all Ayn Rand but she did actually have something of a point when she said that going after power is living second-hand through others and not living on one's own terms. Which relates to the arc -- I hesitate to call it a redemption arc, but it's not exactly not that -- that Süss goes through, when that power and riches are inevitably torn from him. There is a lot going on!
I still have yet to read a Feuchtwanger where the young child of the main character (or, in one case, the not-so-young child-proxy of the main character) did not die super depressingly.
I think the Joseph trilogy is still my favorite Feuchtwanger because Joseph is such a WTF character, but I felt like of the Feuchtwangers I've read so far (Joseph trilogy, Oppermanns, Proud Destiny, and now Jud Süß) this one is the one I was the most impressed by. I can totally see how it became a best seller!
selenak pointed it out, I put this here for readers who are more culturally literate than I am.)I found this one quite compelling. It takes place during the buildup to and the tenure of Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg, in the 1700's, and chronicles how Karl Alexander came to power, his stint as Duke, and the aftermath. Karl Alexander was... well,
selenak described him once in salon as a "Rokoko party boy" and yeah, that pretty much covers it.But that's not what the book is about, that's just the background. It is actually the story of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, the Finance Director for Karl Alexander. Süss rises very high as the "Court Jew" as Karl Alexander rises in the world, and becomes very rich and distinguished, and all without giving up his religion. The history, of course, does not end well for Süss, and the book follows that through to the end.
selenak tells me that an influential contemporary review for the English translation called it "a composition of intrigue, corruption, tyranny, injustice, ignorance, cruelty, uncleanliness and fornication," and, um, yeah, that's not a bad description! From about 60% to 80% the book is absolutely riveting. I mean, it's interesting in the other spots too, but this is where it kicks into high gear, as everything that has come before converges into what seems like an inevitable structure. (I also assume that most of this plot structure -- the motivations, etc. -- was made up by Feuchtwanger.) In contrast, the last 20% or so is more elegiac in tone, wrapping up everything slowly to the inexorable (historical) conclusion.Feuchtwanger himself, of course, was Jewish, and it's interesting reading this book that there are so many places where he is remorseless in depicting anti-Semitism, in a way that is quite uncomfortable to read sometimes. It's not that he paints the anti-Semites as horrible cruel people; it's that they are ordinary people, sometimes quite nice, who do horrible cruel things, often unthinkingly, but also often in a way where fears and stresses override the rational and humanistic parts of their minds.
The style is interesting. I kept thinking that stylistically it reminded me of a fairy tale -- something like Hans Christian Andersen, where there is something of a mannered distance between the reader and the people on the page, while still being descriptive and compelling. It also had that fairy-tale-ish quality of making things seem beautiful in an almost dreamlike way sometimes.
Süss is definitely a hero, or anti-hero? in the true Feuchtwanger mold; he's handsome, popular with the ladies, intelligent, and significantly flawed, with the flaws often being part and parcel of his virtues as well -- he does not convert to Christianity, and to be sure there is a (somewhat murky) element of religious piety in that, but that's depicted as much less of his conscious motivation than an overwhelming pride that he can rise so high without converting, that he is one of of a kind and not just another rich Christian.
The book is of course (given its English title) also extremely concerned with power -- what it means that Karl Alexander has power both over his country (one of the major plot threads is about how he seeks to gain autocratic powers over Württemberg) and his Jew (he calls Süss that a couple of times). And what power does Süss have, given the above, but also given the fabulous wealth that he has made from being Karl Alexander's Court Jew, which he uses more than once to drive Karl Alexander in the way he wishes him to go? But also, you know, not to go all Ayn Rand but she did actually have something of a point when she said that going after power is living second-hand through others and not living on one's own terms. Which relates to the arc -- I hesitate to call it a redemption arc, but it's not exactly not that -- that Süss goes through, when that power and riches are inevitably torn from him. There is a lot going on!
I still have yet to read a Feuchtwanger where the young child of the main character (or, in one case, the not-so-young child-proxy of the main character) did not die super depressingly.
I think the Joseph trilogy is still my favorite Feuchtwanger because Joseph is such a WTF character, but I felt like of the Feuchtwangers I've read so far (Joseph trilogy, Oppermanns, Proud Destiny, and now Jud Süß) this one is the one I was the most impressed by. I can totally see how it became a best seller!
no subject
Date: 2024-09-21 07:27 am (UTC)Thanks for the review! It reminds me that I have unaccountably failed to read anything else by Feuchtwanger -- hopefully will visit the Joseph books soon.
