The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig

Outstanding for his insight into the human condition and his willingness to examine the dark corners of our behavior. I had never heard of Stefan Zweig until Wes Anderson said that Zweig inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel. This collection of novellas is a great introduction. Four are great, the fifth merely excellent.

I grew up on some of Stephan Zweig's novellas. we had a full collection of his writings at our home in Europe. And then - blank! Nobody heard of him; barely could find his reprints in a traditional book stores - gone and forgotten. Till relatively recently when Pushkin Press started republishing his books. These are MUST for any book lovers! regardless of your age, gender, like/dislike of the game of chess; traveler and erudite. Grab a novella or a short historic miniature, or a travel/history notes - and, you will not be able to leave any until you are done! Humane, painful, observant, erudite and attention grabber - you have it all! Get, learn, savor, get more and spread the word! You got a new friend! It is about time...

An excellent storyteller

This is a reread of Zweig, what I want to rave about is the publisher, Pushkin Press. The quality is stand out. The paper used, the size, the margins, and they have a good list, too. Told my German friend about them and she already knew. So that's international and intergenerational, I'm old, she's young. Check them out, this is an unpaid, unaffiliated endorsement.

Very good book with very good stories. Makes me want to read more of his work.

An excellent work, with so many surprises inside. Zweig's ability to provide time and place is seconded only by his care in introducing believable characters. This is some of the best writing I've ever read, and I can't recommend this collection strongly enough.

Excellent read.

An interesting collection of 5 novellas, two of which I had read previously. In both cases, this second reading had been helpful in opening up Zweig's methods for me. As I read this collection I came to see, more and more, the manner in which he builds tension casually in his tales, through simple variations on everyday actions. A person may step away for a moment from a stifling situation, taking a refreshing or necessary break that somehow turns his/her life upside down and threatens their entire future. Of the five novellas only one, "Journey into the Past." did not create that tension for me and two of the ones that are new to me, "Fear" and "Confusion", both did it quite effectively. The others are "A Chess Story," as effective as when first read, and "A Burning Secret," somehow better than when I first encountered it.Another thing I have learned from this collection is to have patience, to allow the writer to build up his characters and setting before providing the "meat" I am looking for. In this respect, perhaps I am a modern person/reader, wanting everything too quickly. The further removed I am from these stories, the more I realize that the tension I felt and found so effective simply would not have existed without that (seemingly) too slow build-up. So perhaps I am learning as a reader too.I do recommend this book to those who enjoy Zweig and others who may be looking for a new author to try.A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

There are five novellas in this collection: A Burning Secret, A Chess Story, Fear, Confusion and Journey into the Past.Most of these stories were written in the early part of the twentieth century – 1900 – 1920’s – and they have a real sense of a past world about them. However, what makes these novella’s still stand, is that the emotions felt by people don’t really change, whatever era they are written in. These stories encompass a whole range of feelings that we can all understand – ranging from adult secrets, obsession, jealousy, fear, longing, loss, pain and love…Along the way, a boy grows up, a cruise ship sees a dramatic chess game, a married woman fears discovery after a brief affair, we read of forbidden love and of a romance separated by time and war. . I am pleased his writing has been re-discovered in recent years and it is easy to see why he was so popular. Zweig wrote beautifully – he is often criticised for being pedestrian, but what he does is actually tell a story and tell it well.

This book was chosen by my son so it was the one he wanted to read

Excellent edition!

If novellas were flora, this collection would be a swamp. Where a sentence or two would be sufficient to make a point, illustrate a scene, or describe a character, the author scribbles entire pages of pedantic, extraneous verbage. He literally beats ideas to death. To add insult to injury (i.e. worse than death), the characters are all ponderously neurotic and self-absorbed. A tedious, unpleasant read at best. More accurately: distessing and torturous.

Brilliant!