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The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig
In this magnificent collection of Stefan Zweig's short stories the very best and worst of human nature are captured with sharp observation, understanding and vivid empathy. Ranging from love and death to faith restored and hope regained, these stories present a master at work, at the top of his form. Perfectly paced and brimming with passion, these twenty-two tales from a master storyteller of the Twentieth Century are translated by the award-winning Anthea Bell.
Deluxe, clothbound edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
Contents:
1 Forgotten Dreams
2 In the Snow
3 The Miracles of Life
4 The Star Above the Forest
5 A Summer Novella
6 The Governess
7 Twilight
8 A Story Told in Twilight
9 Wondrak
10 Compulsion
11 Moonbeam Alley
12 Amok
13 Fantastic Night
14 Letter from an Unknown Woman
15 The Invisible Collection
16 Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman
17 Downfall of the Heart
18 Incident on Lake Geneva
19 Mendel the Bibliophile
20 Leporella
21 Did He Do It?
22 The Debt Paid Late
Deluxe, clothbound edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
Contents:
1 Forgotten Dreams
2 In the Snow
3 The Miracles of Life
4 The Star Above the Forest
5 A Summer Novella
6 The Governess
7 Twilight
8 A Story Told in Twilight
9 Wondrak
10 Compulsion
11 Moonbeam Alley
12 Amok
13 Fantastic Night
14 Letter from an Unknown Woman
15 The Invisible Collection
16 Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman
17 Downfall of the Heart
18 Incident on Lake Geneva
19 Mendel the Bibliophile
20 Leporella
21 Did He Do It?
22 The Debt Paid Late
721 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
601 people are currently reading
6688 people want to read
About the author
Stefan Zweig
2,305 books10.6k followersStefan 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
January 11, 2015
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer who published many short stories, multiple biographies and historical text, and several plays - and by the 1930's became the world's most translated author. His incredible popularity was cut short by Adolf Hitler's rise to power. As a pacifist and internationalist, Zweig was deeply opposed to Nazism and left his native Austria for England, where he met his second wife, Lotte Attman. As Hitler's troops successfully advanced westward, the Zweigs crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in New York City, where they lived and traveled before settling down in Petrópolis, a mountain town in southeastern Brazil. Petrópolis was to be their last residence - on February 23 in 1942, feeling that he had no country and strength to live in a world filled with Nazism and intolerance, Zweig committed suicide together with his wife. Their bodies were found holding hands.
Although at one time Zweig enjoyed intentional popularity envied by most other authors, in contemporary times his work has been largely slipping out of print and into oblivion in the English speaking world. Several publishing houses have been trying to combat this trend and resurrect interest in Zweig and his work; The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Pushkin Press is perhaps the most comprehensive single collection of his short fiction currently available in English. Translated from German by Anthea Bell, the volume collects 22 of Zweig's short stories, anthologized chronologically and spanning his whole career, including three published posthumously - but does not include his most famous novella, Chess Story (also known as The Royal Game), which I had to read separately and review here.
The stories themselves are washed with melancholy and nostalgia for a world which was slowly disappearing at the time of their writing, and might not have ever entirely existed outside of his imagination. His characters are highly romantic and emotional, and his stories are set in lakeside resorts, grand hotels and small villages. His characters are often strangers dispatched to these places by various accidents, and struggle to find a place where they belong. Zweig enjoys employing the frame story in most of these, and his narrators meet and interact with the real protagonists of these stories in hotels, restaurants, bars or train carriages, and their plot often plays out through recollection.
What is notable about the stories is the almost entire absence of humor - the stories are completely serious and melodramatic, sometimes to the point of unintentional humor. The only story which can be considered truly satirical involves a jealous dog, but the idea is spread too thin; the joke can only last for so long. Similar complain can be extended to the emotional melodrama of other stories - for more than 700 pages this might prove too much for some readers. Zweig is best read one story at a time, with breaks inbetween. Still, Zweig's sentimentality is something that appealed to me and is likely to appeal to others - the lost world of lords and ladies, of great loves and emotional despair. These stories may lack humor, but also lack vulgarity; they're innocent romantic in ways not encountered in contemporary fiction.
The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig can be an excellent introduction to the author, but with one major flaw - it has neither an introduction or an afterword about the author and his life, and no notes regarding any of the stories. Lack of any complimentary material is puzzling in this otherwise elegant effort, and makes it look bare. Still, if you're looking for Zweig, this is it - you'll get all the Zweig than you can handle, if not more.
Although at one time Zweig enjoyed intentional popularity envied by most other authors, in contemporary times his work has been largely slipping out of print and into oblivion in the English speaking world. Several publishing houses have been trying to combat this trend and resurrect interest in Zweig and his work; The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Pushkin Press is perhaps the most comprehensive single collection of his short fiction currently available in English. Translated from German by Anthea Bell, the volume collects 22 of Zweig's short stories, anthologized chronologically and spanning his whole career, including three published posthumously - but does not include his most famous novella, Chess Story (also known as The Royal Game), which I had to read separately and review here.
The stories themselves are washed with melancholy and nostalgia for a world which was slowly disappearing at the time of their writing, and might not have ever entirely existed outside of his imagination. His characters are highly romantic and emotional, and his stories are set in lakeside resorts, grand hotels and small villages. His characters are often strangers dispatched to these places by various accidents, and struggle to find a place where they belong. Zweig enjoys employing the frame story in most of these, and his narrators meet and interact with the real protagonists of these stories in hotels, restaurants, bars or train carriages, and their plot often plays out through recollection.
What is notable about the stories is the almost entire absence of humor - the stories are completely serious and melodramatic, sometimes to the point of unintentional humor. The only story which can be considered truly satirical involves a jealous dog, but the idea is spread too thin; the joke can only last for so long. Similar complain can be extended to the emotional melodrama of other stories - for more than 700 pages this might prove too much for some readers. Zweig is best read one story at a time, with breaks inbetween. Still, Zweig's sentimentality is something that appealed to me and is likely to appeal to others - the lost world of lords and ladies, of great loves and emotional despair. These stories may lack humor, but also lack vulgarity; they're innocent romantic in ways not encountered in contemporary fiction.
The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig can be an excellent introduction to the author, but with one major flaw - it has neither an introduction or an afterword about the author and his life, and no notes regarding any of the stories. Lack of any complimentary material is puzzling in this otherwise elegant effort, and makes it look bare. Still, if you're looking for Zweig, this is it - you'll get all the Zweig than you can handle, if not more.
March 1, 2024
Zweig was a prolific short story (or really, novella, as many of these stories are on the longer side) writer. And here are 22 of his stories published over the course of about 40 years. Of course with that many stories there will be ones that hit and ones that miss, but for the most part Zweig is reliable and consistent.
His fascination with the human condition, with nostalgia, with unrequited love, with interpersonal relationship, and with social norms/customs pervade all of these stories in some way.
It was also interesting to see the growth and development of his writing and interests as the collection, which is ordered chronologically by when the story was first published, went on.
I tended to prefer the stories with more dialogue in them, because some stories had the habit of relying solely on the narrator's voice to recount something and it produced big blocks of text with little to break it up. Also be warned, where another author could use 1 word, Zweig almost always uses 3. He's verbose, there's no getting around it. But when it works, his prose flows and propels you forward.
If you haven't read Zweig before I'm not sure this is the place to start. I'd check out a standalone novella like "Chess Story" and see how you get on with his style. Then maybe dip your toes into this 700+ page collection.
His fascination with the human condition, with nostalgia, with unrequited love, with interpersonal relationship, and with social norms/customs pervade all of these stories in some way.
It was also interesting to see the growth and development of his writing and interests as the collection, which is ordered chronologically by when the story was first published, went on.
I tended to prefer the stories with more dialogue in them, because some stories had the habit of relying solely on the narrator's voice to recount something and it produced big blocks of text with little to break it up. Also be warned, where another author could use 1 word, Zweig almost always uses 3. He's verbose, there's no getting around it. But when it works, his prose flows and propels you forward.
If you haven't read Zweig before I'm not sure this is the place to start. I'd check out a standalone novella like "Chess Story" and see how you get on with his style. Then maybe dip your toes into this 700+ page collection.
September 5, 2017
I rarely remember the stories of the books I've read.
Even though I might have read this one at least 5 years ago, I can still go back to some of the characters and stories in it. Zweig's descriptions are vivid images, so much so that I feel like this book is somewhere I've been to, rather than something's I've read.
Powerful.
Even though I might have read this one at least 5 years ago, I can still go back to some of the characters and stories in it. Zweig's descriptions are vivid images, so much so that I feel like this book is somewhere I've been to, rather than something's I've read.
Powerful.
October 5, 2020
After reading recently a few books by contemporary authors it was a pleasure to dive back in time and enjoy the stylistic perfection of Stefan Zweig. His short stories and novellas are well conceived and immaculately executed. The characters appear as real human beings whether they are men or women, adults or children. The reader can't help but empathize with the people living on these pages, whose motives, fears, and desires are brought into the open by the author's profound psychological insight.
The collection I read slightly differs from the one referenced above. I intend to read the other stories missing from my book. No, actually let me go further, I intend to read everything ever written by Zweig. I am that much impressed.
The Governess - 5 stars
Burning secret - 5 stars
Both of these stories involve children, whose ideal world order suddenly collapses as they glimpse the ugly sides of the adults they love.
