Tomorrow the World: In Which Cadet Otto Prohaska Carries the Habsburg Empire's Civilizing Mission to the Entirely Unreceptive Peoples of Africa and Oceania

Otto Prohaska #4

by John Biggins

Laced with smart humor, this naval tale follows the early career of Lieutenant Otto Prohaska, a cadet in the Austro–Hungarian Navy at the turn of the century. Bad luck continues to shadow Otto, and when a fellow cadet breaks his leg, Otto must take his place on a scientific expedition bound for disaster. But even sinister quack scientists, a misguided attempt to establish a colony in Africa, and angry South Sea cannibals bent on destruction cannot keep Otto from fulfilling his patriotic duty.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Nautical, Historical, World War I

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

John Biggins was born in October 1949 in the town of Bromley; then in Kent but now an outer suburb of London and notable only as the birthplace of H.G.Wells and the deathplace of the Emperor Napoleon III. The son of an electrician and part-time Communist Party activist, his childhood was sickly and his schooling intermittent; though he made up for this with a great deal of precocious reading while lying ill in bed. In 1961 he moved with his family to South Wales, his father having in the meantime abandoned the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to become a steelworks engineer, and decided from then on that he would no longer waste time being ill. After attending Chepstow Secondary and Lydney Grammar Schools, then reading history at the University of Wales in Swansea from 1968 to 1971, he went to then-Soviet Bloc Poland and remained there for the next four years studying for a Ph.D. This experience gave him an enduring fascination with institutional dysfunction and the pathology of decaying empires; as did his subsequent four years of unemployment in the now-abolished Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food where one of his tasks was to write a history of the 1974 Cheese Subsidy in such a way as to show his then-boss in the best possible light: a job which he undertook with such creative relish that he was soon moved to another department.

After being advised politely but firmly to leave the Civil Service in 1980 he turned to journalism to support his wife and two children, then to technical authorship in the burgeoning IT industry of the mid-1980s, then to writing fiction in 1987 largely in order to amuse himself without much expectation that what he wrote would ever published. So it was with some surprise two years later that he found his first novel, A Sailor of Austria, being taken up by the first publisher who had a sight of it. In later years his day-job, by now largely in medical engineering, took him to France, Scandinavia and the Netherlands where he occupied his evenings by reading in the local languages in an effort to try and understand what was going on around him. Later on, two years spent writing and teaching an English course for Polish doctors also allowed him to develop a long-standing interest in medical history and led to his latest series of novels.

Despite advancing years he remains as neurotically active as ever, tirelessly roaming the landscape of whichever country fate has deposited him in with a map in his hand as though other people’s word wasn’t good enough for him and he really expects to discover lost temples or hitherto unknown tribes amid the flat waterlogged fields and motorway junctions of the Rhine-Meuse delta. An inveterate cyclist, he is currently much engaged in reviving the bicycle as a mass means of transport in Great Britain.

Since 2012 he has lived in the extreme south of France, in the Pyrenees near the Spanish border, and is now an Irish citizen.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really hope Biggins writes more of these. I want to read more about Prohaska in charge of a Paraguay's navy in the 20s and his struggle against the Nazis in the 30s and 40s. Heck, even more about his life in the nursing home I'd greedily devour. The last book of the series though takes place when he was just a young cadet. Age 15 and gets "lucky" enough to go on an around the world colonial and scientific expedition, which of course goes awry almost at once.

I had to look up later if Professor Skowronek was a real person, and thankfully it appears not, although I am sure many just like him were busy peddling their "science" of eugenics and race at the time. From Africa, to South Africa, to time stuck in the Antartica to South Seas adventures with cannibals and crazy missionaries, this book has it all. Looking back on all four, I am not sure which one I enjoyed best, which is really a mark of a fantastic series.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been some time since I read the previous installment in this series, but from the first page of Tomorrow the World onward, I felt back at home with Ottokar Prohaska’s distinctive, humorous narrative of his adventures as a young cadet in the Imperial and Royal navy of Austria-Hungary in the first decade of the 20th century.

