After nine years of separation from his native country because of the First World War, Louis finally sets foot in Austria and meets the woman he had been in love with and who had promised to wait for him. Previously divided by class and wealth, both are now married and much changed by their recent experiences, and they must find out whether their love could survive the hardships, betrayals and the lapse of time. A poignant examination of the angst of nostalgia and the fragility of love, Zweig's long-lost final novella - recently rediscovered in manuscript form - simultaneously portrays the loss of innocence of a country about to succumb to the evils of fascism.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A focused new translation of the late Zweig's (1881–1942) gorgeous and sad novella spotlights the hopeless passion between a young man and his employer's wife. Ludwig, an ambitious young man from an impoverished background, finds employment with a famous industrialist in Frankfurt-am-Main and is eventually pressed into service as the industrialist's private secretary, living in his house, where he befriends his boss's radiant, sympathetic wife and finds in her an artistic kinship. A passion develops, cut short by the exigencies of the metals business, then by the eruption of WWI, and the two, despite the intervening years and Ludwig's own marriage, eventually embark on an overnight trip together. Moving back and forth through time, Zweig pursues the couple to their destination, where they are confronted by a military demonstration that bludgeons their fragile memories with the cold, crass present. Bell's faultless translation easily conveys the smoldering engine of Zweig's writhing inner consciousness. (Nov.) (c)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"A brilliant Austrian writer whose work brings to mind that of his compatriot Joseph Roth…a treat of prewar European literature" —Sylvia Brownrigg, The New York Times
“The latest novella available to English-speaking readers, Journey Into the Past—found among Zweig’s papers after his death and now published by New York Review Books Classics in a masterly translation by Anthea Bell and with an introduction by André Aciman…” —Words Without Borders
"Journey into the Past is vintage Stefan Zweig—lucid, tender, powerful and compelling.” —Chris Schuler, The Independent
“The art is in the telling…a powerful love story…Excellent Foreword by writer Paul Bailey” —David Herman, The Jewish Chronicle
"One hardly knows where to begin in praising Zweig’s work. One gets the impression that he actively preferred to write about women, and about the great moral crises that send shivers down the spines of polite society" —Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
"My advice is that you should go out at once and buy his books" —Anthony Daniels, The Sunday Telegraph
“a brilliant writer." —The New York Times
"Admired by readers as diverse as Freud, Einstein, Toscanini, Thomas Mann and Herman Goering." —The New York Times
"A remarkable tour de force…this is a masterclass in the language of beautiful storytelling." —Paul Blezard, The Lady
"Zweig belongs with three very different masters who each perfected the challenging art of the short story and the novella: Maupassant, Turgenev and Chekhov" —Paul Bailey --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
“The latest novella available to English-speaking readers, Journey Into the Past—found among Zweig’s papers after his death and now published by New York Review Books Classics in a masterly translation by Anthea Bell and with an introduction by André Aciman…” —Words Without Borders
"Journey into the Past is vintage Stefan Zweig—lucid, tender, powerful and compelling.” —Chris Schuler, The Independent
“The art is in the telling…a powerful love story…Excellent Foreword by writer Paul Bailey” —David Herman, The Jewish Chronicle
"One hardly knows where to begin in praising Zweig’s work. One gets the impression that he actively preferred to write about women, and about the great moral crises that send shivers down the spines of polite society" —Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
"My advice is that you should go out at once and buy his books" —Anthony Daniels, The Sunday Telegraph
“a brilliant writer." —The New York Times
"Admired by readers as diverse as Freud, Einstein, Toscanini, Thomas Mann and Herman Goering." —The New York Times
"A remarkable tour de force…this is a masterclass in the language of beautiful storytelling." —Paul Blezard, The Lady
"Zweig belongs with three very different masters who each perfected the challenging art of the short story and the novella: Maupassant, Turgenev and Chekhov" —Paul Bailey --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Short Gem from Stefan Zweig,
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This review is from: Journey Into the Past (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)
A quick note about the edition and translation: It seem Mr. Blumenau (above) refers to a slightly different edition by Pushkin Press, with another introduction.
