Burning Secret

By Stefan Zweig and Anthea Bell

A stunning new edition of a darkly “touching and delightful” tale of seduction, jealousy, and betrayal from the master of the novella (The New York Times)
 
Bored on holiday at an Austrian mountain resort, the suave Baron takes a fancy to twelve-year-old Edgar’s mother. But when his initial advances are rejected, he must turn to other means to carry out his seduction. Instead, he lavishes his attention on Edgar, deploying all of his adult charms and wiles to befriend the boy and get closer to the woman he desires.
 
The initially unsuspecting child soon senses something is amiss, but he has no idea of the burning secret that is driving the affair—and that it will soon change his life forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 25, 2008
• ISBN: 9781906548551

Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) war ein österreichischer Schriftsteller, dessen Werke für ihre psychologische Raffinesse, emotionale Tiefe und stilistische Brillanz bekannt sind. Er wurde 1881 in Wien in eine jüdische Familie geboren. Seine Kindheit verbrachte er in einem intellektuellen Umfeld, das seine spätere Karriere als Schriftsteller prägte. Zweig zeigte früh eine Begabung für Literatur und begann zu schreiben. Nach seinem Studium der Philosophie, Germanistik und Romanistik an der Universität Wien begann er seine Karriere als Schriftsteller und Journalist. Er reiste durch Europa und pflegte Kontakte zu prominenten zeitgenössischen Schriftstellern und Intellektuellen wie Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann und James Joyce. Zweigs literarisches Schaffen umfasst Romane, Novellen, Essays, Dramen und Biografien. Zu seinen bekanntesten Werken gehören "Die Welt von Gestern", eine autobiografische Darstellung seiner eigenen Lebensgeschichte und der Zeit vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, sowie die "Schachnovelle", die die psychologischen Abgründe des menschlichen Geistes beschreibt. Mit dem Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland wurde Zweig aufgrund seiner Herkunft und seiner liberalen Ansichten zunehmend zur Zielscheibe der Nazis. Er verließ Österreich im Jahr 1934 und lebte in verschiedenen europäischen Ländern, bevor er schließlich ins Exil nach Brasilien emigrierte. Trotz seines Erfolgs und seiner weltweiten Anerkennung litt Zweig unter dem Verlust seiner Heimat und der Zerstörung der europäischen Kultur. 1942 nahm er sich gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Lotte das Leben in Petrópolis, Brasilien. Zweigs literarisches Erbe lebt weiter und sein Werk wird auch heute noch von Lesern auf der ganzen Welt geschätzt und bewundert.

Reviews for Burning Secret

[pzr-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, I enjoyed this more than 'Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman'. It was as corny as hell but insightful about the human condition nonetheless. The central conceit - a Lothario attempting to seduce a woman through befriending her son and how this backfires on him - is an entertaining one. It was light enough to fit into my work bag and not to tax me on my morning commute.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this short one! Zweig was a fantastic writer, somehow in this story was able to make you feel sympathy for all three of the main characters, despite their different personalities and goals; an bon vivant serial seducer, a woman trapped in an unhappy and unfaithful marriage, and a pretty self absorbed immature pre teen.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Five pretty powerful longish short stories.The title story tells of an experienced seducer on a boring holiday; he entertains himself by befriending a lonely twelve-year old boy, with the aim of getting to the mother through the son. As the child realises the man's overtures of friendship were nothing but a ploy, he sets out to ruin the developing relationship, which he barely understands...The other four stories all have a theme of madness or obsession:-The Royal Game tells of a chess match during a cruise. The main protagonist is a stolid world champion...but his rival developed a fixation with the intricacies of the game while in lengthy solitary confinement.-Amok also takes place on a ship, where the narrator encounters a doctor returning home from the colonies, after a tragedy This was for me the weakest of the collection, not ringing true at all.-Fear was a BRILLIANT evocation of a well to do wife facing blackmail and possible exposure from a meaningless liaison. The constant terror, temptation to confess...was wonderfully conjured up.-Letter from an Unknown Woman, while a tearjerker was, again, very OTT. A woman writes to an author- we must assume from the letter that she's already dead- and recalls their (brief) shared history. She was the young daughter of neighbours, adoring him from afar; later they had a brief liaison, meaning everything to her, while he never gave her another thought. The sadness of someone's entire life given up to a pretty worthless human being, while he has no recollection of her...Pretty gripping read.

