•
Rating:
Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna in 1881, a writer from a Jewish family, he spent his childhood in the midst of the vibrant Austro-Hungarian cultural milieu. A free and cosmopolitan spirit, he distanced himself from his homeland to understand the spirit and culture of European countries, staying aloof from the cultural trends and movements of the early century and always analyzing the philosophies and thoughts of his contemporaries with a critical but fascinated eye. In this autobiography, Zweig narrates his life up until the outbreak of the Second World War in a linear manner, highlighting historical facts, the sensations, and feelings provoked by the outbreak of the two major conflicts. Contrary to what one might think, the reading is very smooth and interesting. Zweig is never pedantic thanks to his ability to focus exclusively on what allows us readers to clearly understand the succession of historical events, and through interesting and sometimes amusing anecdotes, it is natural to grow fond of the author, a humble and big-hearted person. In this sweet and bitter autobiography, Zweig contrasts the world before and after the outbreak of the two wars, describing how the lightness and optimism of the pre-war period were dismantled by blind ferocity and madness, interspersing the painful events with descriptions of his encounters with the greatest artists of the time: from Hofmannsthal to Sigmund Freud. The tragic events that followed one after the other, arising amidst the full bloom of progress and at the peak of faith in humanity, constitute a major trauma for the author that would accompany him throughout his life and lead him away from his homeland and friends until he committed, along with his wife, the ultimate act. The author, above any political identity, does not indulge in easy or utopian speeches; instead, he analyzes the historical context and social fabric in which certain movements and figures could assert themselves, questioning the motivations that drove them to impose themselves on the global scene. Zweig would suffer greatly in the last years of his life, transitioning from a carefree cosmopolitan to a desperate stateless person; England, a country that initially welcomed him as a wonderful guest, with the outbreak of the war, degraded him to a "refugee" and as an Austrian, an enemy of the state.
"In reality, perhaps nothing makes the abyss into which the world has fallen since the First World War more evident than the limitation of freedom of movement and the impairment of a natural right. Before 1914, the earth belonged to everyone: one went wherever they wanted and stayed as long as they wanted [...] Only after the war did the world's perturbation caused by nationalism begin, and as its first phenomenon, it provoked the intellectual and epidemic disease of our century: xenophobia."
The book was published posthumously shortly after his death, an autobiography like few others, it is more than recounting the personal life of the author; it is an extremely important historical document trying to keep the memory of a period intact, tracing the slow decline of old values towards the affirmation of much more violent and meaner new ones. It is the portrait of a generation that, like no other before, found itself burdened with the unbearable weight of great changes in just a few years. It is unsettling to know how technological and scientific progress has advanced hand in hand with a general dulling and debasement of our being, as usual, we are repeating the same mistakes of the past and books like this can only help recover something that is completely missing from our generation more than from those before, a historical memory from which to draw to avoid remaining long in an era that, having already started with one foot in the grave, grows darker and more uncertain with the passing years.
"We go to seek time as it seeks us" William Shakespeare (and epigraph to "The World of Yesterday")
Loading comments slowly
