| The Brothel in Rosenstrasse | |
|---|---|
Dust-jacket from the first edition |
|
| Author(s) | Michael Moorcock |
| Cover artist | Henri Gervex |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Romance novel |
| Publisher | New English Library |
| Publication date | 1982 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 191 pp |
| ISBN | 0-450-04877-2 |
| OCLC Number | 8305005 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.914 19 |
| LC Classification | PR6063.O59 B7 1982 |
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse is a 1982 novel by Michael Moorcock. The main character is Rickhardt von Bek, of the von Bek family central to some of Moorcock's other fantasy novels, notably The War Hound and the World's Pain, The City in the Autumn Stars, and The Dragon in the Sword. The novel is written as Von Bek's memoir of a dying, demented man, in which he recalls his time with a bi-sexual, teenage nymphet girl and how they take refuge in an upscale brothel in a German city under siege during a 19th-century war. The proper German spelling of the novel's title is "Rosenstraße" (Rose Street).
Unlike the other von Bek stories, the novel is not a fantasy. It takes place in a fictitious locale—the free city of Mirenburg, capital of a similarly fictitious independent state bordering Germany called Waldenstein—but is otherwise realistic in content. Moorcock describes Mirenburg as "an attempt to produce an ideal middle European city," based mainly on Prague.
Moorcock also recorded and released a single called "Brothel in Rosenstrasse". The song was included as a bonus track on the Griffin Records rerelease of the Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix album, The New Worlds Fair.[1]