Stefan Zweig Handbuch ed. by Arturo Larcati, Klemens Renolder, and Martina Wörgötter (review)

In the last half-century, the view of Stefan Zweig has drastically changed and expanded. Since 1992, the fiftieth anniversary of his and his wife's suicide in Brazil, a great deal of biographical studies, correspondence, and monographs has been published, all casting a new light on Zweig and his past work. Unfinished works or fragments, such as The Post Office Girl and Clarissa, both recently released as English translations, have also added to global interest in Zweig and his literary works, leading to new studies and further research into Zweig's style and themes. Furthermore, well-received films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel have awakened the interest of film enthusiasts and screenwriters worldwide.

Stefan Zweig Handbuch is indeed a strong contributor to this reawakening. This reference work presents not only the many facets to Zweig's life but also traces the development of his rather short literary career and his political as well as social views. Divided into nine different parts, fine details of Zweig's life and the various areas in which Zweig involved himself are revealed and reflected upon, including literature, art, culture, history, politics, and society. The biography at the beginning of the handbook sets the stage for the rest of this detailed reference work, providing a starting point from which to trace Zweig's development as a premier writer of international renown. From his areligious Jewish childhood to his first marriage and finally to his death by his own hand, this volume relates the various high and low points in the author's life. References to his "Zusammenstösse(n) mit der Welt der Erwachsenen" (4), as related by his first wife, set the stage for what would later develop Zweig's style as a writer. Indeed, this short biography provides excellent information that delves into the hows and whys of Zweig's themes. His relationship with his father, his opulent lifestyle, his upbringing by a nanny, his student and university life, the experiences during the First World War, his farewell to Vienna, his life in the USSR, and his unsuccessful attempts to escape his Jewishness all provided impetus for the development of Zweig's style and his unconventional themes.

Part II of the work provides six different articles that trace the literary and cultural/historical conditions that shaped Zweig, both as a young man coming of age in turn-of-the-century Vienna and as a writer who was attached to an area of the world that was less than friendly to its Jewish citizenry. Jacques Le Rider describes Zweig as an artist trapped between tradition and modern times. "Als Vakuum wird hier die Lage der Künste, der Literatur, und des Wiener Kulturlebens am Ausgang der Blütezeit des Historismus bezeichnet," (43) as Le Rider so aptly puts it. Part III of this work contains a lengthy description of Zweig's dramas, short story collections, legends, novels, novellas, literary biographies, essays, feuilletons, diaries, letters, and translations. Included therein is an article on Filmprojekte by Manfred Mittermayer, which illustrates Zweig's own interest in film in the 1930s as well as his posthumous entry into the modern twenty-first-century global film industry. Further bibliographical information in this section is helpful to the student of Zweig should he or she desire to dig further into Zweig's path to the world of celluloid. Part IV details all of the systematic aspects of Zweig's writing in the areas of literature, art, and culture. Biblical references, myth, the artistic process, music, theater, and the demonic have all contributed to Zweig's themes. Part V continues on this same path, discussing in detail the roles of history, politics, and society in Zweig's work. Included in this section are discussions of humanity, pacifism, Jewish identity, sexuality, and suicide. The articles contained in this section provide an excellent overview into Zweig's later development as a writer as the Nazis began...