The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig (Stefan Zweig)

As the title states, this work collects five novellas from famous Austrian author Stefan Zweig. They are:

- Burning Secret: A boy teeters between childhood and maturity as he wrestles with the secrets of life.

- A Chess Story: Idiosyncratic chess players square off in a tale of obsession.

- Fear: A psychological thriller about a woman wrestling with how to handle her infidelity.

- Confusion: A university student wrestles with the bizarre behavior of a beloved professor.

- Journey into the Past: A man and woman struggle with their life and longing from a decade past.

Zweig's stories are full of torment and anguish, with his characters in a permanent state of longing and obsession. They often come from means, but desire something other. His focus on psychoanalysis and fondness for Freud is evident: in four of the stories, there are strong sexual undertones. He writes well, and his stories are compelling, but his humanist focus removes most sense of right or wrong- it's about feeling and longing for him, with no thought to a moral law that should guide human conduct. His tales wrestle with what true life means- what really matters, what it means to be mature, but the focus is on desire vs. responsibility. And, appropriately, his characters almost never find true contentment- a correct conclusion to those who "spend labor on that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2). So there is value here in the probing- but you won't find answers. Some quotes I enjoyed:

"for the first time he thought he had understood the nature of human beings- they needed each other even when they appeared hostile, and it was very sweet to be loved by them."

Fear is the one tale where the protagonist seems to realize that contentment can be found in the life granted to her: 

"everything seemed worthless when you knew you couldn't take it with you." 

"She lay with her eyes closed to relish, at a deeper level, her real life or what it was, and it was now her happiness too. Something still hurt her, deep inside, but it was a promising pain, burning but mild, just as wounds burn when scar tissue is about to close over them for ever."

Rating: B+