The Society of the Crossed Keys: Selections from the Writings of Stefan Zweig, Inspirations for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Description

'I had never heard of Zweig until six or seven years ago, as all the books began to come back into print, and I more or less by chance bought a copy of Beware of Pity. I immediately loved this book, his one, big, great novel-and suddenly there weredozens more in front of me waiting to read.' - Wes Anderson The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson's selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel. A Conversation with Wes Anderson: Wes Anderson discusses Zweig's life and work with Zweig biographer George Prochnik. The World of Yesterday: Selected extracts from Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, an unrivalled evocation of bygone Europe. Beware of Pity: An extract from Zweig's only novel, a devastating depictionof the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love. Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman: One of Stefan Zweig's best-loved stories in full-a passionate tale of gambling, love and death, played out against the stylish backdrop of the French Riviera in the 1920s.

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and, between the wars was an international bestselling author. With the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath, New York and Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide. Wes Anderson's films include Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr Fox, and Moonrise Kingdom. He directed and wrote the screenplay for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved, as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed. -- David Hare Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read...a feverish, fascinating novel -- Antony Beevor One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories. -- Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes I defy anyone to read these tasters of Zweig's work without being compelled to read on. Pushkin might as well do their readers all a favour and sell The Society of the Crossed Keys with a complete Zweig back catalogue. Independent ...Anderson hasn't so much adapted Zweig's writings as channeled their spirit, reconstructed their atmospheres and taken up their major obsessions. Los Angeles Review of Books The Grand Budapest Hotel is distinctively and uniquely Zweigian. The Daily Beast Stefan Zweig refuses to go away and seems, in fact, poised for a major comeback... [Wes Anderson and George Prochnick's] spirited give-and-take serves as a lively introduction to the filmmaker's selection of texts TLS