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Date: 2024-09-23 02:53 am (UTC)I like the Joseph books a lot, though I must admit that part of this is because I knew absolutely nothing about Flavius Josephus before reading them except that he'd written Antiquities of the Jews (which I read excerpts of in a college class). So all the plot twists were extremely WTF moments I was super not expecting, which I thought was great :D
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Date: 2024-09-24 05:32 am (UTC)Similar levels of knowledge about Josephus to you pre-Feuchtwanger -- I read one or two extracts in translation during my degree, and he came up as a source in an audiobook about the Masada I listened to a couple of years ago.
Have generally osmosed that he might be good material for a Problematic Fave, without knowing details.
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Date: 2024-10-21 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-21 08:27 am (UTC)re: the style, in German there are touches of expressionism (not surprising for an early 1920s written novel) as well as period appropriate Rokoko language. 'Which, btw, isn't the case for the Josephus novels; he went for a deliberately current day way of speaking and writing for the characters there. (Which is why the characters in the Josephus novels use the very un Roman modes of address Du and Sie, whereas the characters in Power use the period appropriate Ihr or Sie or Er (depending on who's doing the talking). Of course, you can't replicate that in English.
. It's not that he paints the anti-Semites as horrible cruel people; it's that they are ordinary people, sometimes quite nice, who do horrible cruel things, often unthinkingly, but also often in a way where fears and stresses override the rational and humanistic parts of their minds.
Indeed, it's incredibly chilling and efficient that way - and, I found, far more powerful than if only people immediately signalled to be villains do this.
Karl Alexander's widow, Marie Auguste, would go on to become uneasy in-laws with Wilhelmine, remember, when her son Karl Eugen married Wilhelmine's daughter (resulting in a spectacularly bad marriage and Wilhelmine's daughter at least having had enough and moving back to Bayreuth to her parents). 'She also had a brief fling with Pöllnitz. And there's some social comedy to be had from all of her encounters with the Hohenzollern. (Utterly unsurprisingly, Fritz wasn't a fan, or vice versa.) BTW, of course the novel's events explain why Fritz is at one point writing to Wilhelmine he's heard a rumor that her daughter is going to convert to Catholilicsm and she really really must not do that, under no circumstances, her sole protection in her miserable marriage (this is before she moves back to Bayreuth) is that the people like her which they won't if she becomes a Catholic.
Karl Alexander the frat boy becoming 16 years old Orson Welles' professional debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin is still one of my favourite coincidences. (Orson at 16 playing a guy who is decades older is also very him.)
Dead kids: not in Proud Destiny, though? Naomi in this novel inaugurates the trope (for Feuchtwanger's work, that is), btw. There's much psychological speculation to be had from the fact that Lion and Marta only had the one kid, a daughter who lived only for a few days, and never ever talked or wrote about it, but he kept using the loss of a child as this big traumatic event for specifically his male Jewish ambitious characters, all the way to his last novel, Jephtah and his daughter, when it's the cruelest version because this time, the father literally does the deed.
Lastly: perhaps a little clarifying sentence that this novel is not in any way the basis for the infamous Nazi propaganda film of the same title? Because that's a very popular misunderstanding.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-23 03:07 am (UTC)re: the style, in German there are touches of expressionism (not surprising for an early 1920s written novel) as well as period appropriate Rokoko language.
Ah, that makes sense. This is probably what is meant in English as well, and I just didn't know how to describe it :)
Indeed, it's incredibly chilling and efficient that way - and, I found, far more powerful than if only people immediately signalled to be villains do this.
Yes! Part of the reason it's so hard to read is that you can see how people can so easily fall into this trap, if they aren't careful.
Thank you for connecting it to Fritz, which I always need reminders of!
BTW, of course the novel's events explain why Fritz is at one point writing to Wilhelmine he's heard a rumor that her daughter is going to convert to Catholilicsm and she really really must not do that, under no circumstances, her sole protection in her miserable marriage (this is before she moves back to Bayreuth) is that the people like her which they won't if she becomes a Catholic.
OH. YEAH. After reading about "the Catholic plot" in this novel, I really get it!
(This is why I like historical fiction so much :D )
Dead kids: not in Proud Destiny, though?
That's the one with the dead proxy-kid -- I think his name was Paul? Okay, not as young as the kids in the other novels, but I felt like you could make a case that Beaumarchais had a quasi-parental kind of relationship with him. Not quite the same as Naomi, to be sure (and Beaumarchais is hardly Jewish), but I felt like it came from kind of the same place.
Lastly: perhaps a little clarifying sentence
Done!
no subject
Date: 2024-09-25 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 04:13 am (UTC)Yeah . . . or at least that we were generally better at the whole "being people" thing!
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Date: 2024-10-22 03:44 pm (UTC)