Anna Baddeley

A lost classic brought back to life

Full marks to Radio 4 for deciding to dramatise Stefan Zweig’s masterpiece, Beware of Pity (listen on BBC iPlayer). This is a rare example of a “neglected classic” that actually lives up to the hype.

Born in Austria in 1881, Zweig was one of the most famous writers of the twenties and thirties, his novellas and biographies translated into more languages than any other contemporary author. Despite being friends with Freud and living the rarefied life of a mittel-European intellectual, his style and subject matter were avowedly populist (a crime registered in this London Review of Books essay). Beware of Pity — his only full-length novel — was published just before the second world war.

It’s set in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian empire in the run-up to another war, the First World War, but it might as well have been Russia in the 1860s. The publishers should really put a sticker on it saying “If you liked Turgenev, you’ll love this.” Like the great Russian novelists, Zweig sets his tale of personal turmoil against a backdrop of political and social unrest, turning a gripping read into something profound.

And as with Turgenev and Tolstoy, it is the personal story that is the most memorable. Rarely have I read a novel where the emotions seemed so very real and all the characters so equally human. This tale of unrequited love also has a useful moral: don’t ever lead anyone on, or allow yourself to get led on, because it’s bound to end in tears (especially if one of you is a paraplegic).

One piece of advice: if you buy the Pushkin Press edition — an elegant translation by Anthea Bell — don’t read the blurb because it gives the story away.

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