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.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Pushkin PressISBN: 9781782277071Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Vintage ZweigZweig belongs with those masters of the novella-Maupassant,Turgenev,ChekhovBreathtaking...the final sentence (of Burning Secret) is unlike anything I have ever read before(A Chess Story is) perhaps the best chess story ever written,perhaps the best about any gameThe Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig,which I had never read despite a long and ardent admiration of Zweig,includes Burning Secret,about a boy and childish passion,which wrings the heartZweig's writing is some of the most brilliant of the 20th century. His novellas all begin so innocently. By the time they have ended,you feel he has prised you open,played with your own sympathies,and exposed you to your own imperfect humanityA captivating mix...(Zweig) generates momentum out of extremes in thought and feeling,the turbulent negotiations between inner and exterior lives,but he is happiest in mixed feelings,in detecting minute alterations in head and heart(Confusion is) a marvellously poised account of misunderstood motives,thwarted love,and sublimated desiresVintage Stefan Zweig-(Journey into the Past is) lucid,tender,powerful and compelling(Fear is) brilliant,unusual and haunting...Stefan Zweig's time of oblivion is over for goodA rediscovery of Zweig through this book gives an enlightening perspective on the past century and how we got where are today... As much in his novellas as in his short stories,the Austrian writer's psychological acuity brought his protagonists and their dilemmas vividly to lifeZweig brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of German-speaking central Europe: cultured,humane,but unable to overcome its inner demons and political madness
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