The Burning Secret
By Stefan Zweig
4/5
()
About this ebook
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.
Read more from Stefan Zweig
Beware of Pity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chess Story (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amok Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burning Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomain Rolland Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Related to The Burning Secret
Related ebooks
The burning secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Émile Verhaeren Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPot Luck (Pot-Bouille) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame Bovary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chance Meetings: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sentimental Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonday or Tuesday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ward No. 6 and Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Too Loud a Solitude: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Double Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works Of O. Henry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Laughter and Forgetting: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwilight in Italy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Appointment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from the Underground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Dreary Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrunken Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War and Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Room of One’s Own (Wisehouse Classics Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of the Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Autobiography of Countess Tolstoy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Memoirs: Expanded Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Portrait of a Lady Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Laughing Matter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crime and Punishment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Happy Failure: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Burning Secret
103 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A 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!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Well, 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 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...
Book preview
The Burning Secret - Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
The Burning Secret
New Edition
LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW
PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA
TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING
New Edition
Published by Sovereign Classic
This Edition
First published in 2019
Copyright © 2019 Sovereign Classic
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: 9781787360723
Contents
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER I
THE PARTNER
THE train, with a shrill whistle, pulled into Summering. For a moment the black coaches stood still in the silvery light of the uplands to eject a few vivid human figures and to swallow up others. Exacerbated voices called back and forth; then, with a puffing and a chugging and another shrill shriek, the dark train clattered into the opening of the tunnel, and once more the landscape stretched before the view unbroken in all its wide expanse, the background swept clean by the moist wind.
One of the arrivals, a young man pleasantly distinguished by his good dress and elastic walk, hurried ahead of the others and entered one of the hotel ’buses. The horses took the steep road leisurely. Spring was in the air. Up in the sky floated the white shifting clouds of May and June, light, sportive young creatures, playfully coursing the blue path of heaven, suddenly dipping and hiding behind the mountains, embracing and running away, crumpling up like handkerchiefs, elongating into gauzy scarfs, and ending their play by roguishly perching white caps on the mountain tops. There was unrest below, too, in the wind, which shook the lean trees, still wet from the rain, and set their limbs a-groaning softly and brought down a thousand shining drops. Sometimes a cool breath of snow descended from the mountains, and then there was a feel in the air both balmy and cutting. All things in the atmosphere and on the earth were in motion and astir with the ferment of impatience. The horses tossed their heads and snorted as they now trotted down a descent, the sound of their bells jingling far ahead of them.
On arriving at the hotel, the young man made straight for the registry and looked over the list of guests. He was disappointed.
What the deuce have I come here for?
he thought in vexation. Stuck ’way up here on top of the mountain all alone, no company; why it’s worse than the office. I must have come either too early or too late. I never do have luck with my holidays. Not a single name do I know. If only there was a woman or two here to pick up a flirtation with, even a perfectly innocent one, if it must be, just to keep the week from being too utterly dismal.
The young man, a baron not very high up in the country’s nobility, held a government position, and had secured this short vacation not because he required it particularly, but because his colleagues had all got a week off in spring and he saw no reason for making a present of his week off
to the government. Although not without inner resources, he was a thoroughly social being, his sociability being the very quality for which his friends liked him and for which he was welcomed in all circles. He was quite conscious of his inability to stay by himself and had no inclination to meet himself, as it were, but rather avoided his own company, feeling not the least urge to become intimately acquainted with his own soul. He knew he required contact with other human beings to kindle his talents and stir up the warmth and exuberance of his spirits. Alone he was like a match in a box, frosty and useless.
He paced up and down the hall, completely out of sorts, stopping now and then irresolutely to turn the leaves of the magazines, or to glance at the newspapers, or to strike up a waltz on the piano in the music-room. Finally he sat down in a sulk and watched the growing dusk and the gray mist steal in patches between the fir-trees. After a long, vain, fretful hour he took refuge in the dining-room.
As yet only a few of the tables were occupied. He took them in at a swift glance. No use. No one he knew, except—he responded to the greeting listlessly—a gentleman to whom he had spoken on the train, and farther off a familiar face from the metropolis. No one else. Not a single woman to promise even a momentary adventure. He became more and more impatient and out of sorts.
Being a young man favored with a handsome face, he was always prepared for a new experience. He was of the sort of men who are constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to plunge into an adventure for the sake of its novelty, yet whom nothing surprises because, forever lying in wait, they have calculated every possibility in advance. Such men never overlook any element of the erotic. The very first glance they cast at a woman is a probe into the sensual, a searching, impartial probe that knows no distinction between the wife of a friend or the maid who opens the door to her house. One rarely realizes, in using the ready-made word woman-hunter,
which we toss in contempt at such men, how true the expression is and how much of faithful observation it implies. In their watchful alertness all the passionate instincts of the chase are afire, the stalking, the excitement, the cruel cunning. They are always at their post, always ready and determined to follow the tracks of an adventure up to the very brink of the precipice, always loaded with passion, not with the passion of a lover, but with the cold, calculating, dangerous passion of a gambler. Some of them are doggedly persevering, their whole life shaping itself, from this expectancy, into one perpetual adventure. Each day is divided for them into a hundred little sensual experiences—a passing look, a flitting smile, an accidental contact of the knees—and each year into a hundred such days, in which the sensual experience constitutes the ever-flowing, life-giving and quickening source of their existence.
There was no partner for a game here—that the baron’s experienced eye instantly detected. And there is nothing more exasperating than for a player with cards in his hands, conscious of his ability, to be sitting at the green table vainly awaiting a partner. The baron called for a newspaper, but merely ran his eyes down the columns fretfully. His thoughts were crippled and he stumbled over the words.
Suddenly he heard the rustling of a dress and a woman’s voice saying in a slightly vexed tone:
Mais tais toi donc, Edgar.
Her accent was affected.
A tall voluptuous figure in silk crackled by his table, followed by a small, pale boy in a black velvet suit. The boy eyed the baron curiously, as the two seated themselves at a table reserved for them opposite to him. The child was