All the elements of the previous three Prohaska novels are present here: improbable and incredible adventures, larger-than-life characters, a distinct and convincing historical setting, and, above all, the charming and witty narration. Of course, like the other three this novel also suffers from the lack of an overarching plot. Rather, the story hops from incident to incident in an episodic style. As a consequence, the novel drags somewhat in the middle third and there is little dramatic tension resulting from any of the conflicts. Despite these flaws, the episodic—one might say picaresque—style wins me over simply due to author’s skill at creating entertaining and amusing stories—as well as some darker tales. This style is also perfectly consistent with the central premise of these books, that is, an old man narrating his life’s adventures in the final years of his very long life.

This novel features the widest range of settings of any of the four books in the series, with Prohaska visiting Africa, South America, and Oceania and sailing on the attendant seas. One of the primary themes is that of colonialism. We are treated to a small sample of some of the tragedies resulting from that period of globalization and, in true Biggins fashion, several of its curiosities as well. There are a few despicable characters thrown in for good measure.

One detail I cannot help but mention is the one of the many curious side characters: a failing, terminally ill French artist living on a small tropical island in the Pacific. Whether he was a direct reference to the real artist Paul Gauguin or simply inspired by the real man, I thought it was a clever little moment. In fact, I have always wondered about how many of the little details, incidents, and characters in this series are truly historical or just inspired by their historical equivalents. This character has given me some food for thought on the matter.

Tomorrow the World is a fitting ending to this small but powerful series. Somehow, ending at the very beginning seems like the right way to see off dear old Prohaska, one of my favorite literary characters. I am glad that Biggins decided to leave this series at four books. They all complement one another, and at only four volumes, there is no question of them becoming repetitive and thereby losing the charm which makes them so memorable. Each installment is distinguished by new characters and settings, but they are all bound together by the common thread of Otto Prohaska’s endearing humanity and undying sense of humor.

[Andrew Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there was a way of rating this as a 4.75 stars out of 5, I would. There really was nothing wrong at all with this book, it is a great one and highly recommended. My only complaint, if you can actually call it that, would be that in Historical Fiction I prefer my protagonist to be unreliable and self-serving. Otto Prohaska is a good person, and morally sound which takes a bit of the edge off of the story arch for me personally. However there are plenty of other characters with abusive and almost tyrannical personalities that it makes up for the more clean cut manner of the main character (my Historical Fiction preference was born out of the Flashman novels, so my preferences arise from that style of character).
Now having said that, I really did enjoy this book quite a lot. I am very excited to read the rest of Otto’s memoirs and think this could rank in the upper echelon of Historical Fiction series in my opinion. The setting of the Austro-Hungarian Kriegsmarine gives so much depth to the story. Just the weird and odd way that life went about its way in that empire, and especially it’s navy gives a lot to work with in as far as making the story unique and John Biggins doesn’t disappoint. The wide ranging travels of Otto keeps the story moving at a good pace, and again the tertiary characters are really a big plus and are very well done.
All in all, I really liked this book and am already ordering the next in line, “A Sailor of Austria.”

[Eric Knudsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is hard for an Austro-Hungarian naval cadet. One day you're eating aged salt pork on an even more aged sailing ship, and the next day you find a cross-dressing superior officer in a South American bordello. What to do, what to do...

[Darryl Bortolot · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable read. It reminds me of Donald Jack's "Bandy Papers", which I read back in high school so many years ago. Otto Prohaska is a centenarian reflecting on his life as a young cadet in the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the turn of the 20th century. The history is dead on. Poignant at times, hilarious at others, but always entertaining. I definitely am going to seek out the rest of the books in the series - especially considering that this is the final book in the series (a prequel).

