The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig

What can be added to Stefan Zweig's reputation eighty later? His stories convey a Europe of another time but do people really change?Superb stories that are worth sharing

Zweig was a great writer---"Beware of Pity" is one of the great novels, a humanist document about the problem of human weakness---even though you try to do good things. These short stories are very good---but only after Zweig found his voice, in my view. Some of the early ones trade in romantic hysteria---but the later ones have a kind of deadpan fatalism that is incredible moving. I especially liked "The Governess," "The Star Above the Forest", and "The Invisible Collection"--- and, of course the often-anthologized "Mendel The Bibliophile." Wonderful stories---worth reading.

Stories, some short, some long, centered around the Europe of the inter-war period, mainly in Austria, including an interesting story set in Bath (England): all told by a prose master fascinated with obsessive-compulsive behavior (a subject appropriate for our times), but mainly dwelling on the grand decline and fall of the grand Strauss-Hungarian empire. (See also R. Musil, I.B. Singer, J.Roth, K. Paustovsky, A.Y. Agnon, et al.) Also read the author's autobiography with its portraits of the great artists and writers of the first half of the twentieth century (you can't believe who visited his mountain retreat outside Salzburg). This edition offers an excellent translation from our author's excellent German prose.

Evert story worthy of a good discussion.

Interesting stories, beautifully written.