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Loading... Chess Story (1943)by Stefan Zweig
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286 Chess a.k.a. The Royal Game, is another title that I planned to read during Novellas in November. It's the fourth story I've read by Stefan Zweig (1881-1942)... ... and I think it's the best of them. Like the others I've read, it was translated by the late Anthea Bell OBE (1936-2018) but you can read an online version by a different translator at this site. (There's no About Page to explain the copyright status of what's on the site, so I hope I haven't inadvertently encouraged piracy.) At the surface level, Chess is the story of a battle between chessmasters while they are en route to exile in Buenos Aires. The unnamed narrator is excited to learn that the world champion Czentovic is aboard, and he sets up a match against Doctor B. for an avid audience of chess-playing passengers. It's a simple plot, which recounts how Czentovic is manipulated into wanting to play, and the story-within-the-story explains how Doctor B used his time in solitary confinement to learn the moves from great chess matches of the past. The game turns out to be dull because Czentovic takes so long between moves, but the unexpected results bring tension to the story because Czentovic is not a man to take defeat lightly. Beneath the surface, however, lies complex symbolic characterisation. To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/12/20/chess-a-k-a-the-royal-game-by-stefan-zweig-t... The big failing? Here is that the whole story seems like a set up to contrast the approach of the savant chess world champion and the aristocractic dilettante, and then use it to say something about the Nazi takeover of Germany in the form of the chess game. And it... Doesn't really? So the two parts - the story of the Austrian survivor of Nazi isolation torture and the chess game - feel disconnected to me. If there is intended to be a comparison drawn or a link between the chess champion and the Nazis, what the author chooses to describe reflects worse on the author than the character, imo. It seems to boil down to the chess champion starting from the humblest beginnings and being an ignorant peasant bumpkin who is dedicated to chess but primarily only as a money making tool, having not been brought up with upper class refinements. It's hard not to read him as experiencing something along the lines of "neurodivergence" too - I hesitate to use that term, but people like me certainly existed then and there were ways of understanding them. The author prefers to portray his behaviour entirely negatively. The story of the dilettante's torture is really well told (as is the rest of the story - the writing is great)! But politically there's weirdness in the lauding of someone who presumably was complicit in the austrofascist regime - not in that it's wrong of the story to do so, but that it complicates anything deeper you try and draw from it. I just felt like I was supposed to come away with something more than I did, like there was something eluding my understanding. Or if I did actually recognise what it was then it was a pretty uncomfortably bad read on the Nazis, that they were stupid and declasse compared to the good old aristocrats of Austria. I think on its own that doesn't sink it - honestly 3 Vs 4 stars was a tossup, the writing is great enough I could go for 4 some days - it just left me a little befuddled at the end. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesBelongs to Publisher SeriesBibliothek Suhrkamp (1348) Classici [e-Newton] (501) Fischer Taschenbuch (1522) — 16 more Gallimard, Folio (6586) Helikon Zsebkönyvek (19.) insel taschenbuch (4201) Kramers pocket-reeks (50) Modern Klasikler (Modern Klasikler Dizisi - 21) Reclams Universal-Bibliothek (18933) Is contained inSelected Stories by Stefan Zweig (indirect) Égő titok. Sakknovella / Stefan Zweig ; [ford. Fónagy Iván, Gergely Erzsébet] ; [utószó Illés Jenő] by Stefan Zweig Schachnovelle: Brief einer Unbekannten. Der Amokläufer (Klassiker der Weltliteratur) by Stefan Zweig Cornelsen Literathek : Text - Erläuterungen - Materialien : Stefan Zweig : Schachnovelle by Florian Radvan The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig: Burning Secret, A Chess Story, Fear, Confusion, Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig Is abridged inHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
Stefan Zweig's posthumously published Chess Story is the tale of a legendary chess match played on an ocean liner leaving Nazi-occupied Europe. The world champion and a man who attained mastery of chess during a harrowing ordeal are locked in a battle that becomes far more than merely a game. Gripping and visceral, this unforgettable novella powerfully renders a psychological condition nearly impossible to convey in words. Ulrich Baer's lively new translation beautifully captures Zweig's nuanced mix of introspection and suspense. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)833.912Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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