![]() ![]() In Siberia, he marked out a piano keyboard with charcoal on an empty crate and began perfecting the left-handed technique that transformed him into the most famous one-armed pianist of the 20th century. Destined for a career as a virtuoso, his future was blasted by an explosion in military action, which shattered his right arm. ![]() An outstanding concert pianist, he had made his concert debut in 1913, taking the daring risk of featuring works by "the inebriate Irish composer John Field". Paul had more than Arctic wastes to contend with. ![]() In his absorbing account of the troubled dynasty, Alexander Waugh relates how Ludwig's older brother, Paul, was captured on the Russian front in the first World War, and incarcerated in the notorious Krepost in Siberia, the dungeon that had previously housed the exiled Dostoyevsky. It was not the first time members of the Wittgenstein family sought to come in from the cold. ONE OF THE lonelier exhibits in the greenhouse of the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin is a small metal plaque: "Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Viennese philosopher, stayed in Dublin in the winter of 1948-1949, and liked to sit and write on these steps." ![]() The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at WarBy Alexander Waugh Bloomsbury, 366pp. BIOGRAPHYThe philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who found refuge in Ireland, came from a dynasty that was wealthy, talented and tragic ![]()
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