A Summer Novella - 5 stars
Fear - 5 stars
Amok - 3 stars
Fantastic Night - 4 stars
Letter from an Unknown Woman - 4 stars
Moonbeam Alley - 4 stars
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman - 4 stars
Downfall of the Heart - 5 stars
The Invisible Collection - 5 stars
Leporella - 5 stars
Mendel the Bibliophile - 5 stars
Casual Knowledge of a Craft - 4 stars
The collection I read slightly differs from the one referenced above. I intend to read the other stories missing from my book. No, actually let me go further, I intend to read everything ever written by Zweig. I am that much impressed.
The Governess - 5 stars
Burning secret - 5 stars
Both of these stories involve children, whose ideal world order suddenly collapses as they glimpse the ugly sides of the adults they love.
A Summer Novella - 5 stars
Fear - 5 stars
Amok - 3 stars
Fantastic Night - 4 stars
Letter from an Unknown Woman - 4 stars
Moonbeam Alley - 4 stars
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman - 4 stars
Downfall of the Heart - 5 stars
The Invisible Collection - 5 stars
Leporella - 5 stars
Mendel the Bibliophile - 5 stars
Casual Knowledge of a Craft - 4 stars
Read
July 1, 2020There's a beautifully unhip Swiss restaurant I like to go to where the crowd is old and gin-blossomed and still chain-smoking, where I come home reeking of Vacherin cheese and unpronounceable Alpine liqueurs, ready to dream of chanterelle mushrooms and Chasselas wine, and I imagine myself nodding to my epauletted majordomo on the shore of a Tyrolean lake as the quartet strikes up a Strauss piece, and I'm unsure whether to ask Baroness Therese or Countess Giulietta to join me in the waltz...
Ergo my love of Stefan Zweig. Each story possesses at least some form of absolute wonder, and Amok stands out as some of his finest work, a miniature novel on par with Chess Story. And all are stories made more poignant by the way their world was destroyed, along with Zweig himself.
Ergo my love of Stefan Zweig. Each story possesses at least some form of absolute wonder, and Amok stands out as some of his finest work, a miniature novel on par with Chess Story. And all are stories made more poignant by the way their world was destroyed, along with Zweig himself.
April 3, 2014
I consider him a master of short poetic novels.Personal favorites: Letter from an unknown woman and Amok.
March 12, 2019
A masterful collection of short stories that cover people's experiences in a smorgasbord selection of settings. Published over 50 years there are dark tales, black humour, kindness, sadness, rich people, poor people, persecuted races, male and female narrators, various time periods and various locales. Love, loss and the power of empathy predominate. A truly wonderful set of stories.
February 12, 2025
Trước hết, tôi phải khẳng định là tôi rất thích Zweig. Nếu so sánh tuyển tập truyện ngắn của Zweig với người khác, ví dụ Chekhov đi, thì sẽ thấy chủ đề của Zweig rất tập trung: khai thác yếu tố tâm lý và hành vi của con người; còn như Chekhov thì chủ đề rất rộng, con chó con mèo cũng thành truyện, hay một cậu thanh niên nhớ mãi về một nụ hôn cũng thành truyện. Khi đọc Zweig, người đọc sẽ kỳ vọng rằng mỗi câu chuyện đều bắt nguồn từ một sự vụ gì đó bất thường xảy ra trong đời sống của nhân vật chính, và chúng ta sẽ cùng xem nhân vật chính phản ứng như thế nào trước sự bất thường đó, trên khía cạnh tâm lý và hành vi.
Các nhân vật của Zweig đều là những người bình hường, nhưng lại bị đưa vào trong một hoàn cảnh bất thường, mà ở trong hoàn cảnh ấy, họ có những phản ứng hết sức lạ kỳ và thú vị với chúng ta - nhưng lại rất đỗi chân thật và rất người - theo nghĩa chắc chắn bạn sẽ biết một ai đó sẽ hành xử như vậy, hoặc chính bạn cũng sẽ hành xử như vậy nếu như ở trong cùng một tình huống. Zweig rất giỏi trong việc xây dựng lên những tình huống làm bộc lộ bản chất của con người, và rất tinh vi trong việc mô tả cách con người ứng phó với tình huống ấy.
Ví dụ, tình huống có thể là một bà công tước bị đuổi cổ khỏi Paris để về chịu sự “giam lỏng” tại một vùng quê xa xôi nhàm chán. Bà công tước ấy, trước giờ đã quen với xa hoa, với những bữa tiệc liên miên, sẽ sống thế nào ở một vùng quê mà cứ khi mặt trời khuất núi là chìm vào câm lặng? Hay một ông bố làm việc quần quật để có tiền chiều chuộng vợ con, bỗng dưng một ngày, trong chuyến du lịch, phát hiện con gái mình lẻn ra khỏi phòng một người đàn ông, và sau đó nhận ra mình đã không còn nhận được sự tôn trọng từ cả vợ và con gái? Hay một cô gái trẻ phát hiện ra tình yêu cuộc sống thông qua tình yêu dành cho một đứa trẻ mà cô ấy không sinh ra - kết cục là gì khi đứa trẻ bị tước đi? Đó là những tình huống rất đời mà Zweig dùng làm cái kích cho câu chuyện của mình lăn bánh. Kết truyện nào cũng thoả mãn, và câu kết nào cũng làm tôi phải rùng mình.
Tôi đọc nhiều ý kiến cho rằng truyện của Zweig huê tình, uỷ mị và ướt át. Tôi lại không thấy như vậy. Bản thân cũng đã ở trong những tình huống mà suy nghĩ quẩn quanh mãi không thấy lối thoát, tôi rất hiểu cho những sự dài dòng mà người đọc có thể cảm thấy ở một số đoạn văn. Ở trong những tình huống đã được đề ra như vậy mà nhân vật có thể suy nghĩ khúc chiết, hành động tỉnh táo, thì quả không phải là người, mà chỉ là một NPC thôi.
Các nhân vật của Zweig đều là những người bình hường, nhưng lại bị đưa vào trong một hoàn cảnh bất thường, mà ở trong hoàn cảnh ấy, họ có những phản ứng hết sức lạ kỳ và thú vị với chúng ta - nhưng lại rất đỗi chân thật và rất người - theo nghĩa chắc chắn bạn sẽ biết một ai đó sẽ hành xử như vậy, hoặc chính bạn cũng sẽ hành xử như vậy nếu như ở trong cùng một tình huống. Zweig rất giỏi trong việc xây dựng lên những tình huống làm bộc lộ bản chất của con người, và rất tinh vi trong việc mô tả cách con người ứng phó với tình huống ấy.
Ví dụ, tình huống có thể là một bà công tước bị đuổi cổ khỏi Paris để về chịu sự “giam lỏng” tại một vùng quê xa xôi nhàm chán. Bà công tước ấy, trước giờ đã quen với xa hoa, với những bữa tiệc liên miên, sẽ sống thế nào ở một vùng quê mà cứ khi mặt trời khuất núi là chìm vào câm lặng? Hay một ông bố làm việc quần quật để có tiền chiều chuộng vợ con, bỗng dưng một ngày, trong chuyến du lịch, phát hiện con gái mình lẻn ra khỏi phòng một người đàn ông, và sau đó nhận ra mình đã không còn nhận được sự tôn trọng từ cả vợ và con gái? Hay một cô gái trẻ phát hiện ra tình yêu cuộc sống thông qua tình yêu dành cho một đứa trẻ mà cô ấy không sinh ra - kết cục là gì khi đứa trẻ bị tước đi? Đó là những tình huống rất đời mà Zweig dùng làm cái kích cho câu chuyện của mình lăn bánh. Kết truyện nào cũng thoả mãn, và câu kết nào cũng làm tôi phải rùng mình.
Tôi đọc nhiều ý kiến cho rằng truyện của Zweig huê tình, uỷ mị và ướt át. Tôi lại không thấy như vậy. Bản thân cũng đã ở trong những tình huống mà suy nghĩ quẩn quanh mãi không thấy lối thoát, tôi rất hiểu cho những sự dài dòng mà người đọc có thể cảm thấy ở một số đoạn văn. Ở trong những tình huống đã được đề ra như vậy mà nhân vật có thể suy nghĩ khúc chiết, hành động tỉnh táo, thì quả không phải là người, mà chỉ là một NPC thôi.
December 30, 2022
it's the end of the year, winter is approaching, the days are getting colder; i am officially back on my stefan zweig shit.
September 5, 2014
Either I've come late to the work of Stefan Zweig, or his work has come late to me. Long ago during the 1980's, when I did my literature degree and in the years around it, I assiduously tried to work my way through the classics. In about 1990 I thought 'job done'(at least as far as I was ever going to) and since then I've mainly read non fiction and when I've delved into fiction it has either been to read something new or to re-read something old that I loved. Meanwhile Zweig, aided by some new and, judging by this,rather good translations has nudged his way into the realms of the classics. One ought to have read him. He is Roy Hodgson's favourite author (presumably he reads him in German). Wes Anderson dedicated his last film to him (of which more below).
