Full marks to Radio 4 for deciding to dramatise Stefan Zweig’s masterpiece, Beware of Pity (listen on BBC iPlayer). This is a rare example of a “neglected classic” that actually lives up to the hype.
Born in Austria in 1881, Zweig was one of the most famous writers of the twenties and thirties, his novellas and biographies translated into more languages than any other contemporary author. Despite being friends with Freud and living the rarefied life of a mittel-European intellectual, his style and subject matter were avowedly populist (a crime registered in this London Review of Books essay). Beware of Pity — his only full-length novel — was published just before the second world war.
It’s set in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian empire in the run-up to another war, the First World War, but it might as well have been Russia in the 1860s.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in