Neumann, Robert (Vienna, 1897-1975, Monaco), studied medicine, chemistry, and Germanistik, and after a business career in which he lost all his money, went for a time to sea as a deck-hand. In 1934 he emigrated and settled in England at Cranbrook (recalled in Mein altes Haus in Kent, 1957) and after the war moved to Locarno. A master of parody, he published the volumes Mit fremden Federn (1927, ext. 1955) and Unter falscher Flagge (1932), issued as Die Parodien (1962). His fiction, some of which appeared first in English, centres on the 1920s, fascism, and the sufferings of Jews; it includes the novels Die Sintflut (1929, the deluge of the title is the inflation of currency) and Die Macht (1932, reissued as Macht, 1964), Sir Basil Zaharoff, der König der Waffen (1934), Struensee (1935, reissued as Der Favorit der Königin, 1953), An den Wassern von Babylon (1945), Die Puppen von Pohansk (1952, English title Insurrection of Pohansk), and Kinder von Wien (1948, in English in 1946), a strikingly original and moving story of a group of children, survivors of war and persecution.

His stories include the satirical Hochstaplernovelle (1930, reissued as Die Insel der Circe, 1952) and Karrieren (1931); both are contained in the collection Karrieren (1966), a volume of Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben (1959 ff.). Other volumes include the novels Die dunkle Seite des Mondes (1959), Olympia (1961), Der Tatbestand oder Der gute Glaube der Deutschen (1965); the parodies Dämon Weib oder Die Selbstverzauberung durch Literatur (1969), Nie wieder Politik oder Von der Idiotie der Schriftsteller (1969), and Vorsicht Bücher (1969); the autobiographical works Ein leichtes Leben. Bericht über mich selbst und Zeitgenossen (1963), Vielleicht das Heitere. Tagebuch aus einem andern Jahr (1968), Oktoberreise mit einer Geliebten. Ein altmodischer Roman (1970), and Ein unmöglicher Sohn (1972). The volume Meisterparodien appeared in 1988.

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