Is he the real deal? I think he most assuredly is. His work to me seems to sit somewhere between C19th realism and Modernism. It is sharply observed and thematically very rich. Zweig was an orator at Freud's funeral and it shows. The observation and recreation of obsession and neurosis are at the heart of his work, so much so that at times he reminded me of Doestoevsky, although formally he is a bit like Checkov. Is he up there with those two? Of course not, but he is good enough for it not to matter. To be fair I found some of his short stories trite, and rather dependent on a single twist but the longer stories - novellas? - were uniformally excellent. Probably insidious to chose a favourite but I loved 'Letter from an Unknown Woman', every bit as good as the Max Ophuls film. (Ophuls was also a Vienesse Jew and seems moi sympatico with the work). It exhibits many of what I now think of as Zweig's keynotes. Although never described sex is at the heart of things, and female sexuality gets equal billing with male. He has sympathy with women and often writes from a female perspective. Life is cruel, full of disjunctures and things tend to end badly. In most of the stories one of the central characters dies, and more than one story ends in suicide.
Publishing types should also definitely read Mendel the Bibliophile.
Given all this why was Anderson so interested? Zweig creates (or reflects) a polyglot and glamerous world. I'm sure the characters are always well dressed and charming, and they are probably frequently attractive as well. But has Anderson not noticed that they are rarely happy, hence the tendency towards suicide? Who knows.
Anyway, this was good enough for me to want to read in chunks so I could savour it longer.
(Footnote: as I've mentioned Zweig writes a glamerous multi-national set, and frequently talks about sex and obsession. When he wants to create a really special female character she is nearly always English. Power to his elbow).
Is he the real deal? I think he most assuredly is. His work to me seems to sit somewhere between C19th realism and Modernism. It is sharply observed and thematically very rich. Zweig was an orator at Freud's funeral and it shows. The observation and recreation of obsession and neurosis are at the heart of his work, so much so that at times he reminded me of Doestoevsky, although formally he is a bit like Checkov. Is he up there with those two? Of course not, but he is good enough for it not to matter. To be fair I found some of his short stories trite, and rather dependent on a single twist but the longer stories - novellas? - were uniformally excellent. Probably insidious to chose a favourite but I loved 'Letter from an Unknown Woman', every bit as good as the Max Ophuls film. (Ophuls was also a Vienesse Jew and seems moi sympatico with the work). It exhibits many of what I now think of as Zweig's keynotes. Although never described sex is at the heart of things, and female sexuality gets equal billing with male. He has sympathy with women and often writes from a female perspective. Life is cruel, full of disjunctures and things tend to end badly. In most of the stories one of the central characters dies, and more than one story ends in suicide.
Publishing types should also definitely read Mendel the Bibliophile.
Given all this why was Anderson so interested? Zweig creates (or reflects) a polyglot and glamerous world. I'm sure the characters are always well dressed and charming, and they are probably frequently attractive as well. But has Anderson not noticed that they are rarely happy, hence the tendency towards suicide? Who knows.
Anyway, this was good enough for me to want to read in chunks so I could savour it longer.
(Footnote: as I've mentioned Zweig writes a glamerous multi-national set, and frequently talks about sex and obsession. When he wants to create a really special female character she is nearly always English. Power to his elbow).
November 8, 2018
So many feelings felt, so many roller coasters experienced. I'll be contemplating this collection of evocative and demanding short stories for some time. Somehow, the author manages to create a wide array of main characters, both male and female in an astounding variety of plots and circumstances, managing to invest you enough in each story to have your heart twisted, broken, or swollen by the end of each story.
This a marvelous study in the capacity of the human imagination and explores a wide variety of emotional and interpersonal territory that so many of us thankfully have not experienced in our lives. I assure you however, that many of his stories will speak to you in some way. They will reach into the most forlorn inaccessible corners of your mind and open up perceptions and feelings of which you had little knowledge.
So, if you have a little spare time here and there, give this one a read. I assure you that you won't be able to put it down until you have at least finished a story or two, okay maybe three, or perhaps you'll just devour the whole book!
This a marvelous study in the capacity of the human imagination and explores a wide variety of emotional and interpersonal territory that so many of us thankfully have not experienced in our lives. I assure you however, that many of his stories will speak to you in some way. They will reach into the most forlorn inaccessible corners of your mind and open up perceptions and feelings of which you had little knowledge.
So, if you have a little spare time here and there, give this one a read. I assure you that you won't be able to put it down until you have at least finished a story or two, okay maybe three, or perhaps you'll just devour the whole book!
December 21, 2023
His prose had this dream-like quality without any saccharine sweetness. It feels just nice for me.
August 24, 2024
A very good collection of stories, most of the stories are great, there are some misses but all in all very good. 4.5 stars.
September 19, 2023
Αναφέρομαι αποκλειστικά σε ένα μικρό του διήγημα τον λιποτάκτη.
Σε αυτό το πολύ σύντομο διήγημα ο αγαπητός μας Στέφαν θα μιλήσει για ένα σωρό ανθρώπινες επινοήσεις που στενεύουν την αντίληψή μας στο βαθμό του δυσδιάκριτου πλέον εντοπισμού της.
Για το μεγαλοϊδεατισμό, τη μεγαλομανία και τη μικροψυχία της ανθρώπινης έπαρσης που θεωρεί πως η επιβολή στους άλλους θα φέρει προκοπή, εξέλιξη, πρόοδο.
Για όλες εκείνες τις τραγικά ανόητες στιγμές μας που καπελώνουν άδικα κάθε πραγματικά σπουδαία ιδέα, συναίσθημα, ανθρωπιά που κρύβεται όλο και πιο βαθιά μέσα μας και δυσκολεύεται να εκφραστεί, και το πιο καταθλιπτικό απ'όλα είναι πως όταν καταφέρει να βρει διέξοδο, να αποκτήσει έκφραση, να πάρει υπόσταση γίνεται μια άσκοπη ενέργεια χωρίς αποτέλεσμα. Φανταστείτε πόσο βαριά καταθλιπτική είναι η συνειδητοποίηση της απόλυτης αδυναμίας της ανθρωπιάς και της καλοσύνης, κάθε ευγενούς διάθεσης τέλος πάντων, να φέρει αποτέλεσμα.
Αυτό προκαλεί ο πόλεμος! Τα σύνορα. Οι διαχωρισμοί. Η απομόνωση. Οι εξαναγκασμένες πράξεις. Η απελπισία.
Σε αυτό το πολύ σύντομο διήγημα ο αγαπητός μας Στέφαν θα μιλήσει για ένα σωρό ανθρώπινες επινοήσεις που στενεύουν την αντίληψή μας στο βαθμό του δυσδιάκριτου πλέον εντοπισμού της.
Για το μεγαλοϊδεατισμό, τη μεγαλομανία και τη μικροψυχία της ανθρώπινης έπαρσης που θεωρεί πως η επιβολή στους άλλους θα φέρει προκοπή, εξέλιξη, πρόοδο.
Για όλες εκείνες τις τραγικά ανόητες στιγμές μας που καπελώνουν άδικα κάθε πραγματικά σπουδαία ιδέα, συναίσθημα, ανθρωπιά που κρύβεται όλο και πιο βαθιά μέσα μας και δυσκολεύεται να εκφραστεί, και το πιο καταθλιπτικό απ'όλα είναι πως όταν καταφέρει να βρει διέξοδο, να αποκτήσει έκφραση, να πάρει υπόσταση γίνεται μια άσκοπη ενέργεια χωρίς αποτέλεσμα. Φανταστείτε πόσο βαριά καταθλιπτική είναι η συνειδητοποίηση της απόλυτης αδυναμίας της ανθρωπιάς και της καλοσύνης, κάθε ευγενούς διάθεσης τέλος πάντων, να φέρει αποτέλεσμα.
Αυτό προκαλεί ο πόλεμος! Τα σύνορα. Οι διαχωρισμοί. Η απομόνωση. Οι εξαναγκασμένες πράξεις. Η απελπισία.
July 10, 2015
I was intrigued with Zweig after viewing The Grand Budapest Hotel.
A collection of intriguing short stories, Zweig has an intricate writing style. Very stylistic with lots of detail.
A unique collection of stories.
A collection of intriguing short stories, Zweig has an intricate writing style. Very stylistic with lots of detail.
A unique collection of stories.
June 28, 2017
[…] only now did I come to life again myself, knowing that I was near you, you, my only dream. I did not guess that in reality I was as far from your mind now, when only the thin, bright glass pane stood between you and my radiant gaze, as if valleys, mountains and rivers separated us.
Read
June 14, 2023I was going to give this book five stars until “Did He Do It?”. Zweig may be an absolute master of plumbing the depths of the human soul, but he clearly doesn’t know dogs.
July 2, 2025
Zweig is another one of those authors that I feel like it’s way past due that I read some of their work, especially as someone who has a tendency towards short stories in particular. Thankfully, I was pleased to find his work hadn’t been oversold on that front, but I definitely found a collection this lengthy to be maybe a little severe an introduction.
I think Zweig’s work had two major strengths that I really noted and enjoyed above all else here. The first, and most obvious, is the prose. I was really impressed with how, particularly his descriptive prose, manages to be so beautiful and detailed and incredibly evocative, but hell, is still arguably even concise, and never went too far into that overly flowery, kind of cringeworthy territory. It also often expressed things in a way that consistently felt pretty unique too, which always feels impressive in a world where it feels like there’s nothing new under the sun.
