This is my third and final post for this year’s German Literature Month hosted by Caroline from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy from Lizzy’s Literary Life.
I think I first heard of Stefan Zweig through a comment made by Peter Hall in his book ‘Cities in Civilization‘, in which Hall talks about Vienna and its culture and architecture and mentions Stefan Zweig’s thoughts on Viennese culture at the beginning of the 20th century. I still can’t believe that I remember that, but happily I do. Later, I read one of Zweig’s short stories in an anthology. I then got his book ‘The World of Yesterday‘ and read the first fifty pages and loved it, but got distracted and kept it aside for a rainy day. I thought that I will get back to it one day and also read other Stefan Zweig books. I have still not got back to that book, but I discovered this story collection ‘A Game of Chess and other stories‘ and so I thought I will read this first.
‘A Game of Chess and other stories‘ has four stories – two of them are short stories and two of them are novellas. The first story ‘The Invisible Collection‘ is about an art dealer who goes to visit a longtime client. He has never met this client, but has been impressed by this client’s wisdom because he has collected little known pieces of art across the years which have gone on to become extremely valuable. Of course, when he actually meets that client, he ends up in an unusual situation. I can’t tell you more – you should read the story.
The second story is a novella called ‘Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life‘. In this story, a few people are holidaying in the Riviera. They don’t know each other originally, but get to know each other because they are staying in the same guesthouse. They have interesting cultural and intellectual conversations everyday and some of them even play tennis. At one point the wife of one person elopes with one of the guests. Most of the people are critical of the woman and call her irresponsible. But the narrator of the story takes her side and says that given the right circumstances, anyone can break the prevailing social rules and fall in love or get attracted to a stranger. This leads to a lot of heated debate. Then one of the older women takes aside the narrator, asks to speak with him privately and tells him the story of what happened one day in her life many years back. The forms the major part of the story.
The third story, ‘Incident on Lake Geneva‘ is about a stranger who ends up in the shores of Lake Geneva and the people of the town don’t know what to do with him as he speaks a strange language and it is war time. Who he is and what happens to him form the rest of the story.
The fourth story, a novella, is the title story ‘A Game of Chess‘. A ship is leaving New York for Buenos Aires. It has the World Chess Champion Mirko Czentovic in it. Our narrator wants to engage the champion Czentovic in some way. But Czentovic avoids people. The narrator tries to catch his attention by engaging in a game of chess with a fellow traveller. The trick works. Czentovic agrees to join them next day for a game or two. And he easily defeats them. But the story doesn’t end there. One of the spectators joins the amateur players against Czentovic. He is able to see the World Champion’s tactics and strategy many moves in advance and gives the right kind of advice. Before long, the amateurs are able to hold their own against the World Champion. Czentovic is impressed and calls for a game next day with this mysterious traveller. Meanwhile our narrator goes to meet this mysterious traveller and this mysterious chess genius tells the story of how he got so good at the game.
I loved all the stories in the book, but I loved the novellas a little bit more. I can’t decide which is my favourite story, because I liked both ‘A Game of Chess‘ and ‘Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life’ equally well. All the stories had beautiful passages that I liked very much. Most of them had an interesting structure – a narrator starts to tell us the story and this narrator meets another person who takes over and tells us the rest of the story, the important part of the story. This is how stories used to be written once upon a time, in which the original narrator doesn’t play an important part in the story. It made me smile. There is a description of the Riviera in ‘Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life‘ which is incredibly beautiful which I loved. ‘A Game of Chess‘ has been called the best chess story ever written. I don’t know about that, but it definitely had one of the most beautiful passages on chess that I have ever read.
Here are some of my favourite passages from the book.
From ‘Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life’
Most people have little imagination, and what does not impinge on them directly, or run a sharp wedge insistently into a sensitive spot, generally fails to arouse them. On the other hand, something quite minor can put them in a towering passion if it happens right before their eyes or touches off their most immediate feelings. So, in a sense, the rarity of their emotional involvement is offset by the unwarranted and excessive vehemence they show in such instances.
