Beware of Pity
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Review
"An unremittingly tense parable about emotional blackmail, this is a book which turns every reader into a fanatic" JULIE KAVANAGH, Intelligent Life (The Economist) "The great psychologists of love - Stendhal, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Turgenev - never went further than this" JOAN ACOCELLA "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 "A complex, gripping, terrifyingly truthful yet unjudging study of emotional blackmail; the corrosive, even corrupting effects of compassion; and the realisation that 'no guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it'" The Financial Times "The novel I'll really remember reading this year is Stefan Zweig's frighteningly gripping Beware of Pity, first published in 1939 (...) and part of the ongoing, valiant reprinting by Pushkin Press of Zweig's collected oeuvre; an intoxicating, morally shaking read about human responsibilities and a real reminder of what fiction can do best" ALI SMITH, TLS Book of the Year 2008
Product Description
In 1913 a young second lieutenant discovers the terrible danger of pity. He had no idea the girl was lame when he asked her to dance-his compensatory afternoon calls relieve his guilt but give her a dangerous glimmer of hope. Stefan Zweig's only novel is a devastating depiction of the torment of the betrayal of both honour and love, realised against the background of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pushkin Press release another Classic,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beware of Pity (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. 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
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful novel in a fine presentation,
By A Common Reader "Committed to reading" (Sussex, England) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Beware of Pity (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.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Between Freud and Christ,
By
This review is from: Beware of Pity (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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