The other thing I really loved about this collection was Zweig’s constant inclination toward and incredible way of capturing this kind of extreme passion. Often absurd and kind of frenzied, and often to the point of compulsion. Sometimes a romantic infatuation, and sometimes just this indistinct kind of mania compelling the characters on. It was used consistently and convincingly as a really great driving force for a lot of the stories here. I was really impressed with how often Zweig used it (almost like a signature), but how varied he could make it. It would have been easy for this to be repetitive over this lengthy volume, but it was something that was, in a way, surprisingly subtle. Even I wasn’t fully cognisant of it until I started verbalising the subjects of some of the stories to my partner.
Interestingly, there were a number of stories here I really didn’t like, and while this wasn’t because they had any serious diminishment in quality compared to those I did like, I just didn’t enjoy the subject matters of these stories at all. For example, ‘The Miracles of Life’ was too religious for me, and too long to boot. (I also think its placement in this collection, as the first particularly long story after a couple of short, punchy stories was especially cruel.) ‘Compulsion’ was both dull and infuriating, and made me realise that Zweig’s more dialogue heavy stories were significantly weaker than his more introspective stories, in my opinion. There were definitely a few I even skipped, once I could tell the pattern of what I disliked. By the end though, I really just felt that maybe this was just the inherently less refined nature of a collected works rather than a selected works. That even the most genius writers will inevitably write something that is either objectively bad or simply not to everyone’s taste, over a large enough sample of their work.
So do I think Zweig is a master of the short story? Unequivocally. Did I still strangely have my own issues with some of this collection regardless? Definitely. Really, I think it’s on me though, I always have this inclination to go big or not bother and that’s how I ended up at this seriously lengthy collection, but even I can admit that a 710 page volume isn’t necessarily the easiest and breeziest introduction to anyone’s work. So I like Zweig, and I would read his work again, but maybe just not for a while after this overdose. After all, even chocolate will make you sick if you eat too much of it.
I think Zweig’s work had two major strengths that I really noted and enjoyed above all else here. The first, and most obvious, is the prose. I was really impressed with how, particularly his descriptive prose, manages to be so beautiful and detailed and incredibly evocative, but hell, is still arguably even concise, and never went too far into that overly flowery, kind of cringeworthy territory. It also often expressed things in a way that consistently felt pretty unique too, which always feels impressive in a world where it feels like there’s nothing new under the sun.
The other thing I really loved about this collection was Zweig’s constant inclination toward and incredible way of capturing this kind of extreme passion. Often absurd and kind of frenzied, and often to the point of compulsion. Sometimes a romantic infatuation, and sometimes just this indistinct kind of mania compelling the characters on. It was used consistently and convincingly as a really great driving force for a lot of the stories here. I was really impressed with how often Zweig used it (almost like a signature), but how varied he could make it. It would have been easy for this to be repetitive over this lengthy volume, but it was something that was, in a way, surprisingly subtle. Even I wasn’t fully cognisant of it until I started verbalising the subjects of some of the stories to my partner.
Interestingly, there were a number of stories here I really didn’t like, and while this wasn’t because they had any serious diminishment in quality compared to those I did like, I just didn’t enjoy the subject matters of these stories at all. For example, ‘The Miracles of Life’ was too religious for me, and too long to boot. (I also think its placement in this collection, as the first particularly long story after a couple of short, punchy stories was especially cruel.) ‘Compulsion’ was both dull and infuriating, and made me realise that Zweig’s more dialogue heavy stories were significantly weaker than his more introspective stories, in my opinion. There were definitely a few I even skipped, once I could tell the pattern of what I disliked. By the end though, I really just felt that maybe this was just the inherently less refined nature of a collected works rather than a selected works. That even the most genius writers will inevitably write something that is either objectively bad or simply not to everyone’s taste, over a large enough sample of their work.
So do I think Zweig is a master of the short story? Unequivocally. Did I still strangely have my own issues with some of this collection regardless? Definitely. Really, I think it’s on me though, I always have this inclination to go big or not bother and that’s how I ended up at this seriously lengthy collection, but even I can admit that a 710 page volume isn’t necessarily the easiest and breeziest introduction to anyone’s work. So I like Zweig, and I would read his work again, but maybe just not for a while after this overdose. After all, even chocolate will make you sick if you eat too much of it.
June 4, 2023
Went out and bought this right after finishing Chess Story.
I'm not a big short story reader, so I decided to read one story a day. Only towards the end did I get a little fatigued by the very serious nature of the stories. I also feel like some of them could have been shorter, since in a collection format like this, his writing style and structure becomes more apparent and a little formulaic.
"Did he do it?" left me a little annoyed because like, you raised the dog to be like this.. It is all he knows.
I was very impressed by the first story though. It spans only a handful of pages, but it left me feeling like I knew these characters and had been following them for many chapters.
I'm not a big short story reader, so I decided to read one story a day. Only towards the end did I get a little fatigued by the very serious nature of the stories. I also feel like some of them could have been shorter, since in a collection format like this, his writing style and structure becomes more apparent and a little formulaic.
"Did he do it?" left me a little annoyed because like, you raised the dog to be like this.. It is all he knows.
I was very impressed by the first story though. It spans only a handful of pages, but it left me feeling like I knew these characters and had been following them for many chapters.
April 22, 2015
Forgotten Dreams *** - A woman's lover from earlier days visits her in her garden. Memories are subtly revealed to the reader of her true feelings towards her. He is ultimately turned away when he learns she did, in fact, marry for money. Who are we to judge someone, if they love a lifestyle more than a person or love itself?
In the Snow ***** - A group of Jews flee their town as the countrymen attack and burn the Jews in towns nearby and get closer. The carts get stuck in the snow and they all slowly freeze to death. God's plan? Was there any point in fleeing if only to die here? A great injustice, but spring comes, and life continues. "...the grave of the poor, lost, frozen Jews who have never known true spring in their lives."
The Miracles of Life **** - A painter is asked to create a Madonna, one as beautiful as that commissioned by an Italian artist. After seeing that piece, the painter is stuck for inspiration. How can he create the heavenly Madonna based on the imperfect human? But he finds his inspiration in a black-haired Jewish girl, once rescued by a (now) bartender from persecution. Can the painter use her as a model? Is he able to convert her to Catholicism? The questions of beliefs and religion are threaded deeply through this story.
The Star Above the Forest **** - A servant at a hotel falls into great devotion for Baroness Ostrovska. He cannot live without her, when she must return to Poland. He goes to commit suicide by placing his head on the very tracks her train will be passing over. He worries he has not made it clear how his devotion has led him to his point, but he keeps his head on the tracks. The connection is stronger than even he knows for she feels an urgent pain in her heart like never before, the moments before and during his death. But he was right, he did not make it obvious. She has felt the pain and the loss, but he has left her wondering why.
A Summer Novella *** - A man on holiday leaves letters of secret admiration as a game for a bored teenage girl. He is amused by her keen interest and changes as a result of these letters. She believes it to be a handsome young man who comes over on the ferry every so often. Something wordless starts to develop between the two youths before she is suddenly forced to return to her own town. A love that could have been that never was. The man who started all this doesn't believe in doing things more than once, yet he has returned another summer to this hotel in the hopes of seeing this young girl.
The Governess **** - The children know something is wrong with the governess and sneak around to find out why. A secret is kept from them - the governess is pregnant and eventually the parents demand she leave the house. The governess has lost her innocence to the children's cousin. The children have lost their innocence to the adults' secrets. Why should the governess have to leave, when it is their cousin and their parents who have betrayed them?
Twilight *** - A change in power for the French courts. Madam de Prie is forced to go to her country home. After the control she had and the adoration (real or pretended) she received, it is difficult for her to live here. She is bored without anything or anyone to manipulate. After failed attempts to gain favour in order to return, she seeks her revenge - her own death will get them talking, remember who she was forever. Unfortunately, death is not the beautiful end she expects for herself. The society she once thrived in, like herself, is fickle and the city is too distracted by the wonders of an Italian conjuror to bother noticing her name in the paper.
A Story Told in Twilight -
Wondrak *** - Ruzena Sedlak is the 'Death's Head' - an ugly woman who eventually hides in the woods as caretaker at the Count's hunting cabin. Somehow, the townspeople wonder, she has a child. The news spreads and Ruzena is forced to bring him to town, to baptise and put his name in the register of births. Is this the child's downfall or was it doomed to happen anyway? War begins and the boy is conscripted. He wants to join but Ruzena can't stand to lose her only son. She forces him to hide and life is happy temporarily. She has been separated from her son enough - both school and work. Will war be enough to tear them apart? Or will she be able enough to follow him into anything?
Compulsion -
Moonbeam Alley -
Amok *** -
Fantastic Night -
Letter from an Unknown Woman - ****
The Invisible Collection
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman -
Downfall of the Heart -
Incident on Lake Geneva -
Mendel the Bibliophile **** -
Leporella *** -
Did He Do It *** -
The Debt Paid Late **** -
In the Snow ***** - A group of Jews flee their town as the countrymen attack and burn the Jews in towns nearby and get closer. The carts get stuck in the snow and they all slowly freeze to death. God's plan? Was there any point in fleeing if only to die here? A great injustice, but spring comes, and life continues. "...the grave of the poor, lost, frozen Jews who have never known true spring in their lives."