You know the Riviera landscape. It’s always fine, but it offers its rich hues complacently and with picture-postcard flatness to the eye, rather like a sleepy, languid beauty who is content to be touched by every gaze, almost oriental in her ever-luxuriant display. But sometimes, very seldom, there are days when this beauty rises up with a purpose and cries out for attention, sparkling with madly garish colours and flinging her myriad blooms triumphantly in one’s face, her sensuality burning bright. And just such an effervescent day had dawned after the stormy chaos of the night. The rain-washed street gleamed white, the sky was turquoise and on all sides lush bushes catching the light flamed like green torches. The mountains seemed nearer and more distinct in the crisp, sunny sky, pressing forward inquisitively on the glittering, brightly polished town.
From ‘A Game of Chess‘
But are we not guilty of belittling chess by calling it a game at all? For surely it is also a science and an art, poised between these categories like Muhammad’s coffin between heaven and earth, a unique fusion of all opposing pairs : ancient yet eternally new, mechanical in its arrangement yet requiring imagination for its effect, limited to a fixed geometrical space yet limitless in its permutations, forever evolving yet sterile, a thought process without purpose, a mathematics that solves nothing, an art form with no artworks, an architecture without materials, and nevertheless demonstrably more enduring in its essence and being than any book or artefact. It is the only game that belongs to all nations and all eras, and no one knows which divinity brought it into the world to stave off boredom, sharpen wits and firm up the spirit. Where is its beginning and where its end? Any child can learn its basic rules, any bungler can try his hand at it, and yet from within its small, unvarying square field it brings forth an extraordinary and incomparable species of virtuoso, people whose peculiar gifts make chess their only possible vocation. In this type of genius, vision, patience and technique operate in the same proportions as with mathematicians, poets and composers – only these elements are differently layered and combined.
I don’t think I have done justice to this beautiful book in my review. ‘A Game of Chess and other stories‘ is one of my favourite books of the year. I will definitely be reading it again. I can’t wait to read more Stefan Zweig.
Other reviews
The Invisible Collection (Jonathan’s review – Intermittencies of the Mind)
Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life (Lisa’s review – ANZ Lit Lovers)
Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life (Melissa’s review – The Book Binder’s Daughter)
A Game of Chess (David’s review – David’s Book World)
Have you read ‘A Game of Chess and other stories‘? What do you think about it?
Vishy! It’s nice to see you posting again.
The only Stefan Zweig I’ve read is a novella called Journey Into the Past. I wrote a mean-spirited (and sort of humorous) review of it in a post that I later deleted. All four of the stories you read sound better than the one I did.
Thanks M—–l š I have been missing blogging very much. So happy to be back. I will stop by at your blog soon.
Glad to know that you read and reviewed a Stefan Zweig book. Sorry to know you didn’t like it. I loved all the stories in this book. If you do read it, I would love to hear your thoughts.
I looked through the Zweig section at my bookstore this afternoon. There were some promising collections, but I couldn’t remember the titles of the ones you wrote about in this post. I’ll make a note and put it in my wallet for next time.
When I was reading the Collected Stories I couldn’t stop long enough to write any reviews; I’ve since posted a couple since them. I can’t wait to read some more of his work.
Hope you post reviews of some of your favourite Zweig stories, Jonathan. I would love to hear your thoughts. Just read your review of The Invisible Collection – loved it!
Thanks Vishy. I also posted on Mendel the Bibliophile.
I just noticed that you commented on that post. š
I was going to re-read Fantastic Night and post it for GLM but ran out of time.
Yes, I read your review of Mendel when you posted it and loved it. I want to get this collection now. Can’t wait to read it. Thanks for the inspiration š
Thanks for the mention, Vishy:)
I’m on the same page as you, I prefer his novellas because as a general rule I prefer long form fiction.
Is Amok in that collection? I’ve read that one too (I think Stu recommended Zweig to me).
You are welcome, Lisa š I will come and post a proper comment on your review soon. Nice to know that you love novellas too. Amok is not there in the collection I read. But it is there in his collected works. Hoping to read that soon. So jealous that you read the Anthea Bell translation š
Coming to Zweig by way of your review is one of the many reasons why I love blogging. It’s possible that I would have come across āA Game of Chess and other storiesā at some point in the future, but why delay gratification?
Ha, ha, ha! Thank you, Paul š I agree with you on not delaying gratification š Hope you enjoy reading Zweig’s book. It is so beautiful. I will look forward to hearing your thoughts in it. Happy reading!
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