Stefan Zweig La Confusion Des Sentiments Pdf
Free download or read online Brief einer Unbekannten pdf (ePUB) book. The first edition of this novel was published in 1922, and was written by Stefan Zweig. The book was published in multiple languages including German language, consists of 96 pages and is available in Paperback format. The main characters of this classics, fiction story are,. Free download or read online La Confusion des sentiments pdf (ePUB) book. The first edition of this novel was published in 1927, and was written by Stefan Zweig. The book was published in multiple languages including French language, consists of 124 pages and is available in Mass Market Paperback format. The main characters of this fiction, classics story are Roland,.
.music has rests as well as notes. (19)Master of the novella. Connoisseur of the human soul. His prose tears down the walls that separate the mind from the outside world. It finds its way towards the essence of being. And you will no longer inhabit your own body.
You become one of his characters, for better or for worse.A young man was wasting his life until he had a conversation with his father that enlightened his path. That is how he ended up assisting to a talk with a brilliant professor.music has rests as well as notes. (19)Master of the novella. Connoisseur of the human soul. His prose tears down the walls that separate the mind from the outside world. It finds its way towards the essence of being. And you will no longer inhabit your own body.
You become one of his characters, for better or for worse.A young man was wasting his life until he had a conversation with his father that enlightened his path. That is how he ended up assisting to a talk with a brilliant professor whose magnetic lecture bewitched his students with a fluent river of wisdom. Several lines are dedicated to convey that this professor is an excellent speaker, both concerning content and way of transmitting it.However, other reflections were shining among so many praises.These unruly and passionate hearts rage like lions, each trying to outdo the others in wild exuberance; all is permitted, all is allowed on stage: incest, murder, evildoing, crimes, the boundless tumult of human nature indulges in a heated orgy; as the hungry beasts once emerged from their cages, so do the inebriated passions now race into the wooden-walled arena, roaring and dangerous. It is a single outburst exploding like a petard, and it lasts for fifty years: a rush of blood, an ejaculation, a uniquely wild phenomenon prowling the world, seizing on it as its prey—in this orgy of power you can hardly hear individual voices or make out individual figures. Each strikes sparks off his neighbour, they learn and they steal from each other, they strive to outdo one another, to surpass each other’s achievement, yet they are all only intellectual gladiators in the same festive games, slaves unchained and urged on by the genius of the hour. Living respectable lives, ruffians, whore-masters, actors, swindlers, but poets, poets, poets every one. (18)A beautiful statement about writers and their issues.This story involves the relationship that develops between a married professor, a 'man who moved from hot to cold like a bright flash of lightning' (31), and a college student.When a person meets another, certain feelings start to wake.
Likability, love, respect, indifference, hatred. Everything is allowed.
The confusion begins when you can't really distinguish those feelings. A remarkable person often makes us feel admiration. A clever conversation reinforces the growing feeling of comfort. Looks can be in second place; intelligence and humor can conquer almost everything.
Then, and only then, we start pondering about what we are actually experiencing. Is love the sum of all those things? These reflections restlessly unleash a confusion of sentiments.
What clearly draws the enigmatic line between love and admiration, I wouldn't know.On one hand, we have an intense amount of feelings crying for attention and solutions. On the other hand, we have silence. Absence.Not that any tension or sense that they were at odds made itself felt in word or gesture: on the contrary, it was the absence of any such thing, the lack of any tension at all between them that enveloped them both so strangely and made their relationship opaque, a heavy silence of the feelings.
(29)There is a volcano of feelings waiting to erupt even in the quietest human being of all. You could hear the bustle of a colorful crowd just by taking a quick peek. A fervent desire of sharing everything you have inside.
The inability to do so because of some unknown obstacle with the strength to hold you back. The fear of exposing too much, perhaps. The art of isolation.Until you break.Ah, secret place of my memories, where the word became magical to me and I knew the intoxication and enchantment of the intellect as nowhere else.
(54)This book covers all grounds. Zweig's prose is as clear, insightful and magnificent as ever. The act of transforming emotions into words without losing intensity is something that this writer can accomplish effortlessly. There is music in his words. There is art.