The Miracles of Life **** - A painter is asked to create a Madonna, one as beautiful as that commissioned by an Italian artist. After seeing that piece, the painter is stuck for inspiration. How can he create the heavenly Madonna based on the imperfect human? But he finds his inspiration in a black-haired Jewish girl, once rescued by a (now) bartender from persecution. Can the painter use her as a model? Is he able to convert her to Catholicism? The questions of beliefs and religion are threaded deeply through this story.
The Star Above the Forest **** - A servant at a hotel falls into great devotion for Baroness Ostrovska. He cannot live without her, when she must return to Poland. He goes to commit suicide by placing his head on the very tracks her train will be passing over. He worries he has not made it clear how his devotion has led him to his point, but he keeps his head on the tracks. The connection is stronger than even he knows for she feels an urgent pain in her heart like never before, the moments before and during his death. But he was right, he did not make it obvious. She has felt the pain and the loss, but he has left her wondering why.
A Summer Novella *** - A man on holiday leaves letters of secret admiration as a game for a bored teenage girl. He is amused by her keen interest and changes as a result of these letters. She believes it to be a handsome young man who comes over on the ferry every so often. Something wordless starts to develop between the two youths before she is suddenly forced to return to her own town. A love that could have been that never was. The man who started all this doesn't believe in doing things more than once, yet he has returned another summer to this hotel in the hopes of seeing this young girl.
The Governess **** - The children know something is wrong with the governess and sneak around to find out why. A secret is kept from them - the governess is pregnant and eventually the parents demand she leave the house. The governess has lost her innocence to the children's cousin. The children have lost their innocence to the adults' secrets. Why should the governess have to leave, when it is their cousin and their parents who have betrayed them?
Twilight *** - A change in power for the French courts. Madam de Prie is forced to go to her country home. After the control she had and the adoration (real or pretended) she received, it is difficult for her to live here. She is bored without anything or anyone to manipulate. After failed attempts to gain favour in order to return, she seeks her revenge - her own death will get them talking, remember who she was forever. Unfortunately, death is not the beautiful end she expects for herself. The society she once thrived in, like herself, is fickle and the city is too distracted by the wonders of an Italian conjuror to bother noticing her name in the paper.
A Story Told in Twilight -
Wondrak *** - Ruzena Sedlak is the 'Death's Head' - an ugly woman who eventually hides in the woods as caretaker at the Count's hunting cabin. Somehow, the townspeople wonder, she has a child. The news spreads and Ruzena is forced to bring him to town, to baptise and put his name in the register of births. Is this the child's downfall or was it doomed to happen anyway? War begins and the boy is conscripted. He wants to join but Ruzena can't stand to lose her only son. She forces him to hide and life is happy temporarily. She has been separated from her son enough - both school and work. Will war be enough to tear them apart? Or will she be able enough to follow him into anything?
Compulsion -
Moonbeam Alley -
Amok *** -
Fantastic Night -
Letter from an Unknown Woman - ****
The Invisible Collection
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman -
Downfall of the Heart -
Incident on Lake Geneva -
Mendel the Bibliophile **** -
Leporella *** -
Did He Do It *** -
The Debt Paid Late **** -
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2016
Zweig is one of my favorite authors. While this collection includes 22 of his stories, Pushkin Press had previously issued a number of these works as separate entities. It's great to have them assembled here, in fluid, contemporary translations. My favorite remains "The Invisible Collection," perhaps one of the most touching stories I've ever read, and a classic Zweig structure, where he meets someone on a train, who then relays this event that had just happened to him. That kind of "framing" occurs frequently in Zweig's narratives. There are some who find Zweig too sentimental, but I find his insights into human nature always compelling.
September 13, 2017
A beautifully translated collection that was an absolute pleasure to read. I published my review in Assignment Magazine online today, however - so please head over there to read it!
https://t.co/frMDaFb4w4
https://t.co/frMDaFb4w4
June 14, 2014
one of the best collection of short stories
July 17, 2018
Writing by a master storyteller. Writing that takes concentration and a love for the power of language. A piece of literary genius.
August 4, 2018
Couldn't finish. Stefan Zweig paints wonderful word pictures. However after a while the stories gain a mundane routine quality. It just wasn't worth it to finish.
November 18, 2018
What a book! So amazing!
February 8, 2020
A beautifully written collection of stories set in the early 20th century. My favorites were "Letter from an Unknown Woman," "The Invisible Collection," and "The Debt Paid Late." Great stories here.
August 31, 2023
Deathly earnest and so completely humourless it’s almost impressive. But also achingly, piercingly nostalgic in a way that can really bowl you over and Zweig has a talent for lush, romantic imagery like few other writers. Some of these stories have a fantastic clockwork like cleverness to their construction that is heaps of fun too but his is a style that, for me at least, is given to over explanation. For example If something strange is occurring in the story Zweig can’t help but turn himself inside out to point out just how unutterably bizarre that thing is rather than letting the moment play. 700+ pages of this can be quite a stuffy and stultifying world to exist in.
October 16, 2025
tl;dr enjoyable compendium of translated European novellas featuring common themes of:
“Person down bad” and “killing myself for various reasons”
Came across this book in the credits of the movie “the grand Budapest hotel”, nothing was strictly based on the book, it was more the encapsulated vibe of classy, European stories and generalized locations. This book took me 5+ months to read becausee I couldn’t build momentum; every time I did the story would end shortly thereafter and I would have to start from square 1 on the next novella. My favorite stories from here that stand out and I would recommend to friends are in no particular order: Amok, letter from an unknown woman, did he do it. Here are the bullet points of the collection as a whole:
I like the flowery prose
Aggressively European, not “timeless” but still good
Sometimes unnecessary Framing devices
Good characters considering short context windows
Idk why this isn’t standard AP Lit material by now
My OG review was 27k characters, so I cut all the reviews of the mediocre stories :(
——————-
Forgotten Dreams
Short! Tl;dr Woman meets a summer fling of her youth and is slightly confused and ultimately sad that she chose the boring rich guy over him. This reminds me of that one tweet that was like “Most women would divorce their husband for the chance to go back to their first love”. Ofc written very flowery with cool words like “bacchanalian” (characterized by or given to drunken revelry; riotously drunken), Translating this from German seems just as much of an art as writing the story in the first place, good job Anthea Bell.
In the snow
Tl;dr group of Jews flee for their life in a hurry but then die in a snowstorm.
Cut
The Miracles of life
Tl;dr girl gets emotionally attached to baby while posing for a painting with it, unhealthy.
Cut
The star above the forest
Tl;dr Hotel waiter gets parasocial relationship with baroness, kills himself because he’s sad about it.
Cut
Lost like 2 stories beause phone broke on float trip and stuff didn’t sync :(
Twilight
Tl;dr Ousted French queen misses high life, decides to kill herself for attention.
Yet another banger! Madam de prie is pretty much an all-around unlikeable character, I can’t think of any redeeming characteristics. She is very vain: “She was one of those women, and they are not rare, who are shaped entirely by other people’s attitudes.” At first I was kinda unimpressed by how quickly she got bored of life in the countryside. The first night she hangs out in the local taverns and frolicked in the fields and stuff, and seems generally happy— To go from that to suicide is kinda extreme. That being said, there is a good line about how she couldn’t wait to tell all her high class friends about her time roughing it in the countryside which in hindsight is an obvious way to tell the reader all about her personality and what levers motivate her. Zweig does a good job of making Madame de prie’s fomo really felt by the reader, the writing letters and getting dry responses bit is good. Idk why the priest’s nephew got ragebaited so easily, couldn’t be me. It kinda surprised me when she invited all the high class friends to come party and they actually came, why didn’t she just do that in the first place if she misses her high class company sm? Also idk the exact date this is supposed to be set in, but I get the impression it was pre-French revolution because wdym you partied for a month in your chateau and had fireworks and stuff, you’re gonna get ur head chopped off! Didn’t fully “get” the scene of her acting out her own death in her play, all I could think of was the same scene happening in like book 3 of Scythe when that one guy killed himself in his own play. The moment when she gives the sailor guy 500 bucks and then he doesn’t look back at her is good, it really demonstrates how washed De Prie is. The whole mindset of De Prie is literally just “Killing myself for attention”, funny to see that this mindset is still alive and well in today’s day and age. The priest’s nephew was better as a timid country boy sub, he definitely develops into a more evil character and lowkey should be more humble towards De Prie. Poetic and makes sense that nobody gaf about De Prie’s death in Paris, rip bozo, etc. I like one of the conclusion sentences: “For the history of the world will not tolerate intruders; it chooses its own heroes and implacably dismisses those not summoned to that rank, however hard they may try; someone who has fallen off the carriage of fate as it goes along will never catch up with it again.” Good sentence, good story!
A story told in twilight
Tl;dr kid gets sexually harassed and is confused?
Cut
Wondrak
Tl;dr ugly woman has hot son who gets called to military service, woman resists
Cut
Compulsion
Tl;dr Frenchman is called to service, goes into a trance and almost goes but snaps back to reality, wife is relieved.
Cut
Moonbeam alley
Tl;dr guy is down indescribably for his ex wife and tries to get stranger to save his marriage.
