Collections
'I alone know that I am only just beginning to live.' He is distinguished, rich, a member of fashionable society-utterlybored. But, over the course of one fantastic night, a young Baron becomes a thief, unashamed, and awakes to life for the first time. This collection is full of tales of infinite passions, of intense encounters that transform lives, a knock on a door that forces a whole community to take flight, a doomed attempt to save a soul poisoned by addiction, a love soured into awful cruelty, of longing and liberation. They are the gripping work of a master storyteller, unmatched and completely unforgettable.
Stefan's Zweig's Letter from an Unknown Woman and other stories contains a new translation by the award-winning Anthea Bell of one of his most celebrated novellas, Letter from an Unknown Woman , the inspiration for a classic 1948 Hollywood film by Max Ophüls, as well as three new stories, appearing in English for the first time. A famous author receives a letter on his forty-first birthday. He doesn't know the sender, but still the letter concerns him intimately. Its story is earnest, even piteous: the story of a life lived in service to an unannounced, unnoticed love. In the other stories in this collection, a young man mistakes the girl he loves for her sister; two erstwhile lovers meet after an age spent apart; and a married woman repays a debt of gratitude. All four tales, newly translated by the award-winning Anthea Bell, are among Zweig's most celebrated and compelling work-expertly paced, laced with empathy and an unwaveringly acute sense of psychological detail.
Five of Stefan Zweig's most compelling novellas are presented together in this powerful volume. Fantastic Night is the story of one transforming evening in the life of a rich and bored young man. He spends a day at the races and an evening in the seedy but thrilling company of the dregs of society. His experiences jolt him out of his languor and give him a newfound relish for life, which is then cut short by the Great War. Fantastic Night is joined by The Invisible Collection and Buchmendel, two of Zweig's most powerful works, which explore lives led in the single minded pursuit of art and literature against a backdrop of poverty and corruption. And finally, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Zweig's poignant and heartbreaking tale of the strength and madness of unrequited love, and The Fowler Snared complete the collection.
Stefan Zweig gained early fame as a poet, translator, and biographer. When he added fiction to his repertoire, he won even more critical acclaim. After his death, however, his work fell inexplicably into obscurity. The Royal Game and Other Stories is a collection of five of Stefan Zweig's brilliant and creative psychological thrillers. Filled with emotional extreme from obsessive love to pathological revenge to the madness caused by an imaginary chess game these masterpieces revive his art, making it once again available to a new generation of readers. This collection includes "The Royal Game," "Amok," "The Burning Secret," "Fear," and "Letter from an Unknown Woman," as well as an introduction by Jeffrey B. Berlin.
"Zweig is the most adult of writers; civilized, urbane, but never jaded or cynical."The IndependentA new selection of Stefan Zweig's most powerful novellas: Fantastic Night, Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Fowler Snared, The Invisible Collection, Buchmendel, and Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman.
Compulsion, In the Snow and Wondrak all concern Zweig's strong anti-war feelings following the First World War. The artist Ferdinand, central figure of Compulsion, partly reflects Zweig's own experience. In The Snow tells of the plight of a group of Jews who freeze to death while trying to escape a medieval pogrom. In Wondrak , a woman, disfigured since birth, attempts to save her only child from being drafted into the military. In this newly available English translation the reader discovers the essential humanist preoccupations of the author of Amok and Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman : his compassion towards human suffering, his horror of war and his faith in idealism, generosity, love values that can, in an instant, illuminate an entire existence. Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
A DOCTOR IN the Dutch East Indies torn between his medical duty to help and his own mixed emotions; a middle-aged maidservant whose devotion to her master leads her to commit a terrible act; a hotel waiter whose love for an unapproachable aristocratic beauty culminates in an almost lyrical death and a prisoner-of-war longing to be home again in Russia. In these four stories, Stefan Zweig shows his gift for the acute analysis of emotional dilemmas. His four tragic and moving cameos of the human condition are played out against cosmopolitan and colonial backgrounds in the first half of the twentieth century.
An eclectic collection of four brilliant stories, including a Renaissance tragedy and an English whodunit
Twilight is the story of a fashionable lady who is banished from Versailles by the king. She tries to make the best of living on her country estate, but although she entertains lovers and friends from Paris, she comes to find it intolerable. Life at court, for all its essential emptiness, was the only thing that gave her existence meaning, and she moves inexorably towards suicide. In Moonbeam Alley , a traveller delayed in a French port explores the sailors' quarter. Enticed by a voice singing an aria, to a bar near the harbour, he learns the story of those who run it and frequent it: a tale of violence, unrequited passion, and a marriage that is no true marriage.
