The Emperor's Coloured Coat: In Which Otto Prohaska, Hero of the Habsburg Empire, Has an Interesting Time While Not Quite Managing to Avert the Fir

by John Biggins

Book Overview

This book follows the hapless Lieutenant Otto Prohaska in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and finds Otto taking an ill-considered break from duties to engage in a mad fling with a Polish actress. After a desperate attempt to elude his lover's husband, he finds himself mistaken by anarchists as one of their own. Otto soon masters their code names and secret handshakes, but when he also learns of their plans to assassinate the Archduke...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590131088
• ISBN13: 9781590131084
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: McBooks Press
• Length: 359 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

engaging story on interesting times

John Biggins' second Otto Prohaska book is essentially more of the same as the first, 'A Sailor of Austria.' There is a good dose of World War I history especially covering the decaying Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, and it is told with some dark gallows-humor while retaining a good deal of empathy for many (certainly not all) of the characters involved. In this book, really a prequel to the first, Prohaska is bumped around first Austria as a sailor assigned to an older battle cruiser, then the fledgling air force, then the staff of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then a river monitor on the Serb border - and suddenly he is involved in the conspiracy to murder the Archduke, the attempted prevention of which then leads him headlong across the world to the China station. Prohaska's long and dangerous journey back home sees him and his small crew encountering a variety of threats to life and limb from storms at sea to headhunters to corrupt officials to a ship of religious fools to you name it; the trip is worthy of Odysseus himself. Besides the narration of the story, in which he writes better, funnier, and more smoothly than in his first Prohaska book, Biggins gives us details on weaponry, alliance politics, on-board procedure, and technical stuff, and here the book excels. It is a pleasure to learn some of the more arcane bits and pieces in the way they are here related, where otherwise it would make for exceedingly dry reading. Finally, a part of Biggins' point in writing these books seems to be that, as much as was wrong with Europe and Austria-Hungary in particular in the time running up to WWI, the destruction of the world order in which Austria still figured as a major part did nothing to advance the welfare of mankind. The romance and charm of a somewhat decrepit and dysfunctional 'empire' run by bureaucrats and superannuated fools may have been short of ideal, but considering that Europe replaced these by the criminals running fascist, nazi, and communist dictatorships, responsible for the murder of tens of millions, the death camps, and untold human misery, it looks pretty good by comparison. There is an element of sadness and tragic romance behind Biggins' writing here.

For Otto Prohaska Good news Is Just a Sign of Bad News Ahead

John Biggins continues the adventures of Otto Prohaska, first introduced as a captain of an Austro-Hungarian submarine during the Great War in 'Sailor of Austria'. This tale is also told from Prohaska's perspective as a 100-year old resident of a nursing home in rural Wales. Biggins' style, while reminiscent of George MacDonald Fraser in the 'Flashman' series, is darker, less flippant, more serious. If you enjoyed 'Sailor of Austria' you will enjoy 'The Emperor's Coloured Coat'. The events in this second book actually preceed those in the Sailor of Austria as our man Otto finds himself tumbling across Central Europe and the follies of the soon-to-be-no-more Austro-Hungarian Empire. He finds himself in one troublesome spot after another - like being shot out of the air by a blast from the hunting rifle of the...well, read it and find out! Good news is usually a sign of bad news just ahead. It's exciting to see the renewed interest in John Biggins' works, which were hardly big sellers when first published in 1991 but are now being brought back by McBooks Press. Discovering Biggins has been one of those great unexpected experiences that come along only rare even to devoted readers. The writing is really first-rate and so is the story. Highest recommendation.

The Emperor's Coloured Coat by John Biggins

"The Emperor's Coloured Coat" is volume 2 in the fictious memoirs of Otto Prohaska of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (the first is "A Sailor of Austria"). The book describes Prohaska's adventures in the period leading up to the outbreak of war in August 1914, which includes flying training, personal service with Archduke Franz Ferdinand, customs operations on the Danube, and encounters with Serbian and other extremists. If that wasn't enough, the hero also serves in the seige of Tsingtao in China and has various adventures as he makes his way back to Austria. John Biggins has a fine attention to detail, and all of the events in the book could have happened, as the locations, personnel and equipment are all very accurately described. The action is fast and frantic, making the book a very difficult one to put down. Prohaska's adventures continue in the eagerly-awaited "The Two-Headed Eagle", which is scheduled for publication in November 2006, and then in "Tomorrow the World".

A Simply Brilliant Entertainment

This chronological prequel to "A Sailor of Austria" is considerably more wacky and far flung than its predecessor. In this one, the memoirist recounts his adventures as one of the first rank of military pilots, who, by dint of accident, ends up in the retinue of Archduke Ferdinand (yes that one) for some time. Eventually he returns to naval duties, where he gets tangled up with a former lover. Then, by dint of coincidence, he gets involved in the Serbian plot to assassinate the Archduke! Once again, Biggins brings the history and political milieu of the time to convincing life. After that peters out, the hero ends up in a blockaded Chinese port, and even faces a sword-wielding Japanese officer in trench warfare. Further adventurers take him and a crew of Chinese sailors into unknown waters an encounter with pirates, and a hilarious encounter in the jungle. Then, even wackier, he ends up on a ship headed to Mecca and has to make his way by land to Syria! This particular entry in the series is highly reminiscent of George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series.

An exciting story; a unique voice

This, the second novel in the series, contains Biggins' trademarks -- high humor, ingenious plotting, and (best of all) the wry, urbane voice of Biggins' protagonist, Otto Prohaska, a young Hapsburg naval officer. Looking back from the perspective of 75 years, Prohaska sardonically tells of the boredom of duty in the prewar Austrian navy, the absurdities of the Hapsburg court and the multinational, multilingual Hapsburg government, and the vicious twists and turns of Balkan politics. The novel culminates with a Keystone Kops execution scene that is almost as hilarious as the one in The Two-Headed Eagle, a scene that sums up the sense of existential futility with which suffuses The Emperor's Coloured Coat. This novel lacks only the tragic dimension, which the oncoming Great War will bring -- life will continue to be futile, but no longer boring, for Otto and his fellow Austrians.This book is a real treat. I enthusiastically recommend it.