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Beware of Pity

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Zweig was one of the world's best known and respected authors in the 1920s and 1930s. The burning of his books by the Nazis, and the subsequent changes in taste after the war have relegated most of his books to an undeserved obscurity. As a personal friend of Freud (Zweig gave the eulogy at Freud's funeral), he understood brilliantly how to portray the psychological state of his characters. This novel is particularly rich in that regard, as the main character finds himself facing a series of moral and spiritual choices he is ill-prepared to make. In an attempt to apologize for a social mistake (unintentionally insulting his host's daughter at a party), he finds himself ever more absorbed into the life and concerns of this family. Every time he's faced with a difficult choice, he gives way to his emotions, and invariably makes matters worse. Zweig's original title, "Impatience of the Heart," aptly describes Toni Hofmiller's problem: he ignores logic and discretion to follow his feelings. We all live in a society that tends to view human emotions as the most important factor in human interaction. Zweig's genius lies to demonstrating for us what a questionable assumption that is. One of the finest novels I've ever read (and that's saying something).

Toni Hofmiller, a 25 year-old lieutenant in the Austrian army prior to the outbreak of WWI, meets Edith, the daughter of the local magnate. Toni committs a "gaffe", asking her to dance while not realizing until too late that Edith is handicapped and cannot walk. Suddenly Toni becomes aware of (and, as an immature youth, is trapped by) the power of compassion. Through no fault of his own (unless good intentions can make one culpable), he leads Edith and her father to believe that Edith may be cured.

"Beware of Pity" has been called a psychological novel, perhaps because the narrator (Toni) alternates in describing his feelings of self-love, power and satisfaction (when visiting Edith and thus sharing his goodness and compassion), and those of confusion and despair when realizing, unwittingly, that Edith has fallen in love with him. He is driven deeper into despair when told by Dr. Condor, Edith's doctor, that Edith may die if her love is unrequited. In analyzing the conflicted feelings of Toni, Zweig wrote a formidable novel of compassion and responsibility for one's actions. Dr. Condor serves as the literary foil of Toni; the doctor's true compassion for Edith (i.e., "unsentimental but productive, that knows what it wants and is ready to share in one's suffering to the limit, and beyond") contrasts starkly with Toni's unbridled compassion, which is nothing more than the other type of compassion, false, fleeting and unreliable, "the impatience of the heart" (which, incidentally, in the direct translation of the title from the original German). Zweig does not fault Toni for his youthful immaturity, as shown by Dr. Condor's feelings for Toni. Zweig does not, however, exonerate him from blame, and the tale moves forward, inexorably, to its tragic end.

"Beware of Pity" is a brilliant book by one of the world's great writers.

This fascinating "psychological" novel is reminiscent of "Rebecca" in the way the story unfolds slowly and then totally envelops the reader. I actually read it straight through the first time, had to miss the next day's work. I've loved it just as much with each reread.

Zweig writes beautifully. He demonstrates elegance, economy, subtlety. There is never a wasted word.

While you are at it, read his short story "The Royal Game."
These are two examples of fiction at its very best.

An Austrian lieutenant becomes the victim of the strong emotions of a crippled young girl from a wealthy family, who takes his pity for love: 'the outcasts, the branded, the ugly, the withered, the despised and rejected love with a fanatical, a baleful, a black love.'

The lieutenant doesn't have the strength to cut the links with the girl and her family, partially because he is impressed by their wealth. He continues to give her hope, although he feels that 'anyone who identifies himself with the fate of another is robbed to some extent of his own freedom.'
He is warned against the poison of pity: 'if they were all to give way to their pity, the world would stand still ... You take on yourself a confounded amount of responsibility when you make a fool of another person with your pity ... for the weak, sentimental kind (of pity) is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid of the painful emotion by the sight of another's unhappiness.'
His undecidedness creates a disaster, also for himself: 'No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.'

Stefan Zweig is the master of the unexpected U-turns, the eye opening revelations, the surprising upheavals, the passionate endgames, the arousing question marks. While he used his strengths in short novels and historical evocations, he shows here that he also was capable of using them in a longer work.
His insight in the basics of human nature is outstanding: 'Have you ever heard of logic prevailing against passion?'

This story is perhaps partially influenced by Theodor Fontane's 'Irrungen, Wirrungen'.

Not to be missed.

This is one of the most purely enjoyable books I have ever read, Zweig writes very well and at times brilliantly in creating characters both psychologically consistent and vivid. This is one of a rare type of novels that offers thrilling, page turning excitement combined with emotional and intellectual depth. Beware of Pity is not the most subtle, or beautiful book I have ever read but I can't tell you any other that was more of a pleasure to read.