Above all.Not just with application, my boy, but above all with passion. If you do not feel impassioned you’ll be a schoolmaster at best—one must approach these things from within and always, always with passion. (24)Passion for your work. But also the purest form of passion, the one that has to be tamed to be acceptable for others, until you realize. That is not living.Having in mind, I can stop playing chess now.June 22, 14. Also on.Note: I also read this edition. I prefer the English translation.
Just finished this little dark gem of a novella about forbidden love and suppressed sexuality. Starts slowly (and a bit wordy) but builds into a moving tale of torturous emotions. This is why I wish they had half stars as really it’s a 3.5 novella. As after a gently paced beginning, which took a little while to get into, it really grips you and forms one of the most vivid depictions of a mans struggle with his sexuality I’ve read. Just finished this little dark gem of a novella about forbidden love and suppressed sexuality.
Starts slowly (and a bit wordy) but builds into a moving tale of torturous emotions. This is why I wish they had half stars as really it’s a 3.5 novella. As after a gently paced beginning, which took a little while to get into, it really grips you and forms one of the most vivid depictions of a mans struggle with his sexuality I’ve read.
We live through myriads of seconds, yet it is always one, just one, that casts our entire inner world into turmoil.Roland, a well respected, older professor who holds an honored place in the ivory towers of academia, recalls his life as a young student, and his relationship to his own professor and mentor at that time- a man whom he admired, obsessed over and wanted to emulate. He replays memories of his situation as a university student, having had a horrific grievance with his father, renting We live through myriads of seconds, yet it is always one, just one, that casts our entire inner world into turmoil.Roland, a well respected, older professor who holds an honored place in the ivory towers of academia, recalls his life as a young student, and his relationship to his own professor and mentor at that time- a man whom he admired, obsessed over and wanted to emulate. He replays memories of his situation as a university student, having had a horrific grievance with his father, renting a room in his teacher's home and becoming his amanuensis.Roland discovers that being in such close proximity to his professor and his wife, deeply checked secrets become increasingly difficult to suppress. His confusion is borne from the innocence of a youth whose direction is often ambiguous in the face of inexperience: too naive to comprehend a sideways glance; too unsophisticated to decipher a muffled conversation or to interpret the slightest change of demeanor. This living arrangement becomes one of anxiety, mixed emotions, tension, and misunderstanding.What place had I reached?
I had sensed the secrets quite close, its hot breath already on my face, and now it had retreated again, but its shadow, its silent, opaque shadow still murmured in the air, I felt it as a dangerous presence in the house.While his wife manages the game of secrets with a deft hand, Roland's mentor lives in constant fear of his secret being revealed, especially in a society that keeps the 'perpetrator's' name on a 'certain list'.It isn't right, not a young student and his teacher, do you understand? One must keep one's distance.Such restrained passions do not fit comfortably in the conventional form of the period, and must be kept hushed up, closeted, hidden behind closed doors. The relationships between the three feverishly entangle into a discombobulated love triangle.It will soon be cleared up because I'm not letting him play with you and confuse you like that anymore. There must be an end to all this. He must finally learn to control himself. You're too good for his dangerous games.Zweig takes the reader into a turbulence of high-strung emotions, as crossed messages become haphazardly layered one on top the other.
He portrays Roland's fiery confusion as a pathogen, taking over the thoughts of one person who spreads its virulent toxins to the other.Nothing however is more arousing and intriguing to a young man than a teasing set of vague suspicions; the imagination usually wandering idly finds its quarry suddenly revealed to it, and is immediately agog with the newly discovered pleasure of the chase.plot isn't a contemporary one - outlooks have changed since the period this story was set; and by today's standards, it is basically nothing to be shocked. For that reason, it wouldn't completely excite the reader. However, it is another wonderful gem from Zweig's observations into human affects and relationships. It may be a bit disorienting and frenzied, but that was the whole purpose.Here's a little reggae ditty:We all got something to hide,We're all livin' a lie.What goes on behind closed doors?Nobody knows, nobody knows for sureby Lionize -First read 2012Re-read April 18th, 2014. A typical product of its era when the unconscious was only just discovered and writers started introducing characters that were tormented by hidden desires, nervous breakdowns, mental diseases. In that sense this novel is a bit outdated. The writing is superb, even in translation, with its long flowing sentences.
