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

Product Information

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. 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.

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 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.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. 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. 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

It turns out that the fictional Society of the Crossed Keys, a guild of top concierges whose deep connections in Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotelhelp save the life of Ralph Fiennes‘ suave Gustave H., was inspired by the Society of the Golden Keys, first started as a French-only affair in 1929 before going global in 1952. 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 An extract from Zweig’s only novel, a devastating depictionof the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love. 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.

Customer reviews

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. An extract from Zweig's only novel, a devastating depiction of the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love. 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.

Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read…a feverish, fascinating novel’— Antony Beevor 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. I bought this because I loved The Grand Budapest Hotel and I'd just been to Vienna and fallen in love with the place. 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). Selected extracts from Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, an unrivalled evocation of bygone Europe.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 first work from Zweig is his memoir 'The World of Yesterday'. Personally, I'm not a fan of memoirs so it was a bit difficult for me to read through (took me almost a year). However I did enjoy Zweig's writing, particularly about social customs that changed and evolved throughout his life. Zweig's writing mannerisms, especially regarding his descriptive writing about his surroundings (the setting, the people, everything), was very well reflected in the movie. The extract of the memoir comprises of the largest portion of the book, and after reading, it is clear why - the movie was clearly inspired by The World of Yesterday. Here's a quote that I enjoyed from The World of Yesterday: Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and, between the wars was an international bestselling author. With the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath, New York and Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide.

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.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.