The Two-Headed Eagle: A Novel [Hardcover]

John Biggins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

In the summer of 1916, Otto Prohaska pilots a rickety biplane belonging to the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Flying Service over Europe's battlefields and tries to survive history in the making.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During an event-packed six months in 1916, amid furious fighting on the Eastern front, young Lieutenant Ottokar Prohaska of the Austro-Hungarian navy (last seen in Biggins's The Emperor's Colored Coat) once again finds himself aloft in fragile aircraft, this time as an observer-bomber-navigator. The actual flying is done by Feldpilot-Zugsfuhrer Zoltan Toth, an enlisted man built low to the ground, who becomes Otto's steadfast comrade through one peril after another. Who but Otto would think of hurling a heavy and useless wireless transmitter through the balloon of an enemy airship? Who but Zoltan could fly a biplane whose engine and radiator completely block his view, forcing him to lean out his window like the engineer of a train? The duo ricochet from battle to battle in a war where mustard gas is a standard weapon and the worst opposition comes from a combatant's own leaders, who value statistics over victories. Though the narrative contains vivid, sensual descriptions of the sights and smells of the front line and the trenches, the paucity of dialogue and character development makes it, like its predecessor, more a nonfiction chronicle than a novel. Otto seems merely a peg on which to hang the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the birth of military aviation. Perhaps someday Biggins, who ably conveys the horror and despair of the period, will write the history book simmering within these pages.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Otto Prohaska, a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian navy during World War I, is temporarily assigned to the Flying Service as an officer observer. Working under an incompetent commanding officer who is afraid to fly, Prohaska risks his life to increase his squadron's "miles flown" statistics and deliver a general's love letters to his wife. Written in the form of a memoir, the novel offers wry, cutting observations about an aspect of the war seldom seen. Biggins, who lives in England, has written A Sailor of Austria (LJ 4/15/94) and The Emperor's Coloured Coat (St. Martin's, 1995), the first two books in a series featuring Prohaska. In the third book, he re-creates the Austro-Hungarian Empire in detail. Not an action-packed war novel, this is instead a thoughtful look at foibles and fatalities in Austria during the Great War. For public libraries with serious historical fiction readers.?Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 367 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312147511
• ISBN-13: 978-0312147518
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,730,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Historical Adventure, April 29, 1999

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Two-Headed Eagle: A Novel (Hardcover)

The third of Biggins's tales (after "A Sailor of Austria" and "The Emperor's Coloured Coat") of Austrio-Hungarian Imperial naval officer Otto Prohaska. This entry chronicles his five months duty on the Italian front with an air reconnaissance unit. This book, more so than the previous two, manages to project the hopelessness, meaninglessness, and horror of WWI. Although Biggins foreshadows the deaths of various characters, the tragedy of their circumstance is always intact and immutable. As always, the technical aspect of the book is thrilling and captivating. Just as he did with submarines in "A Sailor of Austria," Biggins masterfully describes the emergence and rapid development of the airplane as an instrument of war. Reading this will shatter all preconceptions about the era of biplanes and the "Red Baron." The distinguishing feature of this entry in the series is its melancholy mood, which the reader cannot help but adopt.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History as tragedy AND farce, April 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Two-Headed Eagle: A Novel (Hardcover)

"The Two-Headed Eagle" is quite possibly the best war novel in English since "The Caine Mutiny." By turns witty, farcical, and intense, this book captures the essence of World War I, surely the craziest war -- at least the craziest major war -- ever fought by so-called civilized society.

The book is episodic -- closer to four or five novellas than a single unified novel -- but that's one of its strengths, giving the narrative an almost kaleidoscopic quality that helps to convey the atmosphere of two of history's most confusing and disjointed phenomena -- the polyglot Habsburg Empire and the war itself. A great deal of action and character are packed into just four months of 1916. Yet Biggins has such a clear grasp of his story that the story itself never becomes confusing.

The book's humor is a great asset as well. Wit runsthrough the book, beginning with its title -- "The Two-Headed Eagle" refers both to the symbol of the Habsburg state and the two-seater airplane with an NCO pilot theoretically commanded by an officer-observer. Satire and even farce make their appearances. One of the best episodes involves the atttempt to execute a deserter, featuring a bureaucratic dispute over who gets to shoot him -- this abbreviated summary may not sound funny, but you will be rolling on the floor when you read it, I promise. Then there is the thorough historical research that has gone into the novel -- including the ethnic infighting of the multinational Empire (which contributes richly to the humor).

But this isn't just a comedy -- far fromit. Biggins' grimly concrete descriptions of life and death on the Isonzo Front are almost photographic. Biggins has the gift of conveying the futility and waste of war -- this war in particular -- without ever seeming overwrought or self-righteous.

Biggins' protagonist, Otto Prohaska, may be a bit too good to be true -- a paragon of civility, common sense and integrity, also heroic, witty, and cultured. Yet like his creator, Otto never seems priggish; he tells the stories engagingly. Prohaska's voice (he narrates the story in the first person) really does sound to me the way I'd expect an Austrian officer of WWI to sound. There are a couple of solecisms -- "orientated" for "oriented," "prospectus" for "prospect" -- but then, English isn't Otto's first language, nicht wahr?

All in all, this is a terrific book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Biggins., July 20, 2002

By 

Mr. A. M. O'donnell "Brit down under." (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Two-Headed Eagle: A Novel (Hardcover)

Biggins has produced another scorcher of a book. Well written and packed with enough technical detail to please anyone. This book covers the period when Prohaska is sent to fly on the Isonzo front after allegedly sinking a German submarine by accident.
Biggin's keeps the story buzzing along with a blend of action, humour and a large dose of the ridiculous. I can thoroughly recommend it.

While I am here I would also like to recommend another Biggins novel, "Tomorrow the World". This covers Prohaska's stint at the K.U.K. Naval Academy and his experiences on a voyage of exploration on the S.M.S. Windischgratz. I was fortunate enough to find a copy in London a few years ago and I haven't seen another one since. Anyone who has read the other Prohaska novels will get a kick out it. If you can find it read it!