The Society of the Crossed Keys: Selections from the Writings of Stefan Zweig, Inspirations for The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and between the wars was an international bestselling author. With the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath, New York and Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double death by suicide. Ovo možda jeste knjiga za fanove Cvajgovog i Andersonovog opusa, ali je takođe super ako ste "početnik" i želite da se upoznate sa Cvajgom i vidite šta može da vam ponudi. The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved, as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed.' -- David Hare Uvek je lepo vratiti se Cvajgu, naročito kada se radi o izboru jednog od tvojih omiljenih reditelja. Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.

Na početku knjige izdvaja se intervju koji je zapravo više diskusija između Vesa Andersona i esejiste Pročnika koji je ekspert za Cvajga. Tu se njih dvojica udubljuju u Štefanov život, dela, simboliku, lepotu stvaralaštva i naravno Ves priča šta je to što ga je naročito privuklo Cvajgu i na koji način je dobio inspiraciju za Grand Budapest Hotel. This is actually a collection of excerpts of Stefan Zweig's works, plus an introduction about him and his writing in the form of a conversation. I enjoyed the conversation, but it made much more sense after reading the excerpts. The first excerpt is from World of Yesterday, which was a kind of autobiography and hugely interesting for the author's perspective on causes and lead-ups to WWI, which was from the point of view of the artistic community of Europe. The second was a very short excerpt from Beware of Pity which made me hugely curious to read the rest. The last was from 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman and was curious for the different perspectives and morals you can read into the old woman's story: from her own voice, from the voice of the narrator, from Zweig's voice as author, and from our own 21st century perspective as we read it. The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson’s selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel. Like everyone else, my interest in the book stemmed from my interest in the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. I was curious to see how the life and works of Stefan Zweig inspired the movie, and what kind of connections I could make with the book to the film. The book starts with a brief foreword with Wes Anderson, providing an introduction to Zweig and the movie. This section was alright, nothing too grand that made me excited as a reader.As an introduction to Zweig's fiction we are given an extract from Beware of Pity, that nicely continues this idea of honour being paramount. This is only a short extract, but it is enough to capture a flavour of the rest of the novel. Women look more beautiful to me now that they are at liberty to display their figures; their gait is more upright, their eyes brighter, their conversation less stilted. Stefan Zweig was a massive name in literature in the first half of the twentieth century although his fame seems to have missed Britain. He wrote novellas and novels, plays and biographies; and his work was adapted for stage and film both in Europe and in Hollywood. He was a star, but by the start of the 21st century his work was virtually unknown. That is until the wonderful Pushkin Press started republishing his works. Now an extensive collection of his writing is available in English. I first came across Zweig when a copy of Beware of Pity came into the shop, as a massive fan of central European literature and of anything relating to the Hapsburg empire especially I knew that I would enjoy this novel about the concept of honour in the Austrian officer class in the run up to the First World War. I was right, the novel is wonderful I urge anyone who has any interest in the period to read it. Since then I've been able to read a fair few of Zweig's other works, some of his biographies and a few of his novellas, each one has been a perfect self contained piece of writing. The first work from Zweig is his memoir 'The World of Yesterday'. Personally, I'm not a fan of memoirs so it was a bit difficult for me to read through (took me almost a year). However I did enjoy Zweig's writing, particularly about social customs that changed and evolved throughout his life. Zweig's writing mannerisms, especially regarding his descriptive writing about his surroundings (the setting, the people, everything), was very well reflected in the movie. The extract of the memoir comprises of the largest portion of the book, and after reading, it is clear why - the movie was clearly inspired by The World of Yesterday. Here's a quote that I enjoyed from The World of Yesterday: Nakon četiri poglavlja iz memoara,dato nam je svega tridesetak stranica njegovog romana Beware of Pity/Ungeduld des Herzens, dovoljno da poželim da ga opet pročitam.

This book has been published to coincide with the release of the Grand Budapest Hotel unlike other film related books this maintains the simple styling of the other Zweig books published by Pushkin Press. Potom slede delovi iz Cvajgovih memoara i baš sam uživala u prikazima društva i događaja iz perioda njegove mladosti. Posebno je zanimljivo kako piše o muško-ženskim odnosima, kako su mladi bili na neki način ugnjetavani socijalnim konvencijama i kako je strašno što su devojke morale da budu utegnute u korsete i da večito vode računa o tome da li su pokrivene, očešljane... pa kako je to sve uticalo na njihovu seksualnost i potiskivanje strasti. Cvajg feminista. All I know is that I had a constant wish to die, but not the strength to hasten the end I longed for so ardently. Selected extracts from Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, an unrivalled evocation of bygone Europe. One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories.'--Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber EyesNot that The World Of Yesterday is about war. It's about Viennese bourgeois life, Zweig's first attempts to break into journalism, his bad early poetry and how it felt to be liberal, Jewish and arty at the start of the 20th century. He says the anti-Semite Karl Lueger becoming mayor of Vienna in 1897 had surprisingly little effect on his circle. They thought the peace, prosperity and cultural pre-eminence they'd grown up with would prove more enduring than petty hate. An extract from Zweig’s only novel, a devastating depictionof the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love.