In the introduction to this book Joan Acocella tells Zweig's story as a writer. One of her claims is that despite his enormous popularity as biographer, essayist, writer of great novellas and stories, this novel is his masterpience. The novel is in essence the story of a feeling, of 'pity' of how it becoming the obsession and duty of the main character turns self- serving and destructive. Briefly , the book revolves around the relationship between a poor Austrian officer Hoffstein and a crippled seventeen year old daughter of a wealthy family Edith Kekesfalvas. After he has inadvertently insulted her by having asked her to dance he becomes bound into a relationship with her, in which she falls deeply in love with him without his truly reciprocating. This is how Acocella reads the protagonist's reasoning and its result after her doctor informs him that it would be disastrous for him to abandon her.

"So he descends ever deeper into hypocrisy. In the process, Zweig gives us a piercing analysis of the motives underlying pity. Gradually Hofmiller realizes how much he enjoys the courtesies paid to him for his emotional services, how it pleases him that when he arrives at the Schloss his favorite cigarettes--and also the novel (its pages already cut) that he had said in passing that he wanted to read--are laid out on the tea table. Nor is it lost on him that his own sense of strength is magnified by Edith's weakness and, above all, by his growing power over the Kekesfalvas, the fact that if he, a poor soldier, does not present himself at teatime, this great, rich household is thrown into a panic, and the chauffeur is dispatched to town to spy him out and see what he is doing in preference to waiting on Edith. Beyond the matter of power, however, Hofmiller finds that the emotion of pity is a pleasure just in itself. It exalts him, takes him to a new place. Before, as an officer, he was required only to obey orders and be a good fellow. Now he is a moral being, a soul."

This end in destruction is somehow a foreshadowing of what would happen to Zweig.Having been betrayed with the rise of the Nazis by the Europe he loves, tried to make a new home and life with his second wife in Brazil. But it does not work out and the both of them are found after having taken fatal overdoes of drugs hands intertwined.

The scenario is settled at the beginning of the XXth century, right before the outburst of WW I with the murder of the prince of Austria, an event subtly knitted to the action taking place in the novel.

25 years old lieutenant Hofmiller, protagonist and narrator, is the prototype of the young man who has never cared much about anything but his own career and who has taken everything for granted during his whole life. Being good hearted, he hasn't yet experienced a strong attachment to a woman, nor he had even been deeply loved by any.

He describes himself as a not very thoughtful or introspective person, whose only worries were related to his horses and his position in the army.... until he meets Edith Von Kekesfalva. She is the lamed daughter of a Jewish rich man who became an aristocrat by purchasing the nobility title and changing his name.

Due to a gaffe Hofmiller commits [inviting the girl for a dance] a dense and excruciating relationship between both starts. The author delves deep into all the intricacies such a bond entails and the situations which arise when pity rules human behavior and is entangled with sincere love. Although the book may not seem very engaging at the beginning, the interest grows as the tension increases between the characters, leading to the dramatic circumstances that trigger the wonderful end.

Zweig has an unbeleivable talent to describe feelings, and he has a unique understanding of the insides of the human nature, especially women's nature. I just regret he didn't create more during his life!

Regarding "Beware of pity", I honestly don't belive it's a great translation for the book's title... I myself read this book in Russian (which is my first language) and fell in love with Zweig after that. I hope the entire English translation is just as great.

...no, not the book by Dave Eggers, but this masterpiece by Stefan Zweig. I came upon this by accident, and bought it, intrigued by the story outline and the reviews below. Only very, very rarely does a book have the power to draw me into the lives of the characters, probably because they're usually just that - characters. Not so here. Here we have flesh and blood and all that entails. I'm still amazed at Zweig's story telling. He's the kind of writer who could make a shopping list fascinating. I lived and breathed every single word in this incredibly beautiful book, and, as has been said elsewhere, the tension becomes almost unendurable. I can hardly do justice to it in a few words. Weirdly, I often found myself smiling, not because it's a funny book, far from it, but just through an appreciation of Zweig's supreme mastery of his art. This is one of those books appearing only a few times in your life that wring emotion out of you whether you like it or not. A heart-breaking, unforgettable and life-enriching experience.

I'd also like to praise the translation, by Trevor and Phyllis Blewitt. At no time is there even a hint that you're reading a translation - something that occurred to me only after finishing the book. On the contrary, it seems to me that the elegance of the language and all the magnificent virtues that contribute to Zweig's humanity and genius have been faithfully rendered. The proof is in my twin disappointments; coming to the end, and learning that there are no further full-length novels by Zweig. I'll definitely be reading all his other works, though.

Besides two long and boring passages that, in my opinion, do not add anything to the main story, this book is Stefan Zweig's masterpiece.
The emotions, repressions, frustrations, fears, joy, expressions, gestures, are well studied and described by the author, with the most intimate and subtle details.
The most poignant scene is when she caressed his hand. He did not love her, just pitied her, but what he felt when she caressed his hand was stronger than making love to any woman he had ever desired before. The description of her caress - and of his emotion during that caress - is irrefutably the strongest in literature. A moment of pure bliss...