Joseph Strauss (Berlin dentist,
Catholic, without family, steadfast client of the Eleven Tits brothel
and Der Große Bär beer cellar) leaves Prussia in the spring of
1866 and follows his patient, Captain of Dragoons Karl Eitel
Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen to
Bucharest. The captain has been called to ascend the throne of the
United Principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia, where he will be known
as Prince Carol I. War is imminent. The king travels incognito, third
class. Strauss faces the adventures and trials of his own journey in
the company of Siegfried, his tomcat and familiar spirit.
Bucharest: city of oriental rhythms
and intrigues. Dentist-to-the Prince Strauss soothes the monarch’s
anxieties in the exotic Romanian lands with a decoction of poisonous
mushroom and his libido with the blind prostitute, Linca, whose
affliction safeguards the monarch’s identity. Siegfried the
enamored tomcat writes psalms in the feline tongue on the backrests
of chairs. The dentist falls in love with a nanny from the household
of a pretender to the throne of Serbia, and the Prince prepares for
marriage in to Elisabeth Pauline de Wied, and here the fat falls in
the fire, at least from Joseph Strauss’s point of view. Seeking to
erase stains from his past, the Prince cuts his former dentist dead.
There are offspring in the offing,
though. Joseph’s son and the Prince’s daughter are both born at
the same time. A third infant joins their entrance into the world.
Far from the royal palace, Herr Strauss—highly affected by the
death of little Princess Maria (not yet four)—is amazed to find
that Petre, the son of the blind prostitute, strikingly resembles
(who else?) the man on the throne. Oppressed by this secret, the
dentist vows to look after the child, all unbeknownst to wife and
friends. This leads to no good.
Convinced that Petre is the dentist’s illegitimate son and Linca his mistress, the former nanny hoists sail. Strauss takes to drink, and goes downhill from there. On 10 May 1881, the day Prince Carol I is crowned King of Romania, Siegfried the tom performs his final miracle. He reconciles his masters, and all becomes clear.
Convinced that Petre is the dentist’s illegitimate son and Linca his mistress, the former nanny hoists sail. Strauss takes to drink, and goes downhill from there. On 10 May 1881, the day Prince Carol I is crowned King of Romania, Siegfried the tom performs his final miracle. He reconciles his masters, and all becomes clear.
