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Loading... Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R. von D. (1927)by Stefan Zweig
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. To kick off #NovellasInNovember, here's a classic masterpiece from Stefan Zweig. Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. One of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world, he fled the rise of fascism in 1934, first to England, then to New York and finally to Brazil, where he and his wife committed suicide in 1942. Zweig was prolific across nonfiction and biography but is best known for his short fiction:
Confusion is remarkable for its portrait of repressed sexuality. It's the story of a young man called Roland and his English professor, a relationship which turns out to be fraught with suppressed desire. Initially Roland is infatuated intellectually — it is this professor who transforms him from an idle young wastrel into a passionate enthusiast of literature (which becomes his own career). He takes lodgings near the professor and is welcomed into his home, where he soon discovers that the professor's marriage is a sham. He and his wife live together, and share meals at which Roland is present, but they never speak to or about each other. Readers realise what's going on before Roland does. The professor deals with his attraction to his young students by being warm and affectionate sometimes, while brusque and unkind at others in order to resist temptation. How I suffered from this man who moved from hot to cold like a bright flash of lightning, who unknowingly inflamed me, only to pour frosty water over me all of a sudden, whose exuberant mind spurred on my own, only to lash me with irony—I had a terrible feeling that the closer I tried to come to him, the more harshly, even fearfully he repelled me. Nothing could, nothing must approach him and his secret. The professor's wife is under no illusions. To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/01/confusion-by-stefan-zweig-translated-by-anth... To keep it short, Zweig's prose (which actually took me by surprise after trudging through the lifeless heap of words that is The Glass Bead Game) and story-telling trumps the predictable ending (which wasn't to my liking). My 2nd Zweig novella, and this guy continues to captivate me. Definitely asking for more Zweig! In the past couple of decades, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has gained a new-found readership in the English-speaking world. This is largely thanks to the impassioned advocacy of a handful of independent publishing houses. Foremost amongst these is Pushkin Press, which has published most of Zweig's work in new translations, the majority of them by award-winning translator Anthea Bell. Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as facile and superficial. His novella Confusion should put such criticism to rest. The premise of the work is admittedly simple - a Privy Councillor who has dedicated his life to academia recalls the aging professor who, in his student days, kindled in him a love for learning. The (then) student’s instant and obsessive admiration for his teacher led him to take up lodgings in the same building where the professor lived with his young wife, and to assume the role of amanuensis/disciple to the older man. The novella effectively projects and dissects the “confusion of feelings” which this awkward triangular relationship gives rise to. Zweig’s interest in psychology, especially of the Freudian stamp, is evident in this novel’s insightful exploration of the mind-set of its characters and in the suppressed eroticism implied by words said and unsaid. I have elsewhere commented on my impression of Zweig as a “nostalgic” adrift in a rapidly changing world ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1673924203 ) This 1927 novella is, however, very much of its time – not only in its psychological concerns, but also in its head-on approach to (what must then have been) a taboo subject. If there is a harkening back to the 19th Century, it is in its rather overblown, melodramatic language – this, however, lends authenticity to the voice of the narrator who is, after all, an academic who has devoted his life to the study of past literature. This paperback edition of Confusion (in Anthea Bell’s brilliant translation) forms part of the attractively presented (and temptingly collectible) Pushkin Collection series. This novella explores the relationship between a young university student and his professor. The student is completely enamored of this professor's ideas and life and the professor quickly adopts him in return. He finds a flat in the same boarding house and starts spending every day with the Professor and his young wife. This novella captures a brief time period, probably only one semester, and is intense and dramatic. I enjoyed this, but sometimes when I read a novel of this length I leave unsatisfied. I feel like there was more that could have been explored here. There's no denying, though, that Zweig's writing is excellent. no reviews | add a review
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An NYRB Classics Original Stefan Zweig was particularly drawn to the novella, and" Confusion," a rigorous and yet transporting dramatization of the conflict between the heart and the mind, is among his supreme achievements in the form. A young man who is rapidly going to the dogs in Berlin is packed off by his father to a university in a sleepy provincial town. There a brilliant lecture awakens in him a wild passion for learning--as well as a peculiarly intense fascination with the graying professor who gave the talk. The student grows close to the professor, be-coming a regular visitor to the apartment he shares with his much younger wife. He takes it upon himself to urge his teacher to finish the great work of scholarship that he has been laboring at for years and even offers to help him in any way he can. The professor welcomes the young man's attentions, at least on some days. On others, he rages without apparent reason or turns away from his disciple with cold scorn. The young man is baffled, wounded. He cannot understand. But the wife understands. She understands perfectly. And one way or another she will help him to understand too. No library descriptions found.
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Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as facile and superficial. His novella Confusion should put such criticism to rest. The premise of the work is admittedly simple - a Privy Councillor who has dedicated his life to academia recalls the aging professor who, in his student days, kindled in him a love for learning. The (then) student’s instant and obsessive admiration for his teacher led him to take up lodgings in the same building where the professor lived with his young wife, and to assume the role of amanuensis/disciple to the older man. The novella effectively projects and dissects the “confusion of feelings” which this awkward triangular relationship gives rise to. Zweig’s interest in psychology, especially of the Freudian stamp, is evident in this novel’s insightful exploration of the mind-set of its characters and in the suppressed eroticism implied by words said and unsaid.
I have elsewhere commented on my impression of Zweig as a “nostalgic” adrift in a rapidly changing world ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1673924203 ) This 1927 novella is, however, very much of its time – not only in its psychological concerns, but also in its head-on approach to (what must then have been) a taboo subject. If there is a harkening back to the 19th Century, it is in its rather overblown, melodramatic language – this, however, lends authenticity to the voice of the narrator who is, after all, an academic who has devoted his life to the study of past literature.
This paperback edition of Confusion (in Anthea Bell’s brilliant translation) forms part of the attractively presented (and temptingly collectible) Pushkin Collection series. ( )