The Society of the Crossed Keys: Selections from the Writings of Stefan Zweig, Inspirations for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Product Information

Selected extracts from Zweig’s memoir, The World of Yesterday, an unrivalled evocation of bygone Europe. Nakon četiri poglavlja iz memoara,dato nam je svega tridesetak stranica njegovog romana Beware of Pity/Ungeduld des Herzens, dovoljno da poželim da ga opet pročitam. A fascinating intro to Stefan Zweig's life and work. All the stars for Zweig's writing (especially the engrossing sample chapters from The World of Yesterday).

I bought this because I loved The Grand Budapest Hotel and I'd just been to Vienna and fallen in love with the place. Women look more beautiful to me now that they are at liberty to display their figures; their gait is more upright, their eyes brighter, their conversation less stilted. Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.

Summary

Like everyone else, my interest in the book stemmed from my interest in the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. I was curious to see how the life and works of Stefan Zweig inspired the movie, and what kind of connections I could make with the book to the film. The book starts with a brief foreword with Wes Anderson, providing an introduction to Zweig and the movie. This section was alright, nothing too grand that made me excited as a reader. One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig’s stories.’–Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson’s selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read...a feverish, fascinating novel' -- Antony Beevor It features one of Zweig's best short stories, 24 Hours In The Life Of A Woman: a tale-within-a-tale about a posh lady's tumultuous encounter with a young gambling addict in Monte Carlo. There's also a small section from Beware Of Pity. Selected extracts from Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, an unrivalled evocation of bygone Europe. Stefan Zweig was a massive name in literature in the first half of the twentieth century although his fame seems to have missed Britain. He wrote novellas and novels, plays and biographies; and his work was adapted for stage and film both in Europe and in Hollywood. He was a star, but by the start of the 21st century his work was virtually unknown. That is until the wonderful Pushkin Press started republishing his works. Now an extensive collection of his writing is available in English. I first came across Zweig when a copy of Beware of Pity came into the shop, as a massive fan of central European literature and of anything relating to the Hapsburg empire especially I knew that I would enjoy this novel about the concept of honour in the Austrian officer class in the run up to the First World War. I was right, the novel is wonderful I urge anyone who has any interest in the period to read it. Since then I've been able to read a fair few of Zweig's other works, some of his biographies and a few of his novellas, each one has been a perfect self contained piece of writing. Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.

Customer reviews

Ovo možda jeste knjiga za fanove Cvajgovog i Andersonovog opusa, ali je takođe super ako ste "početnik" i želite da se upoznate sa Cvajgom i vidite šta može da vam ponudi. This book has been published to coincide with the release of the Grand Budapest Hotel unlike other film related books this maintains the simple styling of the other Zweig books published by Pushkin Press. Not that The World Of Yesterday is about war. It's about Viennese bourgeois life, Zweig's first attempts to break into journalism, his bad early poetry and how it felt to be liberal, Jewish and arty at the start of the 20th century. He says the anti-Semite Karl Lueger becoming mayor of Vienna in 1897 had surprisingly little effect on his circle. They thought the peace, prosperity and cultural pre-eminence they'd grown up with would prove more enduring than petty hate. The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson's selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel. The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved, as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed.' -- David Hare

The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved, as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed.’— David Hare Potom slede delovi iz Cvajgovih memoara i baš sam uživala u prikazima društva i događaja iz perioda njegove mladosti. Posebno je zanimljivo kako piše o muško-ženskim odnosima, kako su mladi bili na neki način ugnjetavani socijalnim konvencijama i kako je strašno što su devojke morale da budu utegnute u korsete i da večito vode računa o tome da li su pokrivene, očešljane... pa kako je to sve uticalo na njihovu seksualnost i potiskivanje strasti. Cvajg feminista. He talks about how his Jewish family, and thousands like them, had come to Vienna to work and study, becoming bourgeois and doing it so well that their manners, their intellectual and artistic pursuits came to define Viennese civilisation. He reminds us how liberal the Austro-Hungarian Empire was, and when he considers how all this came crashing down in the first world war he makes an interesting point I'd not heard made before.Na početku knjige izdvaja se intervju koji je zapravo više diskusija između Vesa Andersona i esejiste Pročnika koji je ekspert za Cvajga. Tu se njih dvojica udubljuju u Štefanov život, dela, simboliku, lepotu stvaralaštva i naravno Ves priča šta je to što ga je naročito privuklo Cvajgu i na koji način je dobio inspiraciju za Grand Budapest Hotel. An extract from Zweig's only novel, a devastating depiction of the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love. The last but definitely not the list is 'Twenty-Four Hours In the Life of a Woman'. This one was definitely my favorite - it is a short story regarding a chance encounter that a women experienced years ago that haunts her to present day. I think there's only one word that's apt to describe what I thought of this short story: intoxicating. The writing and the dialogue was so mesmerizing that as I was reading, it felt like I was trapped into the story itself. As an introduction to Zweig's fiction we are given an extract from Beware of Pity, that nicely continues this idea of honour being paramount. This is only a short extract, but it is enough to capture a flavour of the rest of the novel. All I know is that I had a constant wish to die, but not the strength to hasten the end I longed for so ardently.

The next is 'Beware of Pity', Zweig's first and only novel. The excerpt is, I think, the beginning parts of the novel detailing the life and the mind of a Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer. The humorous, witty nature of this novel is clearly reflected in the movie and it was interesting to read. I really liked the ending of the excerpt, and it left me wanting more. As this excerpt was considerably shorter than the one for The World of Yesterday, I'm very intrigued to read more. When I heard that there was going to be a new film made to encapsulate the essence of Zweig I got rather excited; even more so when I discovered that it was to be filmed at the incomparable Grandhotel Pupp in the old imperial spa town Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad during the Hapsburg period) and would be starring Ralph Fiennes. It all sounded perfect. So I was very keen to read the accompanying book that was published to go alongside the film. I was right to be keen, The Society of the Crossed Keys is a wonderful introduction to all things Zweig. It features a selection of his writings that offers snapshot of his range and style. Of greatest interest to me was the selected chapters taken from Zweig's memoirs, The World of Yesterday. I loved the depiction of early 20th century Vienna. I read as much as I can about this area and period, and am always so pleased to see just how little seems to have changed in the hundred years or so between then and when I lived in the city. These selections manage to be absolutely fascinating as well as amusing and containing some hints of the darkness that would soon overshadow everything else in the region. The section about University life is just marvellous. It combines a timeless account of student life with the idea of honour amongst students that is so uniquely Germanic. One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories.'--Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes This is actually a collection of excerpts of Stefan Zweig's works, plus an introduction about him and his writing in the form of a conversation. I enjoyed the conversation, but it made much more sense after reading the excerpts. The first excerpt is from World of Yesterday, which was a kind of autobiography and hugely interesting for the author's perspective on causes and lead-ups to WWI, which was from the point of view of the artistic community of Europe. The second was a very short excerpt from Beware of Pity which made me hugely curious to read the rest. The last was from 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman and was curious for the different perspectives and morals you can read into the old woman's story: from her own voice, from the voice of the narrator, from Zweig's voice as author, and from our own 21st century perspective as we read it.Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read…a feverish, fascinating novel’— Antony Beevor