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Beware of Pity
Stefan Zweig’s tragic novel of guilt, yearning, and the danger of pity, which inspired Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
“Original and powerful.” —The New York Times
The only novel Zweig—one of the most popular authors of the 20th century—completed and published during his lifetime, Beware of Pity is a heartrending tale of unequal affection, unintended consequences, and a world falling to pieces.
In 1913, young second lieutenant Hofmiller discovers the terrible danger of pity. Stationed at the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he is invited to a party by a rich local landowner, who also happens to have a pretty daughter. But when Hofmiller asks the girl to dance he unleashes a fatal chain of consequences. He had no idea she was lame, and finds himself in an agony of shamed embarrassment. So begins a series of visits, motivated by pity, which relieves his guilt but gives her a dangerous glimmer of hope.
Stefan Zweig's only full-length novel has inspired multiple stage adaptations and was the starting point for Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Unfolding in a breathless sweep from Hofmiller’s initial mistake, it displays at full length all the psychological insight and emotional intensity known to readers of Zweig’s bestselling novellas.
A century after it was first written, Beware of Pity remains a devastating depiction of the betrayal of both honour and love, realised against the background of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the beginnings of the First World War.
“Original and powerful.” —The New York Times
The only novel Zweig—one of the most popular authors of the 20th century—completed and published during his lifetime, Beware of Pity is a heartrending tale of unequal affection, unintended consequences, and a world falling to pieces.
In 1913, young second lieutenant Hofmiller discovers the terrible danger of pity. Stationed at the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he is invited to a party by a rich local landowner, who also happens to have a pretty daughter. But when Hofmiller asks the girl to dance he unleashes a fatal chain of consequences. He had no idea she was lame, and finds himself in an agony of shamed embarrassment. So begins a series of visits, motivated by pity, which relieves his guilt but gives her a dangerous glimmer of hope.
Stefan Zweig's only full-length novel has inspired multiple stage adaptations and was the starting point for Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Unfolding in a breathless sweep from Hofmiller’s initial mistake, it displays at full length all the psychological insight and emotional intensity known to readers of Zweig’s bestselling novellas.
A century after it was first written, Beware of Pity remains a devastating depiction of the betrayal of both honour and love, realised against the background of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the beginnings of the First World War.
465 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2026
About the author
Stefan Zweig
2,533 books11.1k 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 of 1 review
Review of advance copy
Austrian cavalry officer, Anton Hofmiller, is, bit by bit, being sucked into the life and emotional whirlwind of Edith, the crippled daughter of a wealthy landowner near where Hofmiller is stationed. It all begins at a dance when Hofmiller unknowingly approaches Edith to ask her to dance, not realising she is crippled (she is seated with a blanket over her legs). So ashamed is he that the next day he sends flowers, and then visits. His pity for Edith together with his concern for his reputation leads him into more and more trouble as he makes promises to her that he can't keep (to keep her happy, to calm her down, to not be seen as a cad...). To avoid a major spoiler, I won't reveal where this leads with respect to Edith, but for Hofmiller, weirdly, it is the outbreak of the Great War (WWI) that 'saves' him from losing his reputation: after the war, those who knew what he had done are mostly dead, and those who aren't, have forgotten.
I loved this book for the way Zweig so masterfully constructs Hofmiller's slow but terrible entanglement in Edith's life, his desperate over-thinking and ruminating at each of these steps and the subsequent rash actions he takes to try to 'fix' the situation, which only entangles him more. His actions, based on pity and fear of others' opinions of him, are like the flailings of a man in quicksand. Zweig also exposes how actions we pride ourselves on as compassionate are so often done for our own sakes, not the sake of the recipient of our goodness. We delude ourselves, he shows, and do much more harm than good.
I also read Zweig's memoir, which I loved. The warring in Europe broke him, in a way. He and his wife committed suicide in 1942, in the midst of WWII.
I loved this book for the way Zweig so masterfully constructs Hofmiller's slow but terrible entanglement in Edith's life, his desperate over-thinking and ruminating at each of these steps and the subsequent rash actions he takes to try to 'fix' the situation, which only entangles him more. His actions, based on pity and fear of others' opinions of him, are like the flailings of a man in quicksand. Zweig also exposes how actions we pride ourselves on as compassionate are so often done for our own sakes, not the sake of the recipient of our goodness. We delude ourselves, he shows, and do much more harm than good.
I also read Zweig's memoir, which I loved. The warring in Europe broke him, in a way. He and his wife committed suicide in 1942, in the midst of WWII.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review