Stefan Zweig: Most Important Books

Image: Hyperbole

Writer, biographer and social activist, Stefan zweig He was born on November 28, 1881 and had a great role in the first half of the 20th century. His works were among the first to protest against the intervention of Germany in the First World War and has left a wonderful literary legacy. In a PROFESSOR we want you to know a little more about Stefan Zweig and his most important books, so we have prepared a short summary of each work.

Stefan Zweig was born into a wealthy Jewish family, but later he acquired British nationality. He is known for a narrative writing in which he knots technique with psychological construction of the characters, which are always deeply elaborated. He studied at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in Philosophy, thanks to the position of his family he was able to travel a lot and acquire diverse knowledge of the places he went to and a very tolerant. He passionately confronted nationalist doctrines and many of his works deal with this theme, which he explored in various ways.

Index

1. Chess novel, the most important work of Stefan Zweig
2. Yesterday's world
3. Stellar moments of humanity
4. Twenty-four hours in the life of a woman
5. Letter to a stranger

The last novel written by the author before his suicide and published in the year 1943 is a clear criticism against Nazism and the methods used by the Gestapo. Mirko Czentovic is the protagonist, a tough man, world chess champion. During a boat trip, many are those who duel a game of chess with him, but no one beats him. Suddenly, in a game, the mysterious Mr. B, he manages to destabilize Mirko and they end in a draw.

The protagonist asks for revenge, but before it happens, Mr. B. he explains where he learned to play chess like this. He remained in total isolation for a long time since he was a victim of nazism who was caught and tortured. He says that he felt on the verge of madness and the only thing that kept him from losing his mind was a chess manual that he found, with which he learned to play infinite games in his head.

This work is a reflection of the isolation that Stefan himself felt when he had to leave Austria and never return after the rise of Nazism. A masterpiece also taken to the cinema and theater, a critique of the forced exile that a war entails.

Image: The Flanders Table

This is another of Stefan Zweig's most important books. "Yesterday's World" was written shortly before Stefan Zweig's suicide and published posthumously. It is a kind of autobiography, but the intention is not to tell his memories and place him as the protagonist, but through his experiences and felt emotions, he seeks to get to know Europe at the end of the 19th century And till the Second World War.

The first part focuses on the way in which the world began to change from the First World War, ending the security I felt, the stability. He recounts the years when he was calm, everything seemed static and safe. The second part focuses on the changes that began to occur and how it ended up reaching the Great War, the rise of Nazism. Everything is related under a deep analysis.

They were Stefan Zweig worked on this book for 20 years. A work composed by fourteen moments of history that the author considers extremely important for humanity. A book that goes between the essay and the historical account and reviews from Cicero to Woodrow's presidency in North America as well as the conquest of the South Pole among many other moments, always in chronological order.

The author uses the personification in the different stories, which means that it does not become a purely historical text that can border on boredom, but rather we can establish that emotional bond with reading and enjoy much more the pages of the book. The moments chosen by the author to be narrated are very successful and it is practically a masterpiece of literature.

Image: The voice of Galicia

It is another of Stefan Zweig's most important books. Written in 1927 tells the story of a British lady who shares a table in a boarding house, a small event sparks a debate about the morality of another guest. Agitated by what has happened and the fervor of the discussion, the lady begins to relate what she did for 24 hours, believing that he behaved surprisingly. Love, passion and annihilation are the main themes of this novel.

Stefan Zweig's ability to get inside a woman's head is very remarkable in this work, he had a very deep vision of the human soul and the thoughts that we all have daily, he knew how to perfectly narrate the deepest emotions. The play has been taken to the movies on numerous occasions, it is a classic.

A short book with a main theme: almost obsessive and limitless love in the time of a young woman by a man she hardly knows. As a child, the protagonist falls in love with the new neighbor who has arrived and lives in front of hers on her landing, a man older than her, educated, refined and a writer. Only when she grows up and gets older is she able to write him a letter confessing the love she has felt for him for so long, the letter from a stranger.

It is a deep story that reads very quickly but is thought-provoking. Stefan Zweig used to deal with love in many of his works as well, in many of its forms, either from compassion or from platonic infatuation. The psychological descriptions that he elaborates help a lot to deal with these issues, which are so ambiguous and difficult to address.

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• Historical Digital. (2005). Yesterday's World - Stefan Zweig. Historical Digital. Recovered from: https://historicodigital.com/el-mundo-de-ayer-stefan-zweig.html
• Hortal, M. (2012). Stefan Zweig's "Stellar Moments of Humanity". [Post on a blog]. Reading and Madness. Recovered from: http://lecturaylocura.com/momentos-estelares-de-la-humanidad-de-stefan-zweig/
• Rodríguez, J. (2011). Letter to a stranger, by Stefan Zweig. [Post on a blog]. Books and Literature. Recovered from: https://www.librosyliteratura.es/carta-de-una-desconocida.html