Stefan Zweig Chess /anglais

By Stefan Zweig

Book Overview

Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithA Penguin Classics... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0241747295
• ISBN13: 9780241747292
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: PENGUIN UK
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.2" x 0.2" x 4.4"

Customer Reviews

Quick read. Good feel.

This is a short story and develops quickly. I almost wish it was a little bit longer, but oh well. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to add to their chess fiction library.

They write books about chess now?

I haven't read a book I liked this much in a long time. At 80 pages, it's hard not to want to analyze more into it than was actually intended, but the dichotomies of black-and-white chess pieces, and the clearly opposed characters of the traumatized intelligent Dr. B and his boot-clad half-imbecile opponent Czentovic, seem to invite nationalism and allegory. Peter Gay's introduction claims that critics often fault Zweig for holding his cards to close to his chest. His characters, who Freud lo...more I haven't read a book I liked this much in a long time. At 80 pages, it's hard not to want to analyze more into it than was actually intended, but the dichotomies of black-and-white chess pieces, and the clearly opposed characters of the traumatized intelligent Dr. B and his boot-clad half-imbecile opponent Czentovic, seem to invite nationalism and allegory. Peter Gay's introduction claims that critics often fault Zweig for holding his cards to close to his chest. His characters, who Freud loved, are broad-stroked mysteries, impeccably flawed. They may be consistent, but there are details that may be expected in literature that Zweig chooses to leave out. It's not enough to hamper my enjoyment of this book. After reading so much dense material this year, this book was such a treat. However, it reminded me of "No Country For Old Men" in that the simplicity of the story hid the fact that the characters are powerhouses, twisted and real.

No escape from pain

As summarized by another reviewer, the story takes place on a cruise ship en route from New York to Buenos Aires in 1941. The world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is on board. Czentovic is a chess prodigy who is singularly ungifted in other areas of the intellect and social graces. Also on board is Dr. B, a former solicitor for the Austrian imperial family who is traveling to South America as a refugee from the Nazi regime. At the outset, considering Czentovic's isolated and emotionally deprived childhood, I was prepared to allow him his arrogance and conceit. Acknowledged, he was a master at chess and his boorish behavior could be excused. When Dr. B becomes peripherally involved in the chess match and exhibits a mastery of moves, it becomes clear that this man has somehow or other been absorbed into the exalted realm of chess. As his story unfolds, the reader enters the world of isolation and solitary that Dr. B endured at the hands of his Nazi tormenters. Zweig is so masterful at the depiction of the incarceration and the man's mental salvation through the game of chess that we as readers are carried along so forcibly that we leave the confines of our homes for the world of Dr. B. Every emotion he experienced, every racing of his pulse, every fearful moment, his ultimate dissociation of his personality and his breakdown are experienced by the reader. The descriptions are powerful and cause a visceral reaction that is astonishing. As I was reading, I started to note a racing pulse and sweating and a sense of uncontrollable foreboding. As the story raced to its conclusion, I had the urge to shout, "Halt! Don't play again!" I wept when I set the book down. The tears were for Dr. B, all of the victims of the Nazi carnage and perhaps also a reaction to what came to pass, the suicide of the author. This gem of a small book explores and disturbs the human psyche like no other.