Her acceptance of his superficiality should have annoyed my inner-feminist. A famous author receives a letter on his fort So I decided to read my second Zweig book, 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. I really enjoyed this - a tender, moving and so well written short story collection, looking at unrequited love, obsession and changes in lives over time. Wow, as good as the movie. This book has four stories, the title story and three others - 'A Story Told in Twilight', 'A Debt Paid Late' and 'Forgotten Dreams'. My uncle recommended the author to me, I'd seen the film of the first story so thought I'd try it. “Letters From an Unknown Woman” is a sharp corrective to the stately-homes lens through which Americans often view the historical Brits. Just finished the first story and it worths a five-star. The last one is a short story. As an old lover writes to Tory’s mother, “you have only become a proper woman since the day you ate Mr. Dando.”. Boring, boring, done a thousand times over. The other story that really got me was about an old time actor that is well past his sell-by date who gets completely ignored in the local village and pub that he frequents except one day when a younger woman turns up and recognises him. This book comprises 4 stories and 3 of them were amazing - 2 in particular. We wouldn't get along had we met at a book club disc. As her life ebbs away at each stroke of her pen, he learns about a love he never knew could exist. Instead it made my heart bleed to hear her recount the lack of recognition on the love of her life’s face at each chance (or otherwise) encounter. As meat is in short supply, a direct hit obliterating Icarus Dando’s neighborhood butcher shop looks like very bad news, so it’s a spot of luck when Tory’s mother spies “an almost perfect leg of pork” apparently flung across the street by the blast. The women actually seemed to be all the same, and I'm guessing it's just the case of yet another male author who can't write women as humans with more interesting things to do and think besides obsess about men. Her given name, she is amused to note, is contained in the word “lavatory.”, The novel, Woodward’s fourth, is entitled “Nourishment” in Britain, and it is more about digestion than about letters. The concept is simple, the characters are few and the story is short but this somehow made the lady’s tale still sadder. So I decided to read my second Zweig book, 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. The letter is a confession of the lifelong love and obsession she had for him. This book comprises 4 stories and 3 of them were amazing - 2 in particular.

I'm shocked that I still feel it when I read this story today. Reminds me of some pathetic old days. . Melodramatic, repetitive, "what-else-can-I-throw-in-there-to-make-you-weep-my-dear-reader" type of story. There is a thick thread that runs through the four stories in this collection. I have to admit that Zweig is fast becoming one of my all-time great writers. Book Review of Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The first three are the length of a long short story or a short novella - somewhere between forty and fifty pages. Like Misery, but with a lot less crazy and a lot more melancholy. As an adult (having already read one of Zweig’s novels), I should read the story and see if I’m still in the mood for it. Such is his yearning for her that he demands a swift reply “full of all the dirtiest words and deeds you can think of.” Scandalized, she declines (“Would you like me to send you some chocolate?”), then later tries her best (“I imagine you taking me in your manly arms, my love, and then putting one of your hands on my behind”), which effort Donald returns with “not good enough!! There really is only one Zweig and he was a super gifted writer. He’s a limping grievance, oozing malice and envy. If anyone has lived through that, and I think we all probably have to some extent at some point, you'll see how weird it could've gotten - or maybe did get and you didn't know about it - depending on whether you are the obsessor or the obsessee. I have greatly enjoyed everything I have ever read by Stefan Zweig—from his masterful “Days of Yesterday” to his biographies, particularly his “Marie Antoinette”—and this small collection of four short stories is no exception. Among his most famous works are, “But I see nothing miraculous about it. Heartbreaking, I think I'll spend the next couple of weeks reading all of his books. It is worth it. Woodward’s London, both during and after the war, is a gray, cloacal city full of terrible food (except for the succulent Dando) and cavernous public lavatories, a setting quite dreary and sick-making, yet pierced with brutal shafts of beauty, humor and heartbreak. The love becomes almost an obsession and lasts a lifetime, though the love is unrequited. The last one i. I read my first Stefan Zweig book last year. Will interest any reader from the first line, a highly emotional, & heart-wrenching unrequited love story. As we are now in full-on soap opera mode, of course she conceives a child, of course. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Zweig is able to pull your heart strings unlike many writers. In Letter from an Unknown Woman, the lady’s confession that she had sat and watched his window just seemed unbearably sad. 3.5. I don't know about his other stories, but through these two, I can tell that he's a man that really has a gift for understanding women and their nature in love :)). Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948) 28.

Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Well, it was today ;-). It was called 'A Game of Chess and other stories'. The thing that I love about these two short stories in this book is the way the author organize the stories, and the way he told them with such deep sympathy and emotions. 2013 These stories all, in one fashion or another, speak of love.