Die Posaunen von Jericho

"My real magnum opus." Heimito von Doderer "The Trumpets of Jericho" tells the story of a nameless doctor in the outskirts of Vienna who bears unmistakable traits of the author and who, out of an existential weakness, gets into increasingly questionable moral circumstances. First, he witnesses a sexual assault on a little girl in a dark hallway. This is followed by degenerating alcohol excesses and finally the titular trombone strike by a horde of men aimed at a graceful old lady. But Mrs. Ida is not at home, which is why the nocturnal noise attack fails. Alerted by the janitor, the police raiding party appears and puts an abrupt end to the rude mischief. Doderer himself liked to call this furious, darkly toned masterpiece of the anti-psychologist his 'real magnum opus'.