This is of some importance because André Aciman's introduction here in the NYRB edition, although enthusiastic and insightful, reveals far too much of the plot, and would have best been switched with translator Anthea Bell's afterword. First time readers are hereby cautioned. Indeed, it would be best to read the novella first, and the supplementary material after. That said, Mr. Blumenau (and others) are quite right: Zweig is an important writer of the first rank. On par with close contemporaries Arthur Schnitzler and Joseph Roth, Zweig is a product of that enormously rich and fertile time/place of Vienna in the years just before World War I. And even if `Journey Into The Past' is firmly set in the German speaking world, its vision is much broader. For the twenty or so years preceding the Great War, there was an enormous confluence (with significant parallels) in the music, painting, and literature of Vienna. So much so that its clear to even a casual observer that Egon Scheile, Arthur Schnitzler, and Gustav Mahler all arose from the same milieu, that heady time of Freud and Schoenberg, the growth of socialist movements, and the nationalist intrigues which inevitably lead to war. Zweig's posthumously published `Journey Into The Past' concerns the return of a young man to the home of a woman he loved many years before. She is older, and is now widowed. Circumstance heightened the intensity of their passion then while keeping them from consummating their relationship. Yet the memory of each other and that time has not dimmed in either. The novella concerns feelings and self-awareness (admittedly largely his), and the inevitable disparity between one's inner world and outer life: the difference between what one knows about oneself (or suspects), and what one says and does in the larger world. Zweig is a keen observer and an astute psychologist, and although there is an emotional telling in this tale, (perhaps even a dollop of `schlag') it is not overwrought and never treacley. In fact, oddly enough, it reminds me a bit of Yasunari Kawabata's story, `First Snow on Fuji', which concerns a somewhat similar reunion of two lovers. Comprised of 84 short pages in this edition, its a very quick read. And although Bell's translation is graceful and light, and the novella itself provides a sense of Zweig's sweep and power as an author, it may not be the best place for someone new to start. For that, I'd recommend `Beware of Pity', a longer and more substantial book, where Zweig's insight and mastery are on full display.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Journey into the Past - and into the Future,
By
This review is from: Journey Into the Past (Paperback)
This is the latest volume in the Pushkin Press' admirable undertaking to make more of the brilliant works of Stefan Zweig available in English. The novella of just 81 pages is flanked by a Foreword by Paul Bailey and an Afterword by the superb translator Anthea Bell.
Ludwig, a young German of humble social origins, had fallen passionately in love with the wife of his wealthy industrialist employer, and she with him. Zweig - and his translators - have always excelled in descriptions of tempestuous emotions which sweep the reader along. Ludwig was sent on what was intended to be a two-year business mission to Mexico, but before the end of those two years the First World War had broken out, and it would be nine years before he returned to Germany and met her again, and the journey of the title is in part a train journey they take together from Frankfurt to Heidelberg. He was now married, and the industrialist had died. On the train he recalls the history of their relationship in the past. And now? And in the future? One part of what lies ahead is when they came across a massive Nazi parade - just three years after the end of the First World War and twelve years before the Nazis came to power - as they left the station at Heidelberg. The novella itself was started in 1924, and Zweig probably worked on it as late as the 1930s. As the complete typescript was not found and then published (in a French translation) until 2008, it is impossible to know whether this episode, laden with menace, was part of the original draft. Zweig had always loathed war and the nationalism that gave rise to it, so it may well have been an example of his highly-strung prescience.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb novella,
By
This review is from: Journey Into the Past (Paperback)
Ludwig is a self-made man, who was born in poverty, put himself through university at night while working during the day, and rose to become the trusted right-hand man of a wealthy German industrialist in the years before the Great War. The industrialist is in failing health, and asks Ludwig to move into his vast estate. He initially refuses, but finally agrees. Upon his arrival, he meets the industrialist's beautiful young wife, who makes him feel immediately at home, and he soon falls madly in love with her.
Two years later he is sent to Central America by the company, and the trip is to last two years. He is initially reluctant to leave, due to his previously unexpressed feelings for his unnamed love. Once she finds out he is leaving, she admits that she fell in love with him from the moment she first met him, and they agree to consummate their smoldering love on his return. The meeting is delayed due to the onset of the Great War, but eventually he is able to return to Germany, and the two agree to meet. He feels the same passion for her that he had on his departure, but wonders if she will still agree to her promise. Journey into the Past is a complex, passionate tale of love and how it can grow or wither with time and hardship. The story had me on edge for its short length, and is one of the best novellas I've ever read.
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