The collected stories of Stefan Zweig, one of the most popular writers of short fiction of the twentieth century This collection brings together twenty-three of Stefan Zweig's best-loved short stories. Written in his typically flowing and readable style, these tales are characterised by their pacing, their psychological insightfulness, and above all their pervading humanity. Including Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman , Amok , Fantastic Night and Letter from an Unknown Woman, translated by Anthea Bell, this gift edition hardback would be an great introduction to Zweig, or a wonderful treat for any fan of his work.
The poems and prose in this selection show Stefan Zweig at his lyrical best. Even the sensational title story, in which a heat-crazed hotel guest is consumed by his lust for a younger woman, is finally rhapsodic. All in all, these works demonstrate that Zweig’s sensibility was, first and foremost, that of a poet.
A casual introduction, a challenge to a simple game of chess, a lovers' reunion, a meaningless infidelity: from such small seeds Zweig brings forth five startlingly tense tales--meditations on the fragility of love, the limits of obsession, the combustibility of secrets and betrayal. To read anything by Zweig is to risk addiction; in this collection the power of his writing--which, with its unabashed intensity and narrative drive, made him one of the bestselling and most acclaimed authors in the world--is clear and irresistible. Each of these stories is a bolt of experience, unforgettable and unique. Five of Stefan Zweig's most powerful novellas, containing some of his most famous and best-loved work: • Burning Secret • A Chess Story • Fear • Confusion • Journey into the Past (Stand alone paperback editions of individual novellas from Pushkin and New York Review of Books will remain in print.)
When it is discovered that the reigning world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is on board a cruiser heading for Buenos Aires, a fellow passenger challenges him to a game. Czentovic easily defeats him, but during the rematch a mysterious Austrian, Dr B., intervenes and, to the surprise of everyone, helps the underdog obtain a draw. When, the next day, Dr B. confides in a compatriot travelling on the same ship and decides to reveal the harrowing secret behind his formidable chess knowledge, a chilling tale of imprisonment and psychological torment unfolds. Stefan Zweig's last and most famous story, 'A Game of Chess' was written in exile in Brazil and explores its author's anxieties about the situation in Europe following the rise of the Nazi regime. The tale is presented here in a brand-new translation, along with three of the master storyteller's most acclaimed novellas: Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, The Invisible Collection and Incident on Lake Geneva.
Stefan Zweig was a leading talisman of a united Europe of unfettered movement, of pro-active cultural exchange, humane decency and tolerance, all polar opposites of the Nationalist regimes he loathed, and which came to power in the 1930s. In these poignant essays and addresses, forged in the last years or even months of his life, he shows his profound concern for and dedication to the survival of Europe's spiritual integrity. These essays form the natural accompaniment to Zweig's renowned memoir The World of Yesterday , registering the same themes and evoking the same nostalgia for a world brutally consigned to history. They can be seen as a vital addendum to that major work or as a prefiguration. But perhaps even more so than the prose of the memoir, these essays, few in number but rich in content, reveal the essence of Zweig's thought.
Stefan Zweig, one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, possessed a rare ability to explore the depths of human psychology with both precision and empathy. His works, often driven by themes of obsession, fear, fate, and moral dilemmas, remain timeless in their portrayal of human fragility. The Stefan Zweig Collection – Volume 1 brings together seven of his most compelling novellas and short stories in fresh translations that preserve the intensity and elegance of his prose. This collection features The Chess Player , Zweig’s final and perhaps most haunting work, where a man’s extraordinary chess skills mask the psychological torment inflicted by the Gestapo. In Fear , a bourgeois woman’s illicit affair leads to blackmail, sending her spiraling into paranoia and self-destruction. Unexpected Revelation of a Trade presents a surprising moral twist, revealing Zweig’s fascination with the hidden aspects of human nature. Leporella follows a lonely servant whose blind devotion to her aristocratic employer takes a dark and unsettling turn, while The Woman and the Landscape offers a poetic meditation on longing and fate, set against the indifferent forces of nature. The Bookseller Mendel is a poignant story of an aging bibliophile, whose obsessive love for books is tragically erased by the tides of history. Finally, The Invisible Collection tells of an art dealer’s encounter with an old collector, whose devotion to his treasures blinds him to a heartbreaking reality. Each of these stories captures Zweig’s mastery of psychological depth and his ability to turn seemingly ordinary lives into profound literary experiences. Whether unraveling the torment of a chess prodigy, the quiet desperation of a forgotten bookseller, or the tragic devotion of a humble servant, Zweig’s storytelling remains as gripping and thought-provoking as ever. This volume presents these works in new translations, ensuring that modern readers can fully appreciate the richness of Zweig’s language and the timeless relevance of his themes. The Stefan Zweig Collection – Volume 1 invites both longtime admirers and new readers into the fascinating, often unsettling, world of one of literature’s most insightful observers of the human condition.