Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig

Brilliant and dreadful; I imagine that Wes Anderson (Grand Budapest Hotel) does him best - intense and parodic at once.  Zweig is insistently 19th century - I am reminded of Turgenev, slow detailed, soft - with moments of high, almost too high drama.  He is also informed by 20th century thinking; an acquaintance of Freud, he believed that the sexual liberation taking place around him was actual and transformational liberation.  I have read a novel, Beware of Pity, two novellas - Chess and Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, and an extract from his autobiography - The World of Yesterday.  At times I was amazed - this guy really understands stuff; wow!!!!!!, that is exactly what should have happened, how did he do that.  At other times, labouring in details that might have been skipped, condensed, I was genuinely bored - "got the message, Zweig; get on with it."  Zweig made his early reputation translating the work of poets.  My temptation then is to recommend his work to up-and-coming writers who will translate his writings into good, solid, masterpiececal brilliance.  Alternatively, just have a go; at the end of each book, I felt that the time allowed to reading it had been rescued, made worthwhile.

I have just read the most amazing, inspiring book. In my last Pilchards Books blog, I talked about The Grand Budapest Hotel, inspired by the author Stefan Zweig and directed by Wes Anderson. I have just finished Stefan Zweig's novella, Chess. It is a masterpiece. The emotions, the history, the narrative, are so gripping! I wish everyone would read this book! I wish it was an exam text! It is about chess, but the game is applied in a way, I had never imagined, as a coping mechanism in the time of World War Two, an avoidance to mental torture. It isn't an easy tale, but it is just so thought provoking, describing the power of the mind when dealing with dreadful circumstances. Not only the power of the mind, but the importance of books as a means of mental stimulation. Imagine being locked in a room, day in, day out, with no books, paper, or pens,  no view, no conversation...nothing to stimulate the mind. This book makes you realise how terrible this really is, and how lucky we are.

Fascinating fact! Anthea Bell is the translator for Stefan Zweig's books and my beloved Asterix and Obelix comic book collection! What a discovery!!!