[ariesblue · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lonely twelve-year-old boy Edgar, befriended a charming,lady-killer baron.it was some time before the naive Edgar realizes the true motives behind the Baron's kindness and interest, When his adored friend meanly give up on his friendship and turns his seductive attentions to his mother, the boy's jealousy and insecurity feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable, Once Edgar recognizes the truth,he is invaded by new and previously unknown emotions and new behaviors.....
It was painful for that boy, who progresses from his childish dreams into the adult world of Deception ,dishonest and evil in only a few days......

Edgar's mother was at first resistant to the Baron charms......

but after a while she was getting many mixed feelings of regretting having stayed faithful to a husband she never really loved,she is still young ,beautiful and desirable, an urgent choice between maternal and feminine love........her son was her inner voice of conscience...

[martijngrooten · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the best novella's I've ever read. A rather simple story of a visitor to a spa who finds himself attracted to a lady visitor and, to get her attention, befriends her young son. Soon after that, the story switches focus to the son, who initially is proud to have such an old friend, then feels betrayed and finally -- in a brilliant ending -- feels he has discovered the Adult's Secret.I love Zweig's clear prose and it's a shame he isn't more widely read (or more widely translated) as he used to be.

[richardderus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Book Report: Wet, drippy little Edgar, his bored, would-be glam mama Mathilde, and the louche horndog Count Otto meet in an Austrian mountain resort. Otto takes a fancy to Mathilde, since she's a visibly bored Jewess of a certain age. He decides he'll lay siege to her virtue via befriending little larva Edgar, who mistakes his overtures for real friendship because it's never occurred to him that adults lie, cheat, and steal in pursuit of sex. After revolting Count Otto thinks he's about to achieve the leg-over, he drops Edgar, and his troubles begin. Hell hath no fury, apparently, like a barely pubescent boy disappointed in love. What this nasty little child dreams up to do to the perfidious, selfish adults is really quite impressive! In the end, his life is completely changed, and one rather trembles at the path his future will take...*cue Horst Wessel*....My Review: Peopled with deeply dislikable characters, and set in an anonymous vacation destination with no sense of permanence, it's a little hard to invest in the dramatis personae for a goodly stretch of time. I don't think I ever really did all the way. I don't care at all about anyone here, in that if each of them had fallen off an Alp I would've pursed my lips, tutted, and gone about my day.But the story is a very involving one, paradoxically, because the nature of love comes in for a pretty thorough and fairly damning examination, one that would have seemed very risky for Jewish Zweig to conduct so openly in 1913, the year it was published. The love of mother for son, of son for mother, and mother for sex is explicitly explored. The love of any one of these people for anything is revealed in all its unglory as deeply selfish and terribly destructive, as my cynical heart believes love always to be. (Want to screw up a friendship? Fall in love with your friend! *bang* goes any hope of remaining on good terms...but I digress.)A movie version of this novella, starring Faye Dunaway, appeared about 25 years ago. It wasn't very good. I am amazed at that, since Zweig's writing is so clear and simple that I'd think it was a shoo-in to have excellent dialogue come out of the characters' mouths. C'est la vie, as conventionally Francophile Mathilde would say...doubtless in a heavy Viennese accent.So, okay, the point is: Recommended to Zweigers, cynics, and those with pubescent boys at home. Romantics, leave on shelf. "Life is Beautiful" and "La Traviata" fans, turn your backs upon. Multi-eyed, part-alien cyborgs, read and learn...this is what humans are *really* like, and it's not a terribly pretty picture.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully written novella about loss of innocence and the "burning secrets" of life and love. This is my first Stefan Zweig read and I am really impressed. Reading this novella started off a year long group read of Zweig works, and I eagerly anticipate the next books I will be reading. This book has everything I look for; great characters, a compelling plot, and above all, absolutely beautiful writing!