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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A remarkable autobiography, 9 Sep 2006
Zweig's aim was to compose an eyewitness report on the first part of the twentieth century in order to save the horrendous truth for the next generations.
It is a shocking report about what he calls the 'Apocalypse': terror, war, revolutions, inflation, famine, epidemics, emigration, the rise of bolshevism, fascism and the most horrific plague of all: nationalism.
He gives us a compelling story of contrasts: the soldiers in the trenches and the arms merchants with their luxury life; English unemployed in five star hotels in Salzburg because they could afford a luxury life on the continent with their unemployment benefits; the brothels and the suicides because of syphilis (Eros Matutina); and the desertion of the Kaiser as a thief in the night at the end of the war, after driving millions of his compatriots into a certain death.
He also relates his encounters with fellow writers like Gide, Rolland, Rilke or Verhaeren.
A moving, outspoken, penetrating and emotional report.
A masterpiece.
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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BEST OF ALL TIMES, 31 Jan 2003
For me the best book of all times. Zweig "World of Yesterday" is an unforgettable classic, witch should be mandatory in any high school. The best-selling writer in "yesterday world", world of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Mann and any other great writers, he could be happy that his work is not granted in "today world", world of Harry Potter, and similar books. This book is much more then autobiography, it's a story of one time, it's a vivid, moving and nostalgic portrayal of Europe before wars, it's a story about intellectual brotherhood witch tried to prevent nationalistic madness that destroyed the Europe and the World, twice. It is a story about what Zweig calls the "Apocalypse": war, revolutions, inflation, famine, epidemics, emigration, the rise of bolshevism, fascism and the most horrific of all: nationalism. Zweig commits a suicide after he finished this work (1942), he stay in "World of Yesterday".
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
breathtaking, 20 Dec 2007
fantastic book and great review by the gentleman from serbia - particularly as regards the harry potter. It is truly mindblowingly, heartrendingly tragic that a non-entity writing about goblins and magic wands can auction off one of her manuscripts for 1.7 million pounds, whereas Zweig, a genius who teaches us what it is to be human, ended up committing suicide. But that's what people today want: easily read poop....
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