Of all the new authors I’ve read this year, Zweig might be my favorite. Not because he’s convincing or even because I agree with him on controversial issues, but because he offers a completely new way of looking at the world.
The world of yesterday is an artistic memoir that made me want to weep. In many ways, he’s the flip side contemporary to famous world war authors like Lewis and Frankle. He offers the artist’s balm to the horror of the order-obsessed third riech. He rubbed shoulders with Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl (Author of the Jewish state), and Richard Strauss. He’s able to comment on the 20th-century transition of Europe in a way few can.
His perspective on the cultural, artistic and moral revolutions/devolutions is particularly worthwhile, but his most endearing trait is his ability to see worthwhile truth all around. When describing one minor author he wrote “when he was wrong, he was wrong in the most interesting ways”. This is precisely how I feel about Zweig.
To give you a taste of what the book is all about, here’s a brief quote.
“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.”