The story itself is rather predictable, more now than when it was published probably and the subject doesn't shock the reader any more (I hope!). Fortunately Zweig really tries to portr A typical product of its era when the unconscious was only just discovered and writers started introducing characters that were tormented by hidden desires, nervous breakdowns, mental diseases.
In that sense this novel is a bit outdated. The writing is superb, even in translation, with its long flowing sentences. The story itself is rather predictable, more now than when it was published probably and the subject doesn't shock the reader any more (I hope!). Fortunately Zweig really tries to portray the main character as honestly as was possible then. A peculiarity is that in the first chapter the old narrator realizes how limited biographies are as they can never reach into the hidden depths of the subject's soul. Is this Zweig speaking, the author of many biographies?
In the past couple of decades, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has gained a new-found readership in the English-speaking world. This is largely thanks to the impassioned advocacy of a handful of independent publishing houses. Foremost amongst these is Pushkin Press, which has published most of Zweig's work in new translations, the majority of them by award-winning translator Anthea Bell.Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as In the past couple of decades, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has gained a new-found readership in the English-speaking world.
This is largely thanks to the impassioned advocacy of a handful of independent publishing houses. Foremost amongst these is Pushkin Press, which has published most of Zweig's work in new translations, the majority of them by award-winning translator Anthea Bell.Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as facile and superficial. His novella Confusion should put such criticism to rest. The premise of the work is admittedly simple - a Privy Councillor who has dedicated his life to academia recalls the aging professor who, in his student days, kindled in him a love for learning. The (then) student’s instant and obsessive admiration for his teacher led him to take up lodgings in the same building where the professor lived with his young wife, and to assume the role of amanuensis/disciple to the older man. The novella effectively projects and dissects the “confusion of feelings” which this awkward triangular relationship gives rise to. Zweig’s interest in psychology, especially of the Freudian stamp, is evident in this novel’s insightful exploration of the mind-set of its characters and in the suppressed eroticism implied by words said and unsaid.I have elsewhere commented on my impression of Zweig as a “nostalgic” adrift in a rapidly changing world ( ) This 1927 novella is, however, very much of its time – not only in its psychological concerns, but also in its head-on approach to (what must then have been) a taboo subject.
If there is a harkening back to the 19th Century, it is in its rather overblown, melodramatic language – this, however, lends authenticity to the voice of the narrator who is, after all, an academic who has devoted his life to the study of past literature.This paperback edition of Confusion (in Anthea Bell’s brilliant translation) forms part of the attractively presented (and temptingly collectible) Pushkin Collection series. A slightly annoying narrator serving as a kind of amanuensis to a creative genius. He becomes obsessed, sublimated to the great, enigmatic man. Foreboding shadows creep in. And then a night in a rented room. Cinematic darkness, like music, falls.
A Confession.when suddenly, ashamed and dismayed, I stood before his self-forgetful figure, I felt as if it were only Wagner sitting there, a physical shell in Faust’s garmentAnd the underlying tension?: men loving men, altho Let’s see. A slightly annoying narrator serving as a kind of amanuensis to a creative genius. He becomes obsessed, sublimated to the great, enigmatic man. Foreboding shadows creep in. And then a night in a rented room.
Cinematic darkness, like music, falls. A Confession.when suddenly, ashamed and dismayed, I stood before his self-forgetful figure, I felt as if it were only Wagner sitting there, a physical shell in Faust’s garmentAnd the underlying tension?: men loving men, although not so subtle here. Oh, you Devil.Yes, this could be Doctor Faustus in novella form, and written twenty years before Mann’s work. Roland, the narrator, is a full participant in the plot, unlike Serenus, mostly an observer. And it is Roland’s story, his Confusion. Told in his voice, sounding in autobiography, this makes one wonder if there was more to Zweig’s tortured end than a certain coming conflagration.
It's easy to dismiss Zweig as a pre-chewed Proust or half-stewed Stendhal and those criticisms are probably more than fair. But I think it's wrong to say that despite the relatively saccharine moments that Zweig doesn't write interesting books. I like Zweig's books the way I like music like the Carpenters. Sure it's all pretty obvious and pointed at a very general audience but there's something so polished and easy to digest that it's hard to ignore the skill on display.
