The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War
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Book Overview
The House of Wittgenstein is the grand saga of a brilliant and tragic Viennese family whose members included a famous philosopher and the world's greatest one-handed classical pianist. The Wittgenstein family was one of the wealthiest, most talented, and most eccentric in European history, held together by a fanatical love of music yet torn apart by money, madness, conflicts of loyalty, and the upheaval of two world wars. Of the eight children, three committed suicide; Paul lost an arm in the war and yet stubbornly pursued a musical career; and Ludwig, the odd youngest son, is now regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. Alexander Waugh, author of the acclaimed memoir Fathers and Sons and himself the offspring of a famous and eccentric family, tells their baroque tale with a novelistic richness to rival Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks .
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0307278727
ISBN13:9780307278722
Release Date:April 2010
Publisher:Anchor Books
Length:368 Pages
Weight:0.81 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.5" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
EXTRAORDINARY & BIZARRE
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
I'm about half through the book but can hardly put it down. What a brilliant, talented, unstable & self indulgent family! I've lost count of suicides in the family & their associates. A story well worth telling & well told by Alexander Waugh.
eccentricity and brilliance at their best/worst
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
This is a fascinating look into the life of the lesser-known (but no less brilliant and crazed and obsessive) brother, Ludwig. No novel could as persuasively match the facts of one of the most afflicted (with genius and torment) families in the twentieth century.
reat summer read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Very interesting read about a rich, powerful and dysfunctional family in the city of my birth. The more I read, the more I learn. Gorgeous cover art.
Rollicking Jolly Read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Vaguely aware of who the Wittgenstein brothers Paul and Ludwig were, I feared the subject matter would be a highbrow detailed discussion of their works. Quite the contrary! Mr. Waugh disdains what could have been a dry pedantic review and approaches the story from another angle: a uniquely vibrant and talented family, graced with impossible wealth, who just don't get along very well. It's a rollickingly jolly read, full of humor, quirkiness, personality, and intelligence. "I never wanted it to end," as the old chestnut goes. The personal foibles of the famous are always a source of fascination and this book is bang on winner. You won't be sorry you bought it.
A Troubled but Interesting Family
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Fiction would find it difficult to top this account of a 19th-20th century European family: raised in great wealth but generally unable to manage life. Being as I am in music the book was doubly interesting. Can you imagine Johannes Brahms coming to a musicale at your home? Highly recommended.
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