Cut
Amok
Tl;dr doctor goes crazy and throws it all away for a woman who needs an abortion
Holy peak this is somehow the best one yet, better than chess story. Idk how zweig comes up with these story ideas, they are so foreign, creative, and fun to read. This story starts with a great hook that we are beautifully clued into more and more as the story progresses:
“IN MARCH 1912 a strange accident occurred in Naples harbour during the unloading of a large ocean-going liner which was reported at length by the newspapers, although in extremely fanciful terms. Although I was a passenger on the Oceania, I did not myself witness this strange incident”.
When we are first introduced to the doctor and his story, we wonder how he might be related to this “fanciful incident”. At first I thought he jumped off of the ship or something because he was a fugitive hiding from everybody. Then his story progresses and it’s a big reveal that the coffin is on the ship with us the whole time, and we realize it must have something to do with that. Even though the doctor is mad and ultimately should be punished for his gross rapey desires, we’re all pretty much on the side of the doctor for wanting to dump the coffin into the sea, and its very noble that he kept his promise to the woman of keeping her secret safe. Also a good death for him to go down with her, certainly better than just shooting himself in London. I don’t really think there was much redemption available to himself after all that, and he also probably shouldn’t be practicing medicine if his first thought after seeing a white woman is now “how do i take advantage of her, its been 7 years of only barefoot, overly-submissive yellow brutes”. Of course, all of this could’ve been very easily avoided and the doctor could’ve lived the rest of his life on a nice fat government pension+ 12k “guilders” from the woman if he simply performed the abortion without being a creep about it.
Framing of on the boat is great, paragraph cut
Of course, the doctor is a flawed character form the start— The first thing he says is that he has a kink for domineering women and robbed his former hospital for one— like ok dude take it to therapy, and he also has such a disdain for India and the associated people, which was a little strong i think even for 1912 standards. I like how he starts off bright-eyed and ready to conquer the country with medicine, before losing motivation, very realistic, and I wish there were more anecdotes from his 7 years there. Very gross how he is immediately horny for his patient, even if she is a confident white woman, should’ve just said yes and not made it weird :| Saying he caught the jungle fever and suddenly “ran amok” is just him making excuses for his weird behavior, chasing after her and going to the ball and whatnot is just delusionally desperate behavior, the reader has no grasp of why he’s doing any of that. Writing 20 pages of begging and saying “ill kms if you dont come here” before going into a room and staring at your watch for three hours is clinically insane behavior, “running amok” is not a diagnosable issue doctor. It is perfectly valid for the woman to seek alternative help from the doctor in Chinatown, something something history repeats itself roe v wade. If i was her i would also not let a doctor who just asked for sex operate on me and give me an abortion. Very sad that she dies, good on the doctor for doing his best to help, even though it is *kinda* (but debatably not really because if he just said no normally she still probably would’ve gone to the Chinatown doctor and died) his fault for putting her into that position. Better late than never i suppose. Good story, very compelling. Seems to be a theme with zweig of men being down really badly for women and killing themselves over it, wonder what that says about zweig himself and his own suicide 🤔
Fantastic night
Tl;dr listless, privileged man discovers gambling and charity, is rejuvenated
Cut
Letter from an unknown woman
Tl;dr woman has a lifelong crush on a man who doesn’t know her, spills it all on her deathbed
5/5! This one was really good. Another unique premise, and really heart-wrenching. The woman definitely could’ve lived happily ever after with the man, she just needed to find the strength to say “hey ydk me but im the mother of your secret 11 year-old child” haha can i move in”. Ofc, it would be a bit of an unorthodox arrangement but whatever. I feel like realistically she should’ve gotten over him after she had his kid and was now getting attention from all the other rich old men. Also I don’t think her argument of “i didnt tell you we had a kid because i didnt want to burden you even for a minute” holds up a little bit, but then its nullified by writing this letter. Surely she is smart enough to know that this will really be messing with his head for a while right? Regardless, it’s valid to want to talk to him and get things off your chest. If only she was brave enough to talk to him like a normal person for a while, he probably was about ready to settle down by that last visit…
The invisible collection
Tl;dr art dealer goes to blind collectors house, collector doesn’t realize all his pieces have been sold. This one was pretty good, I like the creative premise of the story and how it is so related to the historical time of German hyperinflation. I don’t know much about that period, but this feels like it may have been a politically inspired kinda story, considering the fact that the hyperinflation is ruining the lives of good working class citizens. Feels like a dig at the government and a way to inspire the public readers about the poor state of things. I like how the art dealer agreed to play along and not tell the collector about the truth, good/ interesting bit.
24hrs in the life of a woman
Tl;dr woman saves a suicidal gambling addict, but not actually, and gets her heart broken in the process.
The title of this one is kinda bad I think, the central plot point revolves around how a man has shaped the life of a woman which does not feel as empowering as the title might lead someone (me) to believe what this story might be. Zweig did the usual thing where he framed the whole story from the zoomed out, retroactive perspective of somebody recounting the story that happened earlier in their life. While usually i think this is a good literary device(?), it really didnt feel very necessary this time around. While reading, i added this note: “This is like the fantastic night one— lots of buildup and hemming and hawing about whether or not to tell the story”. The novel starts with all the patrons of a hotel gossiping about another hotel woman who ditched her husband and kids to go run away with a fling she just met, but then the real story begins from an only tangentially related perspective— a guy is defending the woman for running away, and some old woman is really interested in his perspective and why he is defending the young woman who ran away on a fling. The woman then invites him over to tell him a story about her life, specifically a 24-hour period. idk why Zweig didn’t just start with the woman telling the actual story to the reader, it just ends with the guy listening to the story being like “cool story” and leaving her room, there is never any poetic tie back.
Anyways, the actual story. I would also totally be entertained by watching people in an old fancy casino, though idk if i would be so into the hand thing. Good on her for realizing the man’s situation and trying to help, too bad it ends the way it did… Once she rouses him and takes him to the hotel, things get a little fuzzy, probably on purpose by zweig. I don’t think she got raped, but it’s definitely a weird dynamic… if somebody sail “ill kms if you dont have sex with me”, it would be seen as coercion and stuff, but the guy never actually said and, but Mrs. C still basically knew that that’s what the deal was —-that’s all i wrote and i finished the story like a month ago, my reading stats have cratered since starting this book but im so close to the end i need to finish
Downfall of the heart
tl;dr man catches his 19-year old daughter doing 19 year old things; goes into a reverie and dies.
Cut
Incident on lake Geneva
Tl;dr displaced soldier gets stranded in Switzerland and kill himslef because he can’t go home.
Cut
Mendel the bibliophile
Tl;dr autistic book collector gets dropped in a concentration camp for 2yrs during war, is never the same.
More peak from seeing, this was a quality read. This time the framing device/ exposition actually did serve the plot: Man walks into cafe and is like “when was I in here before…” before realizing he met Mendel there, flashback ensues. After that, we snap back to reality and our man asks the waiter what happened to Mendel; nobody but the cleaning lady does. The cleaning lady scene is setup well, I was really curious what happened to Mendel to make her so emotional, and the story is indeed very moving. The last quote sounds like something Kiraly Vega would post on her instagram story: “ you create books solely to forge links with others even after your own death, thus defending yourself against the inexorable adversary of all life, transience and oblivion.” Great story, and I think the last long one in this book!
Leporella
Tl;dr quirky maid gets a crush on her boss, kills herself when it isn’t mutual
Ok maybe this is the last “long” one in the book, soooo close to being done !! Can’t really think of a whole lot to say here. I like watching crescentzia come out of her shell to become leporella, so it’s quite impactful to see her go back to crescentzia, and I can understand why she would kill the wife— she thinks it will mean a return to the fun times of when she was in the hospital. The ending with the box full of stuff her boss gave her is very impactful, sad to see all the money she worked so hard for just for nothing. Zweig loves to have people kill themself, maybe this is subtle foreshadowing for his own suicide…
Did He Do it?
Tl;dr Pitbull is jealous of attention baby gets, allegedly murders baby.
I like the idea that our narrator is unreliable and just has it out for this dog, and that the ending scene where Ponto is happy is simply because he has a new master that gives him plenty of food and attention. I know i keep saying it but this is yet another high-quality, tightly written story that just delivers so much in such a short number of pages. It’s setup such that we all know exactly what is going to happen at the end, but i still felt that anxious tightness in my chest reading it. The way Ponto was originally meant to be a companion for the wife, to a cute puppy that Limpley treated extravagantly, to a tyrannical brat that turned its nose up at people, then getting shunned in favor of the incoming baby, before finally letting that bottled rage out on the baby is such a peak character arc. There are even more stages of acceptance and revenge in between there but I didn’t wanna figure out how to write that as a proper sentence so.
Also the setting here is great. Spending the first 1/4 of the book just setting up the cute cottages in the English countryside next to a canal past its prime, I imagine it looks much like the windows XP wallpaper. The characters are well-written, although we never hear all that much about our narrator or her husband. I think the story would be inferior if Zweig wrote it from any other POV, this neighborly perspective only getting occasional peeps into what’s being talked about was great. Also funny that we are just inventing what we think Ponto is thinking, especially when there are such strong emotions as:
“He wasn’t going to get away this time, the evil enemy, the usurper of his rights and privileges who had murdered his peace of mind!” Literally just the wife’s headcannon of what she thinks this random ass dog is thinking.
The debt paid late
Tl;dr woman meets extremely washed up actor she had a crush on, flatters him.