Zweig seems to have, at It's easy to dismiss Zweig as a pre-chewed Proust or half-stewed Stendhal and those criticisms are probably more than fair. But I think it's wrong to say that despite the relatively saccharine moments that Zweig doesn't write interesting books. I like Zweig's books the way I like music like the Carpenters. Sure it's all pretty obvious and pointed at a very general audience but there's something so polished and easy to digest that it's hard to ignore the skill on display. Zweig seems to have, at this point in his writing, found his stride - his formula. If you are reading Zweig for his psychological insight and you've already read Proust or Stendhal - you're going to leave this meal hungry - but if you're willing to go along for the ride - I think you'll enjoy the simple and insightful writing on display in Confusion. Zweig was a pop Stendhal the way I see it.
Stefan Zweig Books
I think I spent about three hours at most pouring through this - very little effort required - but I enjoyed the experience despite the fact that I was anything but intellectually challenged. I love Schoenberg - but it's Christmas time and I'd rather hear Christmas Portrait than Transfigured Night for a few weeks at least.
Zweig in this novel touches the taboo of his time and today: Homosexuality.A literature student, Roland, falls in a platonic love with his elderly philology professor at the university. The literary paragon’s personality diffuses into the blood and heart of Roland. This literary conquest is what will change the life of the Roland once and for all. He is baptized with religious faith and worship to the elderly man and reads night after day in order to be able to touch the spiritual world and the Zweig in this novel touches the taboo of his time and today: Homosexuality.A literature student, Roland, falls in a platonic love with his elderly philology professor at the university. The literary paragon’s personality diffuses into the blood and heart of Roland. This literary conquest is what will change the life of the Roland once and for all.
He is baptized with religious faith and worship to the elderly man and reads night after day in order to be able to touch the spiritual world and the knowledge of the man who he has become obsessed with.The narration of emotional explosions, events and mental states is masterful.It's hard to describe how capturing it feels to read about the emotions that almost tear the characters in Zweig's book into pieces. But it is so incredibly relatable & extenuating to descry the very elementary psychological feelings that rage within all of us with different strength.My first ever by Stefan Zweig and I wasn’t disappointed at all.“We live through myriads of seconds, yet it is always one, just one, that casts our entire inner world into turmoil, the second when the internal inflorescence, already steeped in every kind of fluid, condenses and crystallizes.”. A good novella - surprisingly generous in its sentiment and with some propulsive, anxious scenes. A paragraph toward the end, in particular, is worth clipping. But it is impossible to write about Confusion because the whole thing hinges on a secret that dominates most of the action. There are two main problems:1: For such a lean thing, exposition overly dominates.2: It has not aged well despite its forward-thinking. The hints are too broad, the implications too known.
This isn't Zweig's fault (I A good novella - surprisingly generous in its sentiment and with some propulsive, anxious scenes. A paragraph toward the end, in particular, is worth clipping. But it is impossible to write about Confusion because the whole thing hinges on a secret that dominates most of the action. There are two main problems:1: For such a lean thing, exposition overly dominates.2: It has not aged well despite its forward-thinking. The hints are too broad, the implications too known. This isn't Zweig's fault (I actually think the treatment of the secret is sort of remarkable), but it has a reduced impact on the modern reader.The frame narrative is great (albeit abandoned) and I was hugely excited until the action settles where it settles.
I also appreciated the look into 1920s academia. But what sets this well behind something like Chess Story is that there is no narrative turn. The introduction sells it like something out of a horror movie where the impact is known and anticipated and therefore all the more poignant. To which I respond: 'yeah, but.' For if one feels reverent passion even of a pure nature for a woman, it unconsciously strives for physical fulfilment; nature has created an image of ultimate union for it in the possession of the body-but how can a passion of the mind, offered by one man to another and impossible to fulfil, ever find complete satisfaction?I am very happy to have discovered Zweig thanks to a few of my GR friends (M. Sarki and Lee).
He's a very good writer, and I was completely at the mercy of this story the who For if one feels reverent passion even of a pure nature for a woman, it unconsciously strives for physical fulfilment; nature has created an image of ultimate union for it in the possession of the body-but how can a passion of the mind, offered by one man to another and impossible to fulfil, ever find complete satisfaction?I am very happy to have discovered Zweig thanks to a few of my GR friends (M. Sarki and Lee). He's a very good writer, and I was completely at the mercy of this story the whole time, even though it's a simple one, and if told by a less skilled writer, I would most likely have been unimpressed or even bored. I love that title 'Confusion' also, because it echoes back through the entire book, and you realize how it is really meant.
