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Maryana's Reviews > The World of Yesterday
The World of Yesterday
by
Stefan Zweig believed in a world beyond borders, but he became defined by them. Knowing the author's fate and the depressing reality of those times (oh and present times), this memoir is heartbreaking, yet full of human decency and, dare I say, hope.
�/5
by
Maryana's review
bookshelves: favorites, time-and-memory, spirit-of-place, identities, memoir-journal
Oct 02, 2022
bookshelves: favorites, time-and-memory, spirit-of-place, identities, memoir-journal
Even from the abyss of horror in which we try to feel our way today, half-blind, our hearts distraught and shattered, I look up again and again to the ancient constellations that shone on my childhood, comforting myself with the inherited confidence that, some day, this relapse will appear only an interval in the eternal rhythm of progress onward and upward.
Stefan Zweig believed in a world beyond borders, but he became defined by them. Knowing the author's fate and the depressing reality of those times (oh and present times), this memoir is heartbreaking, yet full of human decency and, dare I say, hope.
�/5
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Reading Progress
February 22, 2022
– Shelved
February 22, 2022
– Shelved as:
to-read
July 5, 2022
–
Started Reading
July 5, 2022
–
5.0%
"Even from the abyss of horror in which we try to feel our way today, half-blind, our hearts distraught and shattered, I look up again and again to the ancient constellations that shone on my childhood, comforting myself with the inherited confidence that, some day, this relapse will appear only an interval in the eternal rhythm of progress onward and upward."
July 12, 2022
–
20.0%
"There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?"
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?"
August 3, 2022
–
45.0%
"Have a look at Stefan Zweig’s denunciation of the idea of Lebensraum, a need for the new "living space� in Germany from 1890s to the 1940s: apparently innocuous language and ideas which turn out to be no more than gaslighting methods many bullies use in order to justify their violence.
And this reminds me of the nauseating Russian neo imperialist fallacy of russkiy mir."
And this reminds me of the nauseating Russian neo imperialist fallacy of russkiy mir."
September 14, 2022
–
60.0%
"The first thing I had sung in school was the national anthem, and later I had taken a military oath promising “obedience on land, at sea and in the air� to the man in civilian clothing who was now looking out of the train, grave and thoughtful.
Stefan Zweig coincidentally witnessing the emperor leaving old Austria. The author states that this moment is “shattering�, but somehow it is ironic."
Stefan Zweig coincidentally witnessing the emperor leaving old Austria. The author states that this moment is “shattering�, but somehow it is ironic."
October 2, 2022
–
Finished Reading
November 14, 2022
– Shelved as:
favorites
November 20, 2022
– Shelved as:
time-and-memory
June 19, 2023
– Shelved as:
spirit-of-place
June 21, 2023
– Shelved as:
identities
June 21, 2023
– Shelved as:
memoir-journal
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
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Paulo wrote: "Stefan Zweig believed in a world beyond borders, but he became defined by them. To "defined", I would add "executed"!
No conclusion was ever reached as to the exact roots of his suicide. Still, r..."
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you, Paulo. Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Zweig’s feeling of disillusionment must have been crushing.
Oh, I think that even his portrayal of Vienna of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is incredibly romanticized. On the other hand, I understand that he saw it as a dreamland, especially when compared to the world order (or disorder!) that followed after. And I admire his sense of pacifism and cosmopolitanism. By the way, I have just read City of Lions, where Józef Wittlin’s portrayal of the city of Lviv, when it belonged to Galicia, another “jewel� in the crown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, reminded me of Zweig’s Vienna, the same idyllic cosmopolitan environment.
“Beware of Pity� is high on my TBR list, meanwhile I’ve enjoyed his short fiction such as “Chess�, “Amok�, and “Letter from an Unknown Woman�. “Deceptively simple� is a great way to put it! I believe his writing can appeal to a wide range of readers. It feels quite polished, something he “confirms� in his memoir: If I have mastered any kind of art, it is the art of leaving things out. I do not mind throwing eight hundred of a thousand written pages into the wastepaper basket, leaving me with only two hundred to convey what I have sifted out as the essence of the work.
And speaking about Austrians, it’s baffling to think that it was basically the same environment that “created� Hitler.
To "defined", I would add "executed"!
No conclusion was ever reached as to the exact roots of his suicide. Still, regardless of what he said about Brazil (a naive and superficial view), exile weighed heavily on him.
My inner crisis consists in that I am not able to identify myself with the me of passport, the self of exile
Did you already read "Beware of the Pity? It is a deceptively simple little novel because the motivating psychology buried beneath mundane appearances is worthy of the attention of Freud or, mostly in my opinion, Jung.
These damn Austrians never do anything simple.😊
I like "Amok" a lot.