- Hardcover: 365 pages
- Publisher: Pushkin Press; New edition edition (1 April 2009)
- Language German
- ISBN-10: 1906548153
- ISBN-13: 978-1906548155
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 303,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
Frighteningly gripping … an intoxicating, morally shaking read about human responsibilities and a real reminder of what fiction can do best. --Ali Smith Best Books of the Year, The Guardian
Pushkin's fine list of classics continues with the only novel by Viennese master Stefan Zweig … both a shrewd political parable and a gorgeous period-piece. --Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
A most powerful novel … What is so impressive about Beware of Pity is Zweig's ability to make us feel the violently shifting emotions of all his characters as if they were our own. Only a writer of great sensitivity could do this. --Anthony Daniels The Sunday Telegraph
Pushkin's fine list of classics continues with the only novel by Viennese master Stefan Zweig … both a shrewd political parable and a gorgeous period-piece. --Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
A most powerful novel … What is so impressive about Beware of Pity is Zweig's ability to make us feel the violently shifting emotions of all his characters as if they were our own. Only a writer of great sensitivity could do this. --Anthony Daniels The Sunday Telegraph
Review
"Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read...a feverish, fascinating novel." Anthony Beevor, Sunday Telegraph"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are two reasons to buy this book:
1)The edition is exquisite. Pushkin Press (a small publishing house based in London devoted to the publishing of great, but forgotten C20th European novels) produce books of great taste; free of blurbs, unsightly reviews and garish shiny covers. The translations are always top quality, the leetering is great, printed on thick textured paper.
These books WILL become collectors items. Buy them and support this forward looking publishing house.
1)The edition is exquisite. Pushkin Press (a small publishing house based in London devoted to the publishing of great, but forgotten C20th European novels) produce books of great taste; free of blurbs, unsightly reviews and garish shiny covers. The translations are always top quality, the leetering is great, printed on thick textured paper.
These books WILL become collectors items. Buy them and support this forward looking publishing house.
2)The book is exceptional. Unlike his contemporary Thomas Mann, Zweig never wastes a word; this is an exciting, enthralling page turner. It is also a very sensitive psychological study; of pity and its implications, obsession, vanity and despair; surely the only important issues for art. You will be moved to tears, you will scream at the characters and you will be glad that you have bought this masterpiece.
Zweig is a truly great novelist and I can assure you that after you buy this novel, you will buy all his other work
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I came to this book with some trepidation, firstly because it looked rather long and dense (long is fine, but long and dense maybe not) and secondly because the topic of a mistaken love affair is not really up my street. However, it was the January choice of my book group, so I had to read it. Within a few pages I was hooked. The novel, set in the Austro-Hungarian empire in the early part of the 20th century, tells the story of a young second lieutenant who finds himself embroiled in a relationship with a partly paralysed 17 year old girl. Her family encourage the relationship and it is only when it is too late that he discovers the girl's love for him and also the impossibility of breaking her heart at a time she is about to embark on a new course of medical treatment, so she can get better "just for him". The novel is not just about love, it is about obsession, guilt, and the way the expectations of others can so easily dominate our choices so that we act as others expect us rather than as we want to. It is interesting to view this story in the light of modern assertiveness training, because all the way through the reader can see that Toni, the young officer, is subjugating his own needs for the needs of someone to whom he has no obligations whatsoever - he is in fact ruled only by her fantasies and the expectations of her father and sister.
The novel is remarkably suspenseful because the plot unfolds gradually and at each stage the reader cringes as the net of this sick love slowly ensnares him. It is full of strong characters: the doctor who treats the young woman and slowly enveigles Toni in her treatment regime; the old brutal colonel who turns out to be more wise than the other characters; the girls father who's whole life is a quest for his daughter's well-being. Different aspects of these characters are revealed as the novel slowly travels towards its inevitable conclusion and each one has a unique role in the ensnarement and ultimate release of the young officer.
The novel is beautifully produced by Pushkin press - the clear typeface, fine paper and strong cover makes this a pleasure to read. Alas, this is Zweig's only novel and I was left thirsting for more from this fine writer.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is impossible to commend this wonderful book too highly. All praise to the Pushkin Press for letting us have this and so many other great, neglected works available in translation. The plot is utterly gripping - there are no chapter divisions and none are needed for one turns the pages feverishly and breathlessly, yet space for the profoundest reflections on love, pity and sympathy opens in the flow so that there is never a claustrophobic sense. In its pyschological penetration, in its understanding of the relations of the moral, the religious and the sensuous and the corruption that can arise in each sphere it is up there with Kierkegaard or Dostoyevsky. Deeply embedded in the structure of the Austrian Empire the book is absolutely universal with an intensity and breadth of sympathy for its characters that seems to belong at once to the hothouses world of Freud and and to the inspirations of the mystics. Don't read anything else before you read this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pleasant surpirse
I had read "Chess" so expected the same sort of detachment. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that Zweig not only writes with precision and clairty but can vary his style... Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. J. Benson
Masterpiece
Beware of Pity
I understand this is Zweig's only full length novel.It is absolutely brilliant!
It compares favourably with the great Russian writers
I understand this is Zweig's only full length novel.It is absolutely brilliant!
It compares favourably with the great Russian writers
Published 5 months ago by R. Rowland
One of the greatest novels?
"Beware of Pity" is breathtaking, making one examine the qualities one demands of fiction and ruminate on how seldom they are fulfilled. Read more
Published 11 months ago by H. Carlton
Deeply poignant and moving - a profound exploration of pity and its...
This is a beautifully written, deeply moving novel, set in 1914 in a small, provincial garrison town near the Hungarian border, told in retrospect, using the present tense, by... Read more
Published 13 months ago by R. G. White
"No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it"
Thinking about this book, I think "sublime" is the right word to describe it.
It is beautifully written, a heart-wrenching dissection of a young man's emotional... Read more
It is beautifully written, a heart-wrenching dissection of a young man's emotional... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Keen Reader
Deserves to be remembered with the major classics
I read this book on a whim and was blown away. I find these sort of Victorian/Edwardian-era novels can be a bit tedious sometimes, with overly flowery language and melodrama. Read more
Published 18 months ago by G. Cseh
Do yourself a favour
I totally loved this book and would highly recommend it to every serious reader.
It's not for those who want light-hearted, fluffy stuff but utterly worthwhile and... Read more
It's not for those who want light-hearted, fluffy stuff but utterly worthwhile and... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Teecee
'Beware of Pity' by Stefan Zweig
Toni Hofmiller is a second lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry. The year is 1913, he 25 years old and he is garrisoned in a small Austrian town. Read more
Published on 25 May 2010 by Joseph Porter
Masterpiece - again!
Profound, gripping and very well written. Would also recommend Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman and Fear.
Published on 19 Mar 2010 by Ms. A. Johnsson
A European Master
This is one of the great masterpieces of twentieth century European literature. A brilliant and compelling book, it forces you to rethink your moral landscape. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2009 by Downing
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