The Merowingians; or, The Total Family (Sun & Moon Classics)

Resetting into the twentieth century an historical battle in ancient Germany for dynastic control, The Merowingians follows the last of the Merowingian line, Childerich III, as the diminutive, raging nobleman obsessively seeks "continuation of family totalization, centralization and omnipotence" through a complex series of quasi-incestuous marriages and intrigues. Childerich's violent behavior and machinations, inducing both horror and sympathy, take place in a world beset with treachery, lunacy, turmoil, and the grotesque - all depicted by von Doderer in a grandly elegant prose that ranges from the somber to the utterly farcical.
The Merowingians is a mad satire which gives further proof, if any were needed, of the greatness of von Doderer, whose works stand beside those of countrymen Robert Musil and Hermann Broch.