It's a short book, and anything else I say may give away too much. So just read it already. It's wonderful. I cannot help but leave the worlds created by Stefan Zweig with a mingled sense of despair, heartache, ambiguity, and hope.
I asked myself after finishing this novella why a tiny part of my heart can’t distance itself from this dangerous word when it is spending time with Stefan Zweig’s fiction? The answer lies in something that another enigmatically perceptive writer, Marcel Proust, wrote:“The power of our feelings often suppresses in us that faculty the immense importance of which we are I cannot help but leave the worlds created by Stefan Zweig with a mingled sense of despair, heartache, ambiguity, and hope. I asked myself after finishing this novella why a tiny part of my heart can’t distance itself from this dangerous word when it is spending time with Stefan Zweig’s fiction? The answer lies in something that another enigmatically perceptive writer, Marcel Proust, wrote:“The power of our feelings often suppresses in us that faculty the immense importance of which we are apt to overlook: the faculty of resignation.”Zweig’s incredibly immersive tales brighten the inner light of this faculty within me. This gut-wrenching tale is no different. It is one of the cruelest realizations of life that unless your heart has traversed through those unbearably painful paths of suffering and shame, your love.
Your ability to love another person cannot rest in the tender embrace of ‘heroism’. By the time this realization dawns upon us, tragedy has already struck, for we have also come face to face with another realization: passion and sensitivity are inextricably woven in the same cloth of. Either you resign to it, reveling in the absurdity, or else, you live as a shadow.Amidst all this, ‘Confusion’ is a fierce, fierce ode to literature, by a person whose inner world was so tumultuous and fiery that I would never have gathered the pluck to meet him in person! An absolute beaut of a book, written with a passion that can originate only in the most disturbing and anguished parts of one's heart. I shall recommend this book to every person of letters I meet.A sincere thank you to Anthea Bell for such profound translation.
A wonderful story of love and admiration. Zweig beautifully portrays the two different kinds of love,divine and lustful. The admiration that every teenager feels towards his/her teacher and the extremes to which one goes to get that teacher's attention is described in words not much different from what happens in the real world. Intensity of emotions is what marks every work of Zweig,in my opinion.
And that intensity is visible throughout the story. With Zweig,no emotion is simple,it's never jus A wonderful story of love and admiration. Zweig beautifully portrays the two different kinds of love,divine and lustful.
Chess Story Stefan Zweig Pdf
The admiration that every teenager feels towards his/her teacher and the extremes to which one goes to get that teacher's attention is described in words not much different from what happens in the real world. Intensity of emotions is what marks every work of Zweig,in my opinion. And that intensity is visible throughout the story. With Zweig,no emotion is simple,it's never just an emotion. He makes it so sophisticated and intense as if that one emotion justify one's existence at that point.
And that's why every work by Zweig leaves one in a tumult of emotions. You can't read it like any other book. You need to make sure that you won't be disturbed till you finish it and that you will be free for few hours after you finish it. Confusion is properly titled but I will get to that in a bit. As previously noted, Zweig has become one of my top ten favorite authors in just a short while (read 4 of his books now) and since I had even heard of him and the story of his life.Let me first deal with what is to some an argumentative topic. Confusion falls within a genre that I would call literary fiction. There are some who will talk exception to this distinction but I did borrow it from The Storied Life of A.
Zweig's w Confusion is properly titled but I will get to that in a bit. As previously noted, Zweig has become one of my top ten favorite authors in just a short while (read 4 of his books now) and since I had even heard of him and the story of his life.Let me first deal with what is to some an argumentative topic. Confusion falls within a genre that I would call literary fiction. There are some who will talk exception to this distinction but I did borrow it from The Storied Life of A. Zweig's writing is exceptionally beautifully and an excellent example of literary fiction as the following example passages show.' For this remarkable man constructed it all out of his musicality of feeling: he always needed some vibrant note to set his ideas flowing. Usually it was an image, a bold metaphor, a situation visualized in three dimension which he extended into a dramatic scene, involuntarily working himself up as he went rapidly along.
