Note: 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
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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!
