S. Zweig is known as a master of biographies and short stories. He created and developed his own models of a small genre, different from generally recognized norms. The works of Zweig Stefan are real literature with an elegant language, an impeccable plot and images of heroes, which impresses with its dynamics and demonstration of the movement of the human soul.
Writer's Family
S. Zweig was born in Vienna on November 28, 1881 in a family of Jewish bankers. Stefan's grandfather, the father of Ida Brettauer's mother, was a Vatican banker, and his father, Maurice Zweig, a millionaire, was engaged in the sale of textiles. The family was educated, the mother strictly raised the sons of Alfred and Stephen. The spiritual foundation of the family is theatrical performances, books, music. Despite numerous prohibitions, the boy from childhood valued personal freedom and achieved what he wanted.
The beginning of the creative path
He began to write early, the first articles appeared in the magazines of Vienna and Berlin in 1900. After the gymnasium, he entered the university at the Faculty of Philology, where he studied Germanic studies and romanism. As a freshman, he published a collection of Silver Strings. Composers M. Raeder and R. Strauss wrote music to his poems. At the same time, the first novels of the young author came out.
In 1904 he graduated from the University with a Ph.D. In the same year he published a collection of short stories, “The Love of Erica Ewald” and translations of poems by E. Verharn, a Belgian poet. The next two years, Zweig travels a lot - India, Europe, Indochina, America. During the war he writes anti-war works.
Zweig Stefan is trying to know life in all its diversity. Collects notes, manuscripts, objects of great people, as if he wants to know the course of their thoughts. At the same time, he does not shun the “outcasts”, homeless people, drug addicts, alcoholics, seeks to know their life. He reads a lot, gets acquainted with famous people - O. Roden, R. M. Rilke, E. Verkharn. They occupy a special place in the life of Zweig, influencing his work.
Personal life
In 1908, Stefan saw F. Winternitz, they exchanged glances, but for a long time remembered this meeting. Frederic was going through a difficult period, there was a close gap with her husband. A few years later they met by chance and, without even talking, recognized each other. After a second chance meeting, Frederic wrote him a letter full of dignity, where a young woman expresses her enthusiasm for Zweig's translations of “Flowers of Life”.
Before connecting their lives, they met for a long time, Frederic understood Stefan, warmly and carefully treated him. He is calm and joyful with her. Separated, they exchanged letters. Zweig Stefan is sincere in his feelings, he tells his wife about his experiences, the emerging depression. Spouses are happy. Having lived long and happy 18 years, in 1938 they divorced. Stephen will marry a year later his secretary Charlotte, betrayed to death to him, both literally and figuratively.
State of soul
Doctors periodically send Zweig to rest from "overwork". But he cannot fully rest, he is known, they recognize him. It is difficult to judge what the doctors meant by “overwork”, physical fatigue or mental, but the intervention of doctors was necessary. Zweig traveled a lot, Frederica had two children from her first marriage, and she could not always accompany her husband.
The life of a writer is filled with meetings, travels. The 50th anniversary is approaching. Zweig Stefan feels discomfort, even fear. He writes to his friend V. Flyasher that he is not afraid of anything, not even death, but that he is scared of illness and old age. Recalls the emotional crisis of L. Tolstoy: "The wife has become alien, the children are indifferent." It is not known whether Zweig had real grounds for alarm, but they were in his mind.
Emigration
The political situation in Europe has heated up. Unknown people searched the house of Zweig. The writer went to London, his wife stayed in Salzburg. Perhaps because of the children, perhaps, some problems remained to be solved. But judging by the letters, the relationship between them seemed warm. The writer became a British citizen, wrote tirelessly, but was sad: Hitler was gaining strength, everything was collapsing, genocide loomed. In May 1933, in Vienna, the writer's books were publicly burned at the stake.
Against the background of the political situation, personal drama also developed. The writer was scared by his age, he was full of worries about the future. In addition, emigration also affected. Despite apparently favorable circumstances, it requires a lot of mental effort from a person. Zweig Stefan was greeted with enthusiasm in England, America, and Brazil, kindly, his books were bought up. But I did not want to write. In a series of all these difficulties, a tragedy resulted in a divorce from Frederick.