Something of all that is grandly natural in creativity would often flash from the swift radiance of these improvisations; I remember lines that seemed to be from a poem in iambic metre, others that poured out like cataracts in magnificently compressed enumerations.' 'All this is forty years ago, yet still today, when I am in the middle of a lecture and what I am saying breaks free from me and spreads its wings, I am suddenly, self-consciously aware that it is not I myself speaking, but someone else, as it were, out of my mouth.
Then I recognize the voice of the beloved dead, who now has breath only on my lips: when enthusiasms comes over me, he and I are one. And I know that those hours formed me.' 'One can't have literary comprehension without real experience, mere grammatical knowledge of the words is useless without recognition of their values. You should begin by hearing the language in the mouths of the poets who create and perfect it, you must feel warm and alive in your hearts before we start anatomizing it.' One of the aspects that has impressed me about Zweig was been his willingness at an early time (early 20th century) to take on subjects of social controversy.
And he did so in a less than progressive and highly conservative country (Germany). Such subjects include abortion (Amok), homosexuality (Confusion) and unrequited love (Letters from an Unknown Woman). Confusion strongly touches upon the subject of homosexuality in terms of discrimination, conflicts with heterosexuality, marriage, and personal stress (hence the well-worded title). Our protagonist's teachers' wife says 'It will soon be cleared up, because I am not letting him play with you and confuse emphasis! you like that anymore.
There must be an end to all this; he must finally learn to control himself. You're too good for his dangerous games. Don't torment yourself; believe me, he doesn't deserve it. And that almost inaudibly whispered remark struck pain into my almost pacified heart once more.' Another mention of confusion is 'Jealous rage rose more and more grimly within me, once again I dully felt my foolishly confused desire to do something to harm him, something hateful.
A kind of fear came over me, a fear of myself and the vague turmoil of hatred within me, and I wanted to refuse go downstairs to dinner with his teacher's wife. But cravenly, I did not venture to say no.' I won't go any further (and perhaps you are cheering at this point if you have come to it) but I will leave you to consider this read by yourself. If anything, you can be the 4th person to have read and entered a review on Goodreads. I was the third and Confusion currently carries a 5 star rating, obviously the highest possible.One last aside. I am not sure what relevance it has but we do not learn the name of our protagonist (Roland) until page 110!
And we never learn the names of his professor or the professor's wife. The absence of the professor's name seems obviously intentional as Roland seeks to hide the identity of his teacher. Notwithstanding that, it seems like everyone (and Roland is the last to learn) knows of the professor's predilections. Not quite sure what to think about Zweig really.
In a way, he is a really good story teller, and this is a gripping story. In another way, he is a pretty terrible writer. I feel like he adds phrases on to sentences that just repeat what he has already said. And repetition is a real problem. I think I read the word 'confusion' in this book at least 50 times.But he does continue a German tradition of highly emotional, romantic writing. Before this I read Goethe and I Not quite sure what to think about Zweig really.
In a way, he is a really good story teller, and this is a gripping story. In another way, he is a pretty terrible writer. I feel like he adds phrases on to sentences that just repeat what he has already said. And repetition is a real problem.
I think I read the word 'confusion' in this book at least 50 times.But he does continue a German tradition of highly emotional, romantic writing. Before this I read Goethe and I can see the link. Though Goethe was a lot more original and interesting, which is pretty impressive for someone writing 200 years earlier. The other problem I have with this book is the absolute information the author gives on the protagonists thoughts; we literally know every motive, thought, and desire (unconscious or not).
He even spends a lot of time describing peoples faces in a way that lets us know what they are thinking at that moment. Which gets a bit old I must say.However I actually did like the book, and funnily enough, partially because of my above criticism. Much of the strength comes from the tension between our complete over-knowledge of the student Rolland's mind, and the absolute absence of knowledge on the professor and his wife. Also, in regards to the somewhat extra writing that Zweig embarks on here, there is also plenty of wonderful sentences that one recognizes as being really amazing while reading. This are the kind of sentences wannabe authors blog on Tumblr. And I have nothing against psychological novels, I think it is a really important way to think about characters and dialog and action and all that.
