Cuenta la historia de un escritor famoso que regresa a Viena después de unas vacaciones y recibe la carta de una mujer que no reconocer y que ha estado enamorada de él toda su vida.
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.
Si el objetivo era incomodar, definitivamente lo logró. Hacía mucho tiempo una narración no me provocaba un rechazo tan físico y visceral, y aun así, aunque la historia se volvió terriblemente predecible en cierto punto, no pude dejar de leer. El poder del chisme y del morbo es una cosa seria. Da asco, sí, pero también deja muchísimo sobre qué reflexionar.
Un conte romàntic que no et canviarà la vida, però sí que et farà passar una bona estona. Llibre curt i molt recomanable, ja que no només enganxa, sinó que és intens i està molt ben escrit. Conté una idea molt poderosa sobre l’amor platònic, passional, idealitzat i romàntic, així com sobre l’obsessió i com aquesta pot acabar sent perjudicial i destructiva. Fins a cert punt, m’ha recordat a Madonna in a Fur Coat.
El libro es fácil de leer y corto. Me gusta como escribe, sin embargo tuve un choque cultural y de valores importantes con la protagonista de la historia, lo que no me permitió disfrutar realmente de lo que estaba leyendo
How thin the line between love and obsession can be—and just how fiercely the heart can love while the mind talks itself into it. A story told from a turning point, when all that’s left is to come to terms with a painful tale of total devotion… from a complete stranger.