In the last letters, a deep emotional crisis is felt: “The news from Europe is terrible,” “I will no longer see my home,” “I will be a temporary guest everywhere,” “it remains only to leave with dignity, quietly.” February 22, 1942 he passed away, taking a large dose of sleeping pills. Charlotte passed away with him.
Outstripping time
Zweig often created fascinating biographies at the intersection of art and document. He did not make them out into something completely artistic, neither documentary, nor true novels. The defining factor of Zweig in their compilation was not only his own literary taste, but also the general idea arising from his view of history. The heroes of the writer were people who overtook their time, rose above the crowd and opposed it. From 1920 to 1928, the three-volume “Peace Builders” was published.
- The first volume, Three Masters, about Dickens, Balzac, and Dostoevsky was published in 1920. So different writers in one book? The best explanation would be a quote from Stefan Zweig: the book shows them "as types of world portrayers who created in their novels a second reality along with the existing one."
- The author devoted the second book, The Fight Against Madness, to Kleist, Nietzsche, and Gelderlin (1925). Three geniuses, three fates. Each of them was driven by some supernatural force into a cyclone of passion. Under the influence of their demon, they experienced a bifurcation, when chaos pulls forward, and the soul back to humanity. They end their journey with madness or suicide.
- In 1928, the last volume, “Three Singers of Their Life,” was narrated, telling of Tolstoy, Stendhal and Casanov. The author did not accidentally combine these disparate names in one book. Each of them, no matter what he wrote, filled the works with his own “I”. Therefore, the names of the greatest master of French prose, Stendhal, the seeker and creator of the moral ideal of Tolstoy and the brilliant adventurer Casanova, stand side by side in this book.
In addition to this series, separate essays on R. Rolland (1921), Balzac (1946), and E. Verharn (1917) were published.
Human destinies
Zweig’s dramas “Comedian”, “City by the Sea”, “The Legend of One Life” did not bring stage success. But his historical novels and stories have won worldwide fame, they have been translated into many languages and reprinted repeatedly. In the stories of Stefan Zweig, the most intimate human experiences are tactfully and yet openly described. Zweig’s short stories are captivating, full of tension and tension.
The writer tirelessly convinces the reader that the human heart is defenseless, how incomprehensible human destinies are and what crimes or accomplishments are pushed by passion. These include unique, stylized medieval legends, psychological short stories “Street in the Moonlight”, “Letter from a Stranger”, “Fear”, “First Experience”. In “Twenty-Four Hours from a Woman’s Life,” the author describes a passion for profit, which can kill all life in a person.
In the same years, collections of short stories “Star Mankind” (1927), “Confusion of Senses” (1927), “Amok” (1922) were published. In 1934, Zweig was forced to emigrate. He lived in the UK, USA, the choice of the writer fell on Brazil. Here the writer publishes a collection of essays and speeches “Meet People” (1937), a piercing novel about unrequited love “Impatience of the heart” (1939) and “Magellan” (1938), memoirs “Yesterday's World” (1944).
Historical book
Separately, it must be said about the works of Zweig, in which historical figures became the heroes. In this case, the writer was alien to the speculation of any facts. He masterfully worked with documents, in any evidence, letter, memory, he sought out primarily the psychological background.
- The book “The Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam” includes essays and novels dedicated to scientists, travelers, thinkers Z. Freud, E. Rotterdam, A. Vespucci, Magellan.
- "Mary Stuart" by Stefan Zweig - the best biography of the tragically beautiful and eventful life of the Scottish queen. She is still full of unresolved mysteries.
- In Marie Antoinette, the author spoke about the tragic fate of the queen, executed by decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal. This is one of the most truthful and thoughtful novels. Marie Antoinette was pampered by the attention and admiration of the courtiers, her life is a series of pleasures. She did not suspect that outside the opera house there was a world mired in hatred and poverty, which threw her under the guillotine knife.
As readers write in their reviews of Stefan Zweig, all his works are incomparable. Each has its own shade, taste, life. Even read-re-read biographies as insights, as revelations. You read as if about a completely different person. There is something fantastic in the writing style of this writer - you feel the power of the word over yourself and drown in its all-consuming power. You understand that his work is fiction, but you can clearly see the hero, his feelings and thoughts.