[Davor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book. The long title says more or less the full story, but the book is much more. True, there is not as much “action” as one could expect from this kind of book, but every page is a treat. Perhaps the most amazing part of the book is author’s precise knowledge about the Habsburg Monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is not only evident in details regarding the K.u.K. Navy, but also in the descriptions of the structure of the society, languages, social norms, and expectations. And it is full of wonderful irony, cynicism and almost slapstick comedy, which perhaps might seem a bit over the top, but it really works, both as something that could have happened (on such a voyage) as well as a mover of the action and the story. The story itself is told in the first person, as reminiscence of an old person, waiting to die in a care-home for old people, about the start on his naval career, some 90 years before, in the Naval Academy in Rijeka (Fiume), which took him from the landlocked Slovakia around the world over all Oceans. One could perhaps asked if people like the scull collecting professor really existed, but the book conjures up all the negativity of the colonial spirit, pseudo-scientific racial theories and exploitative thinking of the age. These horrible ideas and actions are offset by naivety of youth, and wonderful many little anecdotes that put the whole world of Austro-Hungarian Empire at the turn of the 20th century into almost a nostalgic light. Those that like naval adventures, will enjoy the book. Those that are interested in the Habsburg Monarchy, will love it. Those that come from countries that were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, will appreciatively nod their heads.

[John Mutchek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a prequel to the other three books. Thank goodness I didn't know that and read the others already or I would have skipped them all based on this one. Most of the story takes place on a sailing ship with lots and lots of detail about same. If you know something about sailing ships, fine. I found it quite boring and ended up skipping through the last third of the book. The other three books were quite different, and excellent though.

[Ratratrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rocambolesco come sempre, a volte eccessivamente fantasioso. bella la storia di Giovanni Orth ritrovato e che spiega il mistero di Mayerling. Forse inferiore agli altri..

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is so darn good—I wish there were more of them.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd heard raves about John Biggin's novels set in the last fifty years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now I understand why. If you enjoy an author who writes with authority, (like Michael Pearce, and with the same depth of knowledge and dry wit,) who has the outsider's eye for noticing and observing, then Biggins is for you. Start with this novel and read the whole series. It’s brilliant.

'Tomorrow the World' shows young Otto Prohaska becoming Cadet Prohaska, in what is left of the Hapsburg Empire's navy. The joy of the book is that it is not a young man's voice retelling his adventures, but Otto, the old man, waiting to die in the strange Welsh retirement home for Polish refugees, run by Polish Nuns. He's recording his stories, with comments and critical asides added by the older Otto's hindsight and later analysis. The result is often hilarious, always devastatingly acute. One despairs and wonders, as he does, if humans will ever learn from past mistakes. As a record of what happened to turn Germany into the bigot of white supremacy that resulted in Auschwitz, it is horrifying.

The sailing details of S.M.S Windischgratz, the descriptions of people and places, are so vivid you come to believe you are indeed reading memoirs. I stand in awe, not only of Biggins' research, but also his ability to turn it into something so tangible. His skills as a writer are one of the pleasures of this novel.

If Otto has a creed it is 'Lord, what fools these mortals be.' and the novel gives us both comic and pathetic examples as a hapless Cadet Otto sails on the weird and wonderful voyage from Pola (now Pula, Croatia) ostensibly to the South Atlantic, but eventually to Africa, New Silesia and across the Indian Ocean to Pola again. His adventures on the way there and home are hilarious, hair raising and even pathetic. This is a book to cherish and reread. Enjoy it.

[Corto]

Great stuff. A nice little trip around the horn, a caper among the cannibals and missionaries (the latter being worse than the former), and racial-theorizing-Social Darwinists to boot. Great stuff. I wish there were more in this series.

[John Hammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doesn't reach the level of previous stories of Otto Prohaska. Too bad as I was looking for more entertainment. Good way to learn what it must have been like aboard one of the last sailing warships at the turn of the 20th Century.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this fourth book in the Otto Prohaska series to be Biggins' best. I really enjoyed the story which was interesting and exciting, and peppered with just enough observations on life and people to keep me laughing throughout the book. Highly recommended.

[Victor G Zilinskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great beginning to a great series.

I am reading the series of four books for the third time. In my opinion, the best sea faring books ever written. Recommend this book and the ensuing three books most strongly.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great series continues. The four novels make up one of the great historical portraits of an age.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

WW1 from the Austro-Hungarian point of view. Sadly unique because no one has before or since tackled the subject. Pity he only wrote 4 books.

[Luis Granados · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as first three. Disappointed that nothing was written about Prohaska after WW1, though.

[Donald McEntee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting story about a very interesting person in a very interesting time. And a bonus: I discovered this years after I read the first three and thought that was all there was!