Messages from a Lost World: Europe on the Brink

Description

Stefan Zweig was a leading talisman of a united Europe of unfettered movement, of pro-active cultural exchange, humane decency and tolerance, all polar opposites of the Nationalist regimes he loathed, and which came to power in the 1930s. In these poignant essays and addresses, forged in the last years or even months of his life, he shows his profound concern for and dedication to the survival of Europe's spiritual integrity. These essays form the natural accompaniment to Zweig's renowned memoir The World of Yesterday, registering the same themes and evoking the same nostalgia for a world brutally consigned to history. They can be seen as a vital addendum to that major work or as a prefiguration. But perhaps even more so than the prose of the memoir, these essays, few in number but rich in content, reveal the essence of Zweig's thought.

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna, a member of a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a translator and later as a biographer. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and enjoying literary fame. His stories and novellas were collected in 1934. In the same year, with the rise of Nazism, he briefly moved to London, taking British citizenship. After a short period in New York, he settled in Brazil where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in bed in an apparent double suicide.

A necessary addition to any Zweig library. Independent One of liberalism's greatest defenders New Republic Zweig's impassioned pursuit of personal freedom seems more relevant than ever Newsweek At a time of monetary crisis and political disorder, of mounting border controls and barbed-wire fences... Zweig's celebration of the brotherhood of peoples reminds us that there is another way The Nation One major bonus of the volume is the introduction by Will Stone, translator of the "lost messages". Not only is his analysis of the 10 newly translated works masterly, but his translation is forceful and muscular European Literature Network Never had a book seemed more timely, more eloquent and persuasive, than this small collection of essays by Austrian novelist and man of letters, Stefan Zweig... it is writers like Stefan Zweig who act as watchdogs of civilisation itself, and who, with their culture spirit and love of humanity, guide the rest of us forward: beacons of light in a dark, dark night On Magazine The earliest pieces in Messages From a Lost World contain Zweig's musings on the spiritual impact of the war, written while it was still in progress and with no end in sight. They are the thoughts of a man trying to find his way out of what must have seemed a completely reasonable state of despair... in pieces from the 1920s and early '30s, Zweig takes it as a moral imperative to champion the cause of peace by reminding his readers and listeners that humanity could no longer afford the sort of belligerent nationalism that had led them into the Great War Inside Higher Ed Pushkin Press leads the Zweig revival... while it is disheartening to read these pieces today, knowing how Zweig's life ended, it is inspiring to see that they have been published. However defeated Zweig might appear to contemporary readers, however aloof or naive, his idea of the European soul is still worth defending... a source of insight into our troubled times The Northwest Review of Books Messages from a Lost World is ably translated... by Will Stone, making it an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to community and academic library collections. Messages from a Lost World is a lasting legacy for a new generation of readers from this memorable philosophy and dedicated historian Midwest Book Review If the world could be changed by elegantly expressed humanist sentiments, this passage, from a speech delivered in 1932, might have altered the course of history Education News