Excellent ending to the book! A very happy ending that easily could’ve just been “somebody is down bad and then somebody kills themself”, which i suppose are rather common themes in here. This whole story is the exact opposite of the “misery porn” genre, it’s literally just good things happening the whole time but done in a creative and literate way. When our narrator initially checks into her inn and goes on a hike, I pictured Murren Switzerland, I think that place is appropriately pretty enough to match the vibe that Zweig is writing. Our narrator getting back to the cozy cabin after a long hike, with somebody waiting to make her a hot meal, sitting down with a good book is just such a great vibe encapsulated; it helps that I read this while sitting down with a plate of Panda Express in my cozy spot in the student center. When Sturzentaler first walks into the bar I shared the vibe of “this guy is harshing the beautiful zen vibe that was just created”.
The only critique i can come up with is the idea that our narrator is in debt to Sturzentaler. If a 16 year old fan comes to your door as a ~40 y/o celebrity, not raping her i think it the absolute lowest bar and the barest minimum. That being said, he handled the situation nicely, as did our narrator back in present time. The mayor of the town giving him a monthly allowance is a bit extreme, it’s giving “Reddit story where at the end everyone stands up and claps”.
As always, there is a somewhat creative framing device for the whole story, this time it is “writing a letter to an old friend who shared this crush w you”. Thinking about it as I write it really is not all that necessary, and it would be trivial to remove it from the story without changing anything, which i think is an indicator that the framing is an unnecessary thing. This can be applied to lots of the Zweig framing devices/ creative POV’s, there have only been a rare few that i think really contributed to advance the story. That being said, there is still merit to them, if we got rid of everything that wasn’t strictly necessary, all of these stories could be shortened to a page or two. Maybe the letter does add enough, idk…
Anyways, happy ending, as evidenced by the: “Nothing makes one as healthy as happiness, and there is no greater happiness than making someone else happy.”
Time to finally log this on Goodreads and find a new book, only took me 5 months and 2 weeks
“Person down bad” and “killing myself for various reasons”
Came across this book in the credits of the movie “the grand Budapest hotel”, nothing was strictly based on the book, it was more the encapsulated vibe of classy, European stories and generalized locations. This book took me 5+ months to read becausee I couldn’t build momentum; every time I did the story would end shortly thereafter and I would have to start from square 1 on the next novella. My favorite stories from here that stand out and I would recommend to friends are in no particular order: Amok, letter from an unknown woman, did he do it. Here are the bullet points of the collection as a whole:
I like the flowery prose
Aggressively European, not “timeless” but still good
Sometimes unnecessary Framing devices
Good characters considering short context windows
Idk why this isn’t standard AP Lit material by now
My OG review was 27k characters, so I cut all the reviews of the mediocre stories :(
——————-
Forgotten Dreams
Short! Tl;dr Woman meets a summer fling of her youth and is slightly confused and ultimately sad that she chose the boring rich guy over him. This reminds me of that one tweet that was like “Most women would divorce their husband for the chance to go back to their first love”. Ofc written very flowery with cool words like “bacchanalian” (characterized by or given to drunken revelry; riotously drunken), Translating this from German seems just as much of an art as writing the story in the first place, good job Anthea Bell.
In the snow
Tl;dr group of Jews flee for their life in a hurry but then die in a snowstorm.
Cut
The Miracles of life
Tl;dr girl gets emotionally attached to baby while posing for a painting with it, unhealthy.
Cut
The star above the forest
Tl;dr Hotel waiter gets parasocial relationship with baroness, kills himself because he’s sad about it.
Cut
Lost like 2 stories beause phone broke on float trip and stuff didn’t sync :(
Twilight
Tl;dr Ousted French queen misses high life, decides to kill herself for attention.
Yet another banger! Madam de prie is pretty much an all-around unlikeable character, I can’t think of any redeeming characteristics. She is very vain: “She was one of those women, and they are not rare, who are shaped entirely by other people’s attitudes.” At first I was kinda unimpressed by how quickly she got bored of life in the countryside. The first night she hangs out in the local taverns and frolicked in the fields and stuff, and seems generally happy— To go from that to suicide is kinda extreme. That being said, there is a good line about how she couldn’t wait to tell all her high class friends about her time roughing it in the countryside which in hindsight is an obvious way to tell the reader all about her personality and what levers motivate her. Zweig does a good job of making Madame de prie’s fomo really felt by the reader, the writing letters and getting dry responses bit is good. Idk why the priest’s nephew got ragebaited so easily, couldn’t be me. It kinda surprised me when she invited all the high class friends to come party and they actually came, why didn’t she just do that in the first place if she misses her high class company sm? Also idk the exact date this is supposed to be set in, but I get the impression it was pre-French revolution because wdym you partied for a month in your chateau and had fireworks and stuff, you’re gonna get ur head chopped off! Didn’t fully “get” the scene of her acting out her own death in her play, all I could think of was the same scene happening in like book 3 of Scythe when that one guy killed himself in his own play. The moment when she gives the sailor guy 500 bucks and then he doesn’t look back at her is good, it really demonstrates how washed De Prie is. The whole mindset of De Prie is literally just “Killing myself for attention”, funny to see that this mindset is still alive and well in today’s day and age. The priest’s nephew was better as a timid country boy sub, he definitely develops into a more evil character and lowkey should be more humble towards De Prie. Poetic and makes sense that nobody gaf about De Prie’s death in Paris, rip bozo, etc. I like one of the conclusion sentences: “For the history of the world will not tolerate intruders; it chooses its own heroes and implacably dismisses those not summoned to that rank, however hard they may try; someone who has fallen off the carriage of fate as it goes along will never catch up with it again.” Good sentence, good story!
A story told in twilight
Tl;dr kid gets sexually harassed and is confused?
Cut
Wondrak
Tl;dr ugly woman has hot son who gets called to military service, woman resists
Cut
Compulsion
Tl;dr Frenchman is called to service, goes into a trance and almost goes but snaps back to reality, wife is relieved.
Cut
Moonbeam alley
Tl;dr guy is down indescribably for his ex wife and tries to get stranger to save his marriage.
Cut
Amok
Tl;dr doctor goes crazy and throws it all away for a woman who needs an abortion
Holy peak this is somehow the best one yet, better than chess story. Idk how zweig comes up with these story ideas, they are so foreign, creative, and fun to read. This story starts with a great hook that we are beautifully clued into more and more as the story progresses:
“IN MARCH 1912 a strange accident occurred in Naples harbour during the unloading of a large ocean-going liner which was reported at length by the newspapers, although in extremely fanciful terms. Although I was a passenger on the Oceania, I did not myself witness this strange incident”.
When we are first introduced to the doctor and his story, we wonder how he might be related to this “fanciful incident”. At first I thought he jumped off of the ship or something because he was a fugitive hiding from everybody. Then his story progresses and it’s a big reveal that the coffin is on the ship with us the whole time, and we realize it must have something to do with that. Even though the doctor is mad and ultimately should be punished for his gross rapey desires, we’re all pretty much on the side of the doctor for wanting to dump the coffin into the sea, and its very noble that he kept his promise to the woman of keeping her secret safe. Also a good death for him to go down with her, certainly better than just shooting himself in London. I don’t really think there was much redemption available to himself after all that, and he also probably shouldn’t be practicing medicine if his first thought after seeing a white woman is now “how do i take advantage of her, its been 7 years of only barefoot, overly-submissive yellow brutes”. Of course, all of this could’ve been very easily avoided and the doctor could’ve lived the rest of his life on a nice fat government pension+ 12k “guilders” from the woman if he simply performed the abortion without being a creep about it.
Framing of on the boat is great, paragraph cut
Of course, the doctor is a flawed character form the start— The first thing he says is that he has a kink for domineering women and robbed his former hospital for one— like ok dude take it to therapy, and he also has such a disdain for India and the associated people, which was a little strong i think even for 1912 standards. I like how he starts off bright-eyed and ready to conquer the country with medicine, before losing motivation, very realistic, and I wish there were more anecdotes from his 7 years there. Very gross how he is immediately horny for his patient, even if she is a confident white woman, should’ve just said yes and not made it weird :| Saying he caught the jungle fever and suddenly “ran amok” is just him making excuses for his weird behavior, chasing after her and going to the ball and whatnot is just delusionally desperate behavior, the reader has no grasp of why he’s doing any of that. Writing 20 pages of begging and saying “ill kms if you dont come here” before going into a room and staring at your watch for three hours is clinically insane behavior, “running amok” is not a diagnosable issue doctor. It is perfectly valid for the woman to seek alternative help from the doctor in Chinatown, something something history repeats itself roe v wade. If i was her i would also not let a doctor who just asked for sex operate on me and give me an abortion. Very sad that she dies, good on the doctor for doing his best to help, even though it is *kinda* (but debatably not really because if he just said no normally she still probably would’ve gone to the Chinatown doctor and died) his fault for putting her into that position. Better late than never i suppose. Good story, very compelling. Seems to be a theme with zweig of men being down really badly for women and killing themselves over it, wonder what that says about zweig himself and his own suicide 🤔
Fantastic night
Tl;dr listless, privileged man discovers gambling and charity, is rejuvenated
Cut
Letter from an unknown woman
Tl;dr woman has a lifelong crush on a man who doesn’t know her, spills it all on her deathbed
5/5! This one was really good. Another unique premise, and really heart-wrenching. The woman definitely could’ve lived happily ever after with the man, she just needed to find the strength to say “hey ydk me but im the mother of your secret 11 year-old child” haha can i move in”. Ofc, it would be a bit of an unorthodox arrangement but whatever. I feel like realistically she should’ve gotten over him after she had his kid and was now getting attention from all the other rich old men. Also I don’t think her argument of “i didnt tell you we had a kid because i didnt want to burden you even for a minute” holds up a little bit, but then its nullified by writing this letter. Surely she is smart enough to know that this will really be messing with his head for a while right? Regardless, it’s valid to want to talk to him and get things off your chest. If only she was brave enough to talk to him like a normal person for a while, he probably was about ready to settle down by that last visit…
The invisible collection
Tl;dr art dealer goes to blind collectors house, collector doesn’t realize all his pieces have been sold. This one was pretty good, I like the creative premise of the story and how it is so related to the historical time of German hyperinflation. I don’t know much about that period, but this feels like it may have been a politically inspired kinda story, considering the fact that the hyperinflation is ruining the lives of good working class citizens. Feels like a dig at the government and a way to inspire the public readers about the poor state of things. I like how the art dealer agreed to play along and not tell the collector about the truth, good/ interesting bit.