And in Confusion Zweig shows once again he is a master of that. This novella by Stefan Zweig starts slowly with the story of Roland, a young college student who acts likewella college student. He skips class, lies to his family about it to pocket the cash he gets from them, and sleeps with anything with a pulse. He’s cocky, uninterested in anything outside of his own urges and impulses and is generally pretty unlikable.That is, until Roland’s dad forces him back into school and he encounters a new and hypnotic professor.
From that moment on, Roland is t This novella by Stefan Zweig starts slowly with the story of Roland, a young college student who acts likewella college student. He skips class, lies to his family about it to pocket the cash he gets from them, and sleeps with anything with a pulse. He’s cocky, uninterested in anything outside of his own urges and impulses and is generally pretty unlikable.That is, until Roland’s dad forces him back into school and he encounters a new and hypnotic professor. From that moment on, Roland is transfixed by his presence and his life becomes inextricable linked with that of his professor, with far reaching consequences for them both.As in most of Zweig’s stories, action takes a backseat to the inner world and torment of his characters. In Roland and the professor (as well as the professor’s wife) we see people seemingly in control on the outside but frantically trying to hold their worlds together internally. This tension is what makes this story so compelling and by the story’s end, exhausting. As a writer, there were few better than Zweig than understanding the inner turmoil of men and women and that ability is on full display here.
I can’t say this story is enjoyable, the subject matter prohibits me from using that particular adjective, but it is always compelling. Zweig aside from being a great writer, writes as a gifted author that understands the human psyche and human behavior. As opposed to a Psychologist that is a author, Zweig is a author first.If you are into Austrian lit(story takes place in Germany/author Austrian) this is a fascinating look at homoerotic behavior-over simplification. As in most Zweig his writing is elegant and straight forward and your deeper thinkers(not that I am in that camp) will draw out deeper meaning in the relationships Zweig aside from being a great writer, writes as a gifted author that understands the human psyche and human behavior. As opposed to a Psychologist that is a author, Zweig is a author first.If you are into Austrian lit(story takes place in Germany/author Austrian) this is a fascinating look at homoerotic behavior-over simplification. As in most Zweig his writing is elegant and straight forward and your deeper thinkers(not that I am in that camp) will draw out deeper meaning in the relationships, characters and inherent tensions. I am not confused about Confusion.
It is a beautiful story, brilliantly crafted, with Zweig's usual 'economy and subtlety', as Robert MacFarlane was quoted on the book jacket. There are numerous great expressions, such as 'intellectual gladiators' to describe academics. I will need to reread just to capture and savor again the highlights of his prose. Part way through the story, we can imagine what the outcome is, but Zweig still surprised me and gave such power and emotion to the ending that it I am not confused about Confusion. It is a beautiful story, brilliantly crafted, with Zweig's usual 'economy and subtlety', as Robert MacFarlane was quoted on the book jacket. There are numerous great expressions, such as 'intellectual gladiators' to describe academics.
I will need to reread just to capture and savor again the highlights of his prose. Part way through the story, we can imagine what the outcome is, but Zweig still surprised me and gave such power and emotion to the ending that it was as if I had been transported into the main character's heart. All the novels and books of this writer of the German language are great, powerful pieces of literature. This one, about the confusing feelings a teacher feels for a young man, is one of his most brilliant and remains as relevant today as it was decades ago. It's short (as are a lot of Zweig's writings), simply told, yet deeply complex in what it portrays (the passion that consumates a man who struggles with what he feels), and beautifully compassionate.
Zweig deserves every bit to be as famous All the novels and books of this writer of the German language are great, powerful pieces of literature. This one, about the confusing feelings a teacher feels for a young man, is one of his most brilliant and remains as relevant today as it was decades ago. It's short (as are a lot of Zweig's writings), simply told, yet deeply complex in what it portrays (the passion that consumates a man who struggles with what he feels), and beautifully compassionate. Zweig deserves every bit to be as famous today as he was in his time: he's a literary giant.
“We live through myriads of seconds, yet it is always one, just one, that casts our entire inner world into turmoil, the second when (as Stendhal has described it) the internal inflorescence, already steeped in every kind of fluid, condenses and crystallizes—a magical second, like the moment of generation, and like that moment concealed in the warm interior of the individual life, invisible, untouchable, beyond the reach of feeling, a secret experienced alone. No algebra of the mind can calculate it, no alchemy of premonition divine it, and it can seldom perceive itself.”—.