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I just want to say that's one of the greatest books I've read in recent years. Highly recommended!

by svara 6y ago

odiroot 6y ago
I'm reading this book in original, for over a year now. The language is quite hard.
- ImaCake 6y ago
  Does he use standard Hochdeutsch in the book? I would have loved to read it in the original language, but I struggle with easy reading novels targeted at teenagers in German.
  - svara 6y ago
    Yes he does, there is basically no difference between written German in Austria and Germany, and he writes in a very modern tone. Compared to other novels of that time period the writing is actually very clear, it's definitely well suited to (advanced) students of German. My guess is the biggest issue would be vocabulary.
    - odiroot 6y ago
      Yes the vocabulary is the absolute killer. He uses a lot of outdated and local (Viennese dialect) words. I'm reading the book with Duden open in my browser.
082349872349872 6y ago
Wow, we complain about the immediacy of Twitter and FB, yet Zweig was already feeling too plugged-in in the mid-twentieth: "In times of catastrophe former generations could revert to isolation and remoteness; it was reserved for us to have to know and to co-sense whatever evil happened on our globe at the moment of its occurrence. No matter how far I withdrew from Europe, its fate accompanied me. Landing one night in Pernambuco, under the Southern Cross, dark-skinned people in the streets, I read on a news placard of the bombing of Barcelona and of the execution of a Spanish friend with whom, a few months before, I had spent some pleasant hours. Once in a Pullman car between Houston and another Texas city I suddenly became aware of loud, mad shouting in German: a fellow-passenger had innocently tuned the train radio to Germany’s wave length and in consequence I had to listen to one of Hitler’s inflammatory speeches while the train rolled along the Texas plains. There was no escape, not by day, not by night; always I was in a torment of anxiety about Europe and about Austria within Europe." I would be happy if one could once again board planes without doffing shoes, but Zweig remembers even more frictionless travel: "Before 1914 the earth had belonged to all. People went where they wished and stayed as long as they pleased. There were no permits, no visas, and it always gives me pleasure to astonish the young by telling them that before 1914 I travelled from Europe to India and to America without passport and without ever having seen one." "When those of us who had once conversed about Baudelaire’s poetry and spiritedly discussed intellectual problems met together, we would catch ourselves talking about affidavits and permits and whether one should apply for an immigration visa or a tourist visa; a stenographer in a consulate who could cut down one’s waiting-time was more significant to one’s existence than friendship with a Toscanini or a Rolland."
- ImaCake 6y ago
  On the passport thing, I was curious about how true it was. Turns out there has been fluctuating amounts of freedom of movement over the course of human history. Equivalents to passports have existed for a long time, so Zweigs nostalgic comments here only really generalise to a short period of European history. In fact, there are plenty of stories about the exploits of Scientific adventurers trying to get visas for international travel during the French revolution and Napoleonic wars period. English naturalist Joseph Banks was well known for his granting of passports to scientists in continental europe so they could travel through international waters and advance science. r/Askhistorians is a great place to look for more information. Here is a pretty good threat related to the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dq9940/why_do_passports_come_with_a_message_asking_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dq9940/why_d...

I just want to say that's one of the greatest books I've read in recent years. Highly recommended!

by svara 6y ago

I just want to say that's one of the greatest books I've read in recent years. Highly recommended!

odiroot 6y ago

I'm reading this book in original, for over a year now. The language is quite hard.

ImaCake 6y ago
Does he use standard Hochdeutsch in the book? I would have loved to read it in the original language, but I struggle with easy reading novels targeted at teenagers in German.
- svara 6y ago
  Yes he does, there is basically no difference between written German in Austria and Germany, and he writes in a very modern tone. Compared to other novels of that time period the writing is actually very clear, it's definitely well suited to (advanced) students of German. My guess is the biggest issue would be vocabulary.
  - odiroot 6y ago
    Yes the vocabulary is the absolute killer. He uses a lot of outdated and local (Viennese dialect) words. I'm reading the book with Duden open in my browser.

082349872349872 6y ago

Wow, we complain about the immediacy of Twitter and FB, yet Zweig was already feeling too plugged-in in the mid-twentieth: "In times of catastrophe former generations could revert to isolation and remoteness; it was reserved for us to have to know and to co-sense whatever evil happened on our globe at the moment of its occurrence. No matter how far I withdrew from Europe, its fate accompanied me. Landing one night in Pernambuco, under the Southern Cross, dark-skinned people in the streets, I read on a news placard of the bombing of Barcelona and of the execution of a Spanish friend with whom, a few months before, I had spent some pleasant hours. Once in a Pullman car between Houston and another Texas city I suddenly became aware of loud, mad shouting in German: a fellow-passenger had innocently tuned the train radio to Germany’s wave length and in consequence I had to listen to one of Hitler’s inflammatory speeches while the train rolled along the Texas plains. There was no escape, not by day, not by night; always I was in a torment of anxiety about Europe and about Austria within Europe." I would be happy if one could once again board planes without doffing shoes, but Zweig remembers even more frictionless travel: "Before 1914 the earth had belonged to all. People went where they wished and stayed as long as they pleased. There were no permits, no visas, and it always gives me pleasure to astonish the young by telling them that before 1914 I travelled from Europe to India and to America without passport and without ever having seen one." "When those of us who had once conversed about Baudelaire’s poetry and spiritedly discussed intellectual problems met together, we would catch ourselves talking about affidavits and permits and whether one should apply for an immigration visa or a tourist visa; a stenographer in a consulate who could cut down one’s waiting-time was more significant to one’s existence than friendship with a Toscanini or a Rolland."

ImaCake 6y ago
On the passport thing, I was curious about how true it was. Turns out there has been fluctuating amounts of freedom of movement over the course of human history. Equivalents to passports have existed for a long time, so Zweigs nostalgic comments here only really generalise to a short period of European history. In fact, there are plenty of stories about the exploits of Scientific adventurers trying to get visas for international travel during the French revolution and Napoleonic wars period. English naturalist Joseph Banks was well known for his granting of passports to scientists in continental europe so they could travel through international waters and advance science. r/Askhistorians is a great place to look for more information. Here is a pretty good threat related to the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dq9940/why_do_passports_come_with_a_message_asking_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dq9940/why_d...