The Governess and Other Stories (Pushkin Collection) - Softcover

Stefan Zweig; Anthea Bell (translator)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906548358 ISBN 13: 9781906548353

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2010

Synopsis

An eclectic collection of four brilliant stories, including a Renaissance tragedy and an English whodunit

These four stories illustrate the wide range of Zweig's subject matter dating from quite early in his career as a writer of fiction (The Governess, rooted in a world of strict Edwardian morality), to late (Did He Do It?, almost an English detective story set near Bath, where Zweig lived in exile). In addition The Miracles of Life, set in 16th-century Antwerp during the time of Protestant iconoclasm, and Downfall of a Heart both address the theme of anti-Semitism.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was born 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. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and 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 moved to London, where he wrote his only novel Beware of Pity. He later moved on to Bath, taking British citizenship after the outbreak of the Second World War. With the fall of France in 1940 Zweig left Britain for New York, before settling 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.

About this title

Review:

Zweig is the most adult of writers; civilised, urbane, but never jaded or cynical; a realist who none the less believed in the possibility—the necessity—of empathy (The Independent)

Zweig’s genius as a storyteller encompasses the brainy as well as those of average intelligence, the very rich and the desperately poor. He deserves to be famous again, and for good (The Times Literary Supplement)

To read Zweig is to be in the presence of a properly mature writer, for all that his characters are often in the grip of highly inappropriate desires (The Guardian)

One hardly knows where to begin in praising Zweig’s work. One gets the impression that he actively preferred to write about women, and about the great moral crises that send shivers down the spines of polite society (Nicholas Lezard The Guardian)

In the 1920s and 30s, Stefan Zweig was one of the most famous writers in the world. Thanks to the enterprising Pushkin Press, it is now possible to read the novellas on which his reputation must finally depend (Paul Bailey Times Literary Supplement)

Fortunately, the Pushkin Press has been publishing some of Zweig’s works in fluent translations and handsome editions ... My advice is that you should go out at once and buy his books (Anthony Daniels The Sunday Telegraph)

About the Author:

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was born 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. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and 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 moved to London, where he wrote his only novel Beware of Pity. He later moved on to Bath, taking British citizenship after the outbreak of the Second World War. With the fall of France in 1940 Zweig left Britain for New York, before settling 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1906548358
• ISBN 13: 9781906548353
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176