Stefan Zweig: Maria Stuart. Biographie (Novelaris Klassik)

by Stefan Zweig

Als Königin von Schottland hat Maria Stuart die europäische Geschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts maßgeblich mitgestaltet. Mit bemerkenswerter Weitsicht und unbeirrbarer Durchsetzungskraft trotzte sie den politischen Intrigen ihrer Zeit – und dies in einer Epoche, die einer selbstbestimmten Herrscherin kaum Entfaltungsraum zugestand.
Von ihrer Jugend am französischen Hof bis zu ihrem tragischen Tod hat Stefan Zweig in seiner akribisch recherchierten Biographie jeden Wendepunkt des Lebens von Maria Stuart ausgeleuchtet. Dabei gelang ihm ein faszinierendes Porträt einer Herrscherin, deren visionäre Führungskraft nach zahlreichen Erfolgen schließlich an den starren Machtverhältnissen ihrer Zeit zerbrach.
Mit seiner einzigartigen Verbindung aus historischer Präzision und psychologischem Feingefühl hat Stefan Zweig dieser außergewöhnlichen Geschichte die für seine Werke typische menschliche Dimension verliehen.

468 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2024

About the author

Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.
Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.
Zweig's interest in psychology and the teachings of Sigmund Freud led to his most characteristic work, the subtle portrayal of character. Zweig's essays include studies of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Drei Meister, 1920; Three Masters) and of Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and Friedrich Nietzsche (Der Kampf mit dem Dämon, 1925; Master Builders). He achieved popularity with Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928; The Tide of Fortune), five historical portraits in miniature. He wrote full-scale, intuitive rather than objective, biographies of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935), and others. His stories include those in Verwirrung der Gefühle (1925; Conflicts). He also wrote a psychological novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Emile Verhaeren.
Most recently, his works provided the inspiration for 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of Mary Stuart. The book describes her life and analyses her character and of those close to her, notably Elizabeth I. Her character guided her towards a sequence of misguided decisions that ultimately determined her fate (e.g. her marriage to Darnley, her decision to marry Bothwell, and her flight to England). It is interesting to read how she got ensnared in the Babington plot and how she ultimately resigned herself to her fate, dying in as dignified and regal way as possible,

I read a different version of this book, namely as published in the ebook Gesammelte Werke (Anaconda Gesammelte Werke 21) (German Edition).