The Emperor's Coloured Coat: A Novel [Hardcover]

John Biggins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995

Returning to the sea for a second adventure, stalwart young sailor Otto Prohaska is amazed when his experiences cause him to test his wings in the air as well. By the author of A Sailor of Austria.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this robust sequel to A Sailor of Austria, young Lieutenant Otto Prohaska of the Austro-Hungarian navy continues to narrate his adventures during the early years of this century, as he careens across Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, buffeted by lovely ladies, tyrannical lords and world events. Prohaska volunteers for flight training only to be shot down over a royal picnic, allowing him to spend time with both the Kaiser and Archduke Ferdinand, the latter of whom will shortly be assassinated, plunging Europe into WWI. When a lusty lady intrigues him, he finds himself in danger of execution. Up one mountain and down the next, by air, land and sea, the doughty lad wends his way, enduring shipwreck, pirates, battle and a Turkish dungeon. Skillfully mixing derring-do with tragedy as well as stringent wit, Biggins offers a vivid catalogue of world history 1909-1918. Sometimes there is so much history, in fact, that Prohaska seems more like a teaching aid than a living character, but overall this is engaging fare-reminiscent of George M. Fraser's Flashman series, but darker-that is likely to increase Biggins's following.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Most who have heard of the imperial and royal Austro-Hungarian navy know it only in connection with Baron von Trapp's premusical career as a successful submarine captain. So Biggins set sail on a voyage into the fairly unknown by inaugurating a series of novels about an Austro-Hungarian naval officer. But he has launched a very fine vessel, indeed. This book, second in the series, deals with Oscar Prohaska's career from the summer of 1913 through early 1915. During that time, he learns to fly, is injured in a crash, serves aboard a monitor on the Danube, becomes involved with the Serbian conspiracy that launched World War I, makes his way across Bosnia, is exiled to China, and finally wends his way back from the Orient. This not only keeps him busy, but will thoroughly engross readers. Biggins writes with a fine sense of the sea and of history and a truly marvelous wit. Britannia may no longer rule the waves, but her writers are definitely the best tellers of sea stories. Roland Green

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312134851
• ISBN-13: 978-0312134853
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,188,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting story; a unique voice, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Emperor's Coloured Coat: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars engaging story on interesting times, March 18, 2007

By 

Konrad Baumeister - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 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 First World War (The Otto Prohaska Novels) (Paperback)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Otto Prohaska Good news Is Just a Sign of Bad News Ahead, February 27, 2007

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 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 First World War (The Otto Prohaska Novels) (Paperback)

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.