The House of Wittgenstein by Alexander Waugh

The House of Wittgenstein by Alexander Waugh

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), 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 to 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.

PRAISE FOR FATHERS AND SONS: 'Written with wit, great shrewdness and without a trace of sentimentality' William Boyd, GUARDIAN 'Beautiful, funny, touching and riveting. It is nothing less than a classic of its kind' A.C. Grayling PRIASE FOR TIME: 'Very special Outstandingly successful This is a remarkable book' Patrick Moore

Alexander Waugh has been the chief Opera Critic at both the Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard, and is also a publisher, cartoonist and award-winning composer. He is the author of Fathers and Sons (a history of his literary antecedents), Time and God. He reviews regularly for national newspapers and magazines and has made television programmes for the BBC.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780747591856
ISBN 10	0747591857
Title	The House of Wittgenstein
Author	Alexander Waugh
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2008-09-15
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable