About the Author

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna, into a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a poet and translator, then as a biographer. Between the wars, Zweig was an international bestseller with a string of hugely popular novellas including Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok and Fear. In 1934, with the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath and New York - a period during which he produced his most celebrated works: his only novel, Beware of Pity, and his memoir, The World of Yesterday. He eventually settled in Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide. Much of his work is available from Pushkin Press.

Reviews

Vintage Zweig The Times Breathtaking ... the final sentence [of Burning Secret] is unlike anything I have ever read before -- Nicholas Lezard Guardian [A Chess Story is] perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game Economist Zweig's writing is some of the most brilliant of the 20th century. His novellas all begin so innocently. By the time they have ended, you feel he has prised you open, played with your own sympathies, and exposed you to your own imperfect humanity Independent A captivating mix...[Zweig] generates momentum out of extremes in thought and feeling, the turbulent negotiations between inner and exterior lives, but he is happiest in mixed feelings, in detecting minute alterations in head and heart Independent [Confusion is] a marvellously poised account of misunderstood motives, thwarted love, and sublimated desires -- Robert MacFarlane Times Literary Supplement Vintage Stefan Zweig-[Journey into the Past is] lucid, tender, powerful and compelling Independent [Fear is] brilliant, unusual and haunting ... Stefan Zweig's time of oblivion is over for good -- Salman Rushdie The New York Times A rediscovery of Zweig through this book gives an enlightening perspective on the past century and how we got where are today... As much in his novellas as in his short stories, the Austrian writer's psychological acuity brought his protagonists and their dilemmas vividly to life BlogCritics!