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Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig
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Burning Secret (1913)

by Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell (Translator)

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4242058,751 (3.82)38
While being treated for asthma at a country spa, an American diplomat's lonely 12-year-old son is befriended and infatuated by a suave, mysterious baron. During a story of his war experiences, the baron reveals the scar of a wound from an American soldier and thrusts a pin through it, saying "see--no feeling." Little does the boy realize that it is his turn to be wounded. But soon his adored friend heartlessly brushes him aside and turns his seductive attentions to his mother. The boy's jealousy and feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable.… (more)
Member:christiguc
Title:Burning Secret
Authors:Stefan Zweig
Other authors:Anthea Bell (Translator)
Info:London: Pushkin Press, 2008.
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:fiction, male author, austrian, austria, jealousy, sanitoriums, pushkin press, bookshelf35, read2009

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Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig (1913)

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» See also 38 mentions

English (15)  Italian (2)  Esperanto (1)  German (1)  French (1)  All languages (20)
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
Over the past months I've read a number of Zweig's short stories and novellas and I've been struck by a common pattern. Zweig's settings and characters are almost invariably old-world Mitteleuropean but, on the other hand, the author's quasi-Freudian approach to analysing the conflicting emotions of his protagonists is very modern for its time. Zweig was writing against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the inter-war years and it seems that his books, with their internal friction between setting and style, reflect a feeling of flux, of being on the cusp of great upheavals, a tug-of-war between the old and the new.

"Burning Secret" is no exception. It tells of a member of the minor aristocracy, "the Baron", who is a guest at an Austrian hotel/sanatorium and who attempts to seduce a beautiful and seemingly well-off woman who is staying there with her twelve-year old son. The Baron at first successfully manipulates the son to get to the mother. The boy however soon realises that he is being used, and although he is still sexually innocent, he realises that the drama unfolding before him is part of a secret adult world to which he has not yet gained access. He spends the rest of the novella playing the "terzo incomodo", as the Italians say, getting a perverse kick out of thwarting the adults' attempts to spend time together.

The book is an often intense coming-of-age novella, a psychological study of an adolescent's roller-coaster of emotions and the mental turmoil which precedes young adulthood. Veteran translator Anthea Bell brilliantly conveys Zweig's highly-charged writing in this attractive Pushkin Collection edition. ( )
  JosephCamilleri | Feb 21, 2023 |
This story about an adult relationship observed from the perspective of an innocent but curious child is wonderful. The child's relationships with the adults in his life are examined too. Sweig is a great writer with an accessible style and sympathetic observations about his characters. Once started, it is hard to stop a Sweig story. My only issue is with the very last chapter which stretched credulity a little - surely someone would have gone out to search. ( )
  rosiezbanks | Feb 1, 2022 |
Over the past months I've read a number of Zweig's short stories and novellas and I've been struck by a common pattern. Zweig's settings and characters are almost invariably old-world Mitteleuropean but, on the other hand, the author's quasi-Freudian approach to analysing the conflicting emotions of his protagonists is very modern for its time. Zweig was writing against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the inter-war years and it seems that his books, with their internal friction between setting and style, reflect a feeling of flux, of being on the cusp of great upheavals, a tug-of-war between the old and the new.

"Burning Secret" is no exception. It tells of a member of the minor aristocracy, "the Baron", who is a guest at an Austrian hotel/sanatorium and who attempts to seduce a beautiful and seemingly well-off woman who is staying there with her twelve-year old son. The Baron at first successfully manipulates the son to get to the mother. The boy however soon realises that he is being used, and although he is still sexually innocent, he realises that the drama unfolding before him is part of a secret adult world to which he has not yet gained access. He spends the rest of the novella playing the "terzo incomodo", as the Italians say, getting a perverse kick out of thwarting the adults' attempts to spend time together.

The book is an often intense coming-of-age novella, a psychological study of an adolescent's roller-coaster of emotions and the mental turmoil which precedes young adulthood. Veteran translator Anthea Bell brilliantly conveys Zweig's highly-charged writing in this attractive Pushkin Collection edition. ( )
  JosephCamilleri | Jan 1, 2022 |
Five pretty powerful longish short stories.
The title story tells of an experienced seducer on a boring holiday; he entertains himself by befriending a lonely twelve-year old boy, with the aim of getting to the mother through the son. As the child realises the man's overtures of friendship were nothing but a ploy, he sets out to ruin the developing relationship, which he barely understands...
The other four stories all have a theme of madness or obsession:
-The Royal Game tells of a chess match during a cruise. The main protagonist is a stolid world champion...but his rival developed a fixation with the intricacies of the game while in lengthy solitary confinement.
-Amok also takes place on a ship, where the narrator encounters a doctor returning home from the colonies, after a tragedy This was for me the weakest of the collection, not ringing true at all.
-Fear was a BRILLIANT evocation of a well to do wife facing blackmail and possible exposure from a meaningless liaison. The constant terror, temptation to confess...was wonderfully conjured up.
-Letter from an Unknown Woman, while a tearjerker was, again, very OTT. A woman writes to an author- we must assume from the letter that she's already dead- and recalls their (brief) shared history. She was the young daughter of neighbours, adoring him from afar; later they had a brief liaison, meaning everything to her, while he never gave her another thought. The sadness of someone's entire life given up to a pretty worthless human being, while he has no recollection of her...
Pretty gripping read. ( )
  starbox | Mar 26, 2020 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stefan Zweigprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bell, AntheaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Picco, EmilioTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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The shrill whistle of the locomotive sounded; the train had reached Semmering.
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While being treated for asthma at a country spa, an American diplomat's lonely 12-year-old son is befriended and infatuated by a suave, mysterious baron. During a story of his war experiences, the baron reveals the scar of a wound from an American soldier and thrusts a pin through it, saying "see--no feeling." Little does the boy realize that it is his turn to be wounded. But soon his adored friend heartlessly brushes him aside and turns his seductive attentions to his mother. The boy's jealousy and feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable.

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