24hrs in the life of a woman
Tl;dr woman saves a suicidal gambling addict, but not actually, and gets her heart broken in the process.
The title of this one is kinda bad I think, the central plot point revolves around how a man has shaped the life of a woman which does not feel as empowering as the title might lead someone (me) to believe what this story might be. Zweig did the usual thing where he framed the whole story from the zoomed out, retroactive perspective of somebody recounting the story that happened earlier in their life. While usually i think this is a good literary device(?), it really didnt feel very necessary this time around. While reading, i added this note: “This is like the fantastic night one— lots of buildup and hemming and hawing about whether or not to tell the story”. The novel starts with all the patrons of a hotel gossiping about another hotel woman who ditched her husband and kids to go run away with a fling she just met, but then the real story begins from an only tangentially related perspective— a guy is defending the woman for running away, and some old woman is really interested in his perspective and why he is defending the young woman who ran away on a fling. The woman then invites him over to tell him a story about her life, specifically a 24-hour period. idk why Zweig didn’t just start with the woman telling the actual story to the reader, it just ends with the guy listening to the story being like “cool story” and leaving her room, there is never any poetic tie back.
Anyways, the actual story. I would also totally be entertained by watching people in an old fancy casino, though idk if i would be so into the hand thing. Good on her for realizing the man’s situation and trying to help, too bad it ends the way it did… Once she rouses him and takes him to the hotel, things get a little fuzzy, probably on purpose by zweig. I don’t think she got raped, but it’s definitely a weird dynamic… if somebody sail “ill kms if you dont have sex with me”, it would be seen as coercion and stuff, but the guy never actually said and, but Mrs. C still basically knew that that’s what the deal was —-that’s all i wrote and i finished the story like a month ago, my reading stats have cratered since starting this book but im so close to the end i need to finish
Downfall of the heart
tl;dr man catches his 19-year old daughter doing 19 year old things; goes into a reverie and dies.
Cut
Incident on lake Geneva
Tl;dr displaced soldier gets stranded in Switzerland and kill himslef because he can’t go home.
Cut
Mendel the bibliophile
Tl;dr autistic book collector gets dropped in a concentration camp for 2yrs during war, is never the same.
More peak from seeing, this was a quality read. This time the framing device/ exposition actually did serve the plot: Man walks into cafe and is like “when was I in here before…” before realizing he met Mendel there, flashback ensues. After that, we snap back to reality and our man asks the waiter what happened to Mendel; nobody but the cleaning lady does. The cleaning lady scene is setup well, I was really curious what happened to Mendel to make her so emotional, and the story is indeed very moving. The last quote sounds like something Kiraly Vega would post on her instagram story: “ you create books solely to forge links with others even after your own death, thus defending yourself against the inexorable adversary of all life, transience and oblivion.” Great story, and I think the last long one in this book!
Leporella
Tl;dr quirky maid gets a crush on her boss, kills herself when it isn’t mutual
Ok maybe this is the last “long” one in the book, soooo close to being done !! Can’t really think of a whole lot to say here. I like watching crescentzia come out of her shell to become leporella, so it’s quite impactful to see her go back to crescentzia, and I can understand why she would kill the wife— she thinks it will mean a return to the fun times of when she was in the hospital. The ending with the box full of stuff her boss gave her is very impactful, sad to see all the money she worked so hard for just for nothing. Zweig loves to have people kill themself, maybe this is subtle foreshadowing for his own suicide…
Did He Do it?
Tl;dr Pitbull is jealous of attention baby gets, allegedly murders baby.
I like the idea that our narrator is unreliable and just has it out for this dog, and that the ending scene where Ponto is happy is simply because he has a new master that gives him plenty of food and attention. I know i keep saying it but this is yet another high-quality, tightly written story that just delivers so much in such a short number of pages. It’s setup such that we all know exactly what is going to happen at the end, but i still felt that anxious tightness in my chest reading it. The way Ponto was originally meant to be a companion for the wife, to a cute puppy that Limpley treated extravagantly, to a tyrannical brat that turned its nose up at people, then getting shunned in favor of the incoming baby, before finally letting that bottled rage out on the baby is such a peak character arc. There are even more stages of acceptance and revenge in between there but I didn’t wanna figure out how to write that as a proper sentence so.
Also the setting here is great. Spending the first 1/4 of the book just setting up the cute cottages in the English countryside next to a canal past its prime, I imagine it looks much like the windows XP wallpaper. The characters are well-written, although we never hear all that much about our narrator or her husband. I think the story would be inferior if Zweig wrote it from any other POV, this neighborly perspective only getting occasional peeps into what’s being talked about was great. Also funny that we are just inventing what we think Ponto is thinking, especially when there are such strong emotions as:
“He wasn’t going to get away this time, the evil enemy, the usurper of his rights and privileges who had murdered his peace of mind!” Literally just the wife’s headcannon of what she thinks this random ass dog is thinking.
The debt paid late
Tl;dr woman meets extremely washed up actor she had a crush on, flatters him.
Excellent ending to the book! A very happy ending that easily could’ve just been “somebody is down bad and then somebody kills themself”, which i suppose are rather common themes in here. This whole story is the exact opposite of the “misery porn” genre, it’s literally just good things happening the whole time but done in a creative and literate way. When our narrator initially checks into her inn and goes on a hike, I pictured Murren Switzerland, I think that place is appropriately pretty enough to match the vibe that Zweig is writing. Our narrator getting back to the cozy cabin after a long hike, with somebody waiting to make her a hot meal, sitting down with a good book is just such a great vibe encapsulated; it helps that I read this while sitting down with a plate of Panda Express in my cozy spot in the student center. When Sturzentaler first walks into the bar I shared the vibe of “this guy is harshing the beautiful zen vibe that was just created”.
The only critique i can come up with is the idea that our narrator is in debt to Sturzentaler. If a 16 year old fan comes to your door as a ~40 y/o celebrity, not raping her i think it the absolute lowest bar and the barest minimum. That being said, he handled the situation nicely, as did our narrator back in present time. The mayor of the town giving him a monthly allowance is a bit extreme, it’s giving “Reddit story where at the end everyone stands up and claps”.
As always, there is a somewhat creative framing device for the whole story, this time it is “writing a letter to an old friend who shared this crush w you”. Thinking about it as I write it really is not all that necessary, and it would be trivial to remove it from the story without changing anything, which i think is an indicator that the framing is an unnecessary thing. This can be applied to lots of the Zweig framing devices/ creative POV’s, there have only been a rare few that i think really contributed to advance the story. That being said, there is still merit to them, if we got rid of everything that wasn’t strictly necessary, all of these stories could be shortened to a page or two. Maybe the letter does add enough, idk…
Anyways, happy ending, as evidenced by the: “Nothing makes one as healthy as happiness, and there is no greater happiness than making someone else happy.”
Time to finally log this on Goodreads and find a new book, only took me 5 months and 2 weeks
June 7, 2017
I rated the stories contained in this book individually whenever possible, but I have to give the book itself five stars - what an anthology! I don't have the originals to compare it to, but the translation read so fluidly that I'm sure it must be good. Not to mention probably the only translation available of many of these stories, not a single one of which was bad. Zweig is a fairly recent discovery of mine, but has quickly taken up a special place on my bookshelves. He has a unique ability to be uncynical, nostalgic and almost pathetically tragic, all at the same time, which infuse every one of his stories with a kind of romantic escapism that is quite difficult to capture in more modern books. Personally, I love it, and will continue to hunt down more of his work. But I will be forever grateful to Pushkin for this great, and pretty reasonably-priced collection of stories that would otherwise be unavailable. Not only is the content great, but the design of the book, from the cover down to the font used within, is nothing short of perfection.
(I would just like to write down the four stories that I couldn't rate individually for future reference: In The Snow, Incident On Lake Geneva, Did He Do It?, and The Debt Paid Late.)
(I would just like to write down the four stories that I couldn't rate individually for future reference: In The Snow, Incident On Lake Geneva, Did He Do It?, and The Debt Paid Late.)
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