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Stefan Zweig Message Board 7/26/2009 4:27:14 PM
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Zweig has written!

Author Zweig's Book Reviews

Amok
In a small remote town of the West Malaysia, the only doctor in town is asked by the wealthy woman of a Dutch trademan to practice an abortion on her before her husband comes back from Europe. Humiliated by the arrogant attitude of this woman, the doctor refuses at first and asks for a more intimate reward than money if she really wants him to operate. Filled with hate towards the doctor, the woman returns home. The doctor suddenly becomes aware of hi...
Beware of Pity
A young cavalry officer makes a terrible blunder at a ball by inviting to dance a paraplegic young girl. Overwhelmed by guilt and pity, he will send her flowers and get into the habit of visiting her everyday in the company of the father and the cousin of Edith, the young girl. He will learn from Dr. Condo, the actual doctor of Edith, that her father, an ungarian noble named De Kekesfalva, is in fact Leonard Kanish, a Jew who became multimillionnaire ...
Buchmendel
Jakob Mendel is a living encyclopaedia. He spends the day at the Gluck Café in Vienna, Austria, reading and memorizing thousands of books's titles and catalogues. Students and collectors come to visit him in order to get the informations they can't obtain elsewhere. So concentrated with his work, Mendel lives in a peculiar world and isn't even aware that WWI has begun. So when the secret police is informed that Mendel is writing letters to librarians...
Confusion
CONFUSION has been published in 1927. A young student is sent by his father into a small university town in order to be taken away from the tentations of the cities. The young boy is immediately fascinated by his new professor of philology, an aged man able to turn his courses into poetical manifestos. He'll find a room in his professor's guesthouse and soon become on familiar terms with the professor and his wife. But the attitude of the teacher tow...

Zweig booklist

Fantastic Night
FANTASTIC NIGHT (Phantastische Nacht)is the confession of a wealthy member of the aristocratic society of the 1910 Vienna. He'll describe how his life has completely changed since a peculiar night. During a 6 hours period, this man has experienced the real life by secretly stealing money from a gambler, by frequenting the underground places of Vienna and the cheap prostitutes of the Prater. The intellectual and physical pleasure felt during these risky m...
Letter from an Unknown Woman
An Austrian writer receives a letter from an unknown woman on the day of his anniversary. This woman tells him that she knew him for 20 years now. As she was his neighbour as an 8 years old child, she fell madly in love with him, observing him secretly. Later, at age 18, she was one of his numerous mistresses for two or three nights and became pregnant. She didn't want to disturb him so she chose to be a courtesan in order to raise their son. She met him...
The Buried Candelabrum
THE BURIED CANDELABRUM has been first published in 1936. When the Menorah, the golden candelabrum of the Temple of Salomon, is robbed by the Vandals during the fall of Rome, the Jewish community is in a state of shock, particularly Benjamin who loses his arm while trying to touch the sacred object. 80 years later, the same Benjamin decides to sail to Byzantium in order to implore the emperor Justinian to give back to the Jews the candelabrum in exchan...
The Invisible Collection
During a 50 years period, a gentleman farmer has combined a fabulous collection of prints. Now, after WWI, because of galloping inflation, his family is terribly in need of money. The old man has become blind but is still checking his collection everyday. Little by little, his wife replaces unique pieces of the collection by blank sheets in order that the family survives the economical crisis. Her husband, unaware of this, still presents his collection t...
The Royal Game
THE ROYAL GAME (Die Schachnovelle) has been written in 1937. An austrian accountant/banker is arrested by the Gestapo who wants him to reveal the name of his clients. He's locked up in a Vienna hotel room for months with nobody to talk to between interrogations. He manages to rob a book about chess and soon fights his loneliness by playing chess mentally. This activity leads him on the border of schizophrenia. Two or three years later, once releas...
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS IN THE LIFE OF A WOMAN has been published in 1927. In Monaco, a wealthy widow, who's 42 years old, spends her spare time observing the hands of the gamblers. One night, she remarks a compulsive gambler, a young man who suddenly leaves the casino in a desperate state of mind. Fearing that he might commit suicide, she follows him and spends the night with him. The next day, the young man promises to her that he will give up his habit a...