Originally published in 1932, this excellent little novel is still in print, thus testifying to its excellence.  A story set in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the main characters, three individual men, spanning 3 generations face first their sudden leap into the nobility by the grandfather as a young man, then the solid life of a district bureaucrat of his son and finally the life of the grandson who is cut out for either the military or the bureaucracy.