Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was an Austrian author, born in Vienna in the then Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In the 1920s and '30s, at the height of his career, he was one of the most translated and popular writers in the world. He studied philosophy and started his writing career early by writing newspaper articles and essays.
His work consists of historical biographies of literary and historical persons, fiction and plays. His fiction is mostly in the form of novellas or short stories, the most famous being Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok, and Chess Story. He also wrote librettos for the German composer Richard Strauss, whom he admired.
In 1934 he had to leave Austria due to the rise of the Nazi Party, and he emigrated to England. In 1940 he moved to New York and then on to Brazil where he settled with his second wife Lotte Altmann. Over the years Zweig became disillusioned and saw no hope for the future of Europe. He and his wife committed double suicide in February 1942. He started writing his memoirs in 1934 and added the last chapter the day before the suicide. The book was first published in German in 1942, by a publisher in Stockholm. To Zweig’s chagrin his own books were by then banned in Germany and Austria.
A European memoir
"I was born in 1881 in the great and mighty empire of the Habsburg Monarchy, but you would look for it in vain on the map today; it has vanished without trace. I grew up in Vienna, an international metropolis for two thousand years, and had to steal away from it like a thief in the night before it was demoted to the status of a provincial German town. My literary work, in the language in which I wrote it, has been burnt to ashes in the country where my books made millions of readers their friends. So I belong nowhere now, I am a stranger or at most a guest everywhere." (my bold mark).
The World of Yesterday is Zweig's personal remembrances of life in Vienna at the start of the 20th century. It is the last days of the Habsburg Empire, a world that soon will be gone. Zweig starts his retrospectic journery with a look at his childhood, teenage years, the education system and a view on sexuality, totally changing people's attitude as the psychoanalysis of Freud (who was a personal friend) was introduced. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later in Berlin, but has nothing good to say about the teachings. Already early on he finds his way to literature and the arts by his own efforts and studies.
He traveled the world to learn from other authors, artists and cultures; Berlin, Paris and other metropoles, as well as countries outside Europe. It became more challenging as the political landscape in Europe was changing due to the two world wars. As always, Zweig has a sharp eye on society and how it works. But, he gives us a very personal view on his own work and thoughts, and the pleasure he felt with likeminded friends. There are many insightful comments, still valid today. I think he would have liked the Europe we have today, which looks very much like the ideas he himself had so many years ago.
"My today is so different from all my yesterdays; I have risen and fallen so often, that I sometimes feel as if I had lived not just one but several completely different lives."
It is difficult to summarise his book. It reads more like a dictionary. Each chapter covers a topic, a certain time and you can open it wherever you want. This is a book I could think of having with me all the time. The same feeling I had with Sylvain Tessin's book A Summer With Homer (Une été avec Homère). I can see myself making a small package with these two books and keep them close by, to open up anywhere, and start reading. Maybe you can even compare Zweig with Odysseus, who travelled the world trying to get back home. Unfortunately for Zweig, once he left, he never came back to Austria.
A life lived
The book is translated by Anthea Bell (2009) and from the translators note I quote the following.
"Their double suicide raises another point: there has been discussion of the reason for it, since at that date, when the United States had just entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, there were clear signs that the tide was turning against Hitler. Talk of final victory and a 'wonder weapon' may have sounded persuasive in Germany and Austria, where a heavy propaganda system was brought to bear, less so outside those countries. One surmise, with which I concur, is that Zweig's underlying reason may have been a sense that whether the war was won or lost, the world of civilised culture in which he had lived and worked was gone for ever. I concur merely on the grounds that the close work of translation brings one close to an author's mind - as Zweig, who often worked as a translator himself early in his literary career, and knew what translation sets out to do (...) might, I think, have agreed."
Stefan Zweig left behind a testament of a time gone by. He does it with splendour, giving us an insight into his world, his thoughts, and his achievements as an author and literary giant, and the creative world of literature and art in which he lived during his younger years. You only wonder what he could have achieved and produced had he lived on. We have to be grateful for the rather many writings he left behind, which we can still enjoy today. His language and prose is still at the higher end of literature, and Zweig's writings are based on a sharp eye and intellect making him a master in story telling.
I am happy to note that I still have quite a few books left to read, especially his many literary and historical biographies. I have read Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok, and Chess Story including a few other short stories, as well as the biography of Marie Antoinette, and Messages From a Lost World.
It's a sad story, I think, to read about a brilliant author who had to leave the country he loved and who had his wonderful books burned.
I really need to try fiction by this author! Emma @ Words And Peace