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Loading... Three Lives: A Biography of Stefan Zweig (2006)by Oliver Matuschek
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Though I enjoyed reading this very much and feel I have a better understanding of Stefan Zweig, I do not feel a review of this book imminent or necessary. It would be my suggestion to continue to read everything by and about this interesting writer and person. Ultimately it is a sad tale mostly due to the environment Zweig found himself in. There was no place left to go to escape the ravages of the second world war and in his mind he would never be able to ever go back home. This is a biography of Stefan Zweig, translated from the German. As the author explains in the introduction, Zweig's own autobiography (The World of Yesterday) is really a book about the times he lived through and has little of the personal information one might expect -- for example, his wife is mentioned only once, and not by name. The other main source of biographical information, written by Fredirike Zeig, his first wife, has some biases. Three Lives (which was Zweig's original title for The World of Yesterday, and which ends abruptly at the start of WW2) fills in some of these gaps and takes his life forward into WW2 until his suicide in 1942. If you have read TWoY, there will be some repetition, but it does serve to create a better understanding of the man, his motivations, his working methods, his importance as a writer and collector of manuscripts. It also goes on to his more troubled life through WW2 and his eventual move to live in Brazil. The book ends with his valedictory letter to his first wife -- whilst tragic, by the end of the book one can sympathise with his despair have some understanding of his need to take his life A readable biography about the still enigmatic life of Stefan Zweig. It follows Zweig's own classic Die Welt von Gestern in dividing his life into three parts (pre-WWI/Vienna 9 chapters; Interwar/Salzburg 4 chapters; Exile 3 chapters). While it sheds new light on Zweig's relations with his first wife and his stepdaughters, it is fairly quiet about Zweig's second wife and the allegations of homosexuality. About the latter, the author includes a number of insinuations and asides but does not commit himself. I wish the author had presented and discussed the case more thoroughly. Zweig and then modern technology (ie electricity, cars and radio) is also a topic used primarily for funny asides instead of discussion. Overall, a good but not lasting work. no reviews | add a review
A new paperback edition of the only biography in English of Stefan Zweig No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)833.912Literature German and related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Politically Zweig was a pacifist, a believer in a united Europe, and a dedicated humanist. The tragedies of the 20th century knocked him off balance. In a way the current European Union is an effort to recover his kind of vision of a peaceful, united, cultured world. His vision endured. Matuschek's calm, accurate, detailed account of his life treats everyone in his circle evenhandedly and sympathetically. Even the literary spats are put in a balanced context. tI consider Matuschek's biography a quiet humanist masterpiece, documented with archives in a way Zweig would have appreciated. ( )