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Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman & The Royal Game
In Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman , the dramatic disappearance of the wife of a wealthy businessman from a small hotel on the French Riviera prompts a distinguished English widow to recount her fleeting encounter with a young aristocrat many years before in Monte Carlo. In The Royal Game, a tantalizing encounter takes place between the reigning world chess champion and an unknown passenger on a cruise ship bound for Buenos Aires. The stranger's diffident manner masks his extraordinary ability to challenge the grand master in a game of chess but also conceals his dark and damaged past, the horror of which emerges as the game unfolds.
212 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2006
About the author
Stefan Zweig
2,058 books8,881 followersStefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.
Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.
Zweig's interest in psychology and the teachings of Sigmund Freud led to his most characteristic work, the subtle portrayal of character. Zweig's essays include studies of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Drei Meister, 1920; Three Masters) and of Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and Friedrich Nietzsche (Der Kampf mit dem Dämon, 1925; Master Builders). He achieved popularity with Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928; The Tide of Fortune), five historical portraits in miniature. He wrote full-scale, intuitive rather than objective, biographies of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935), and others. His stories include those in Verwirrung der Gefühle (1925; Conflicts). He also wrote a psychological novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Emile Verhaeren.
Most recently, his works provided the inspiration for 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.
Zweig's interest in psychology and the teachings of Sigmund Freud led to his most characteristic work, the subtle portrayal of character. Zweig's essays include studies of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Drei Meister, 1920; Three Masters) and of Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and Friedrich Nietzsche (Der Kampf mit dem Dämon, 1925; Master Builders). He achieved popularity with Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928; The Tide of Fortune), five historical portraits in miniature. He wrote full-scale, intuitive rather than objective, biographies of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935), and others. His stories include those in Verwirrung der Gefühle (1925; Conflicts). He also wrote a psychological novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Emile Verhaeren.
Most recently, his works provided the inspiration for 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
September 3, 2016
In the late 1930s a man sat down to write a book for a woman who wouldn't be born for many decades, and wouldn't read it for many more. This book belongs only to me. I'm going to go cry in my room.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
January 26, 2016
In love with Zweig ........ A fantastic writer indeed!
September 12, 2022
Made a brief pause between all fantasy and YA things I now read to try to remember something that we've been studying at school. This was like a gulp of fresh air.
I never understood Zweig back at school, and I now see why. "Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman" is an ornate depiction of the difficulties of human psychology in a labyrinth grown by social standards of the time. All this just makes the emotions and feelings more and more intense, vivid, sharp.
This story is such a wonderful piece of art.
I never understood Zweig back at school, and I now see why. "Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman" is an ornate depiction of the difficulties of human psychology in a labyrinth grown by social standards of the time. All this just makes the emotions and feelings more and more intense, vivid, sharp.
This story is such a wonderful piece of art.
June 9, 2019
Once again, Zweig at his best! Two short episodes from human life masterfully developed into attention-captivating and breath-taking novels. The topic of unhealthy game addiction (casino games and chess) passing like a red thread through both stories made it only reasonable to merge them in one book. But the stories touch on much more than that, the ability to understand before (or better still, instead) of judging being another one on the list of issues in focus.
And to add to this, Zweig shows his genius skill of describing human actions and the accompanying inner thoughts and emotions enabling one to see them as if in slow motion. The image of the game and the tension of game players was so vivid that I got absorbed too, with the resultant feeling of the blood throbbing in the temples. Highly recommended!
And to add to this, Zweig shows his genius skill of describing human actions and the accompanying inner thoughts and emotions enabling one to see them as if in slow motion. The image of the game and the tension of game players was so vivid that I got absorbed too, with the resultant feeling of the blood throbbing in the temples. Highly recommended!
July 23, 2017
Bilinmeyen Bir Kadının Mektup'un üzerimde bıraktığı etkiyi bırakmadı ama yine de çok severek okudum. Yavaş yavaş bu yazarın diğer kitaplarını da okumak istiyorum. Kitaplarının hafif kasvetli havası ve güçlü kadınları yazma şekli çok hoşuma gidiyor
March 9, 2016
What an amazing insight to a woman's heart. Bravo, Stefan Zweig!
March 15, 2022
Stefan Zweig, who penned, in my opinion, the most definitive biography of Marie Antoinette, has written another masterpiece in his short novella of "Twenty Fours Hours in the Life of a Woman." The story is told in the narrative style from a lady friend of Mrs. "C." Mrs. C is a wealthy widow of 42. Her husband died two years earlier. Both of her sons are grown. Mrs. C first meets this young man of 24 in the Casino at Monte Carlo. He is losing badly. She continues to watch and stare at him. She admires his youth and good looks. After he has lost all his money he wonders out onto the beach and settles down on a nearby bench. She follows him there, and then notices he has a revolver in hand. She becomes alarmed, and worries that this young man will harm himself. She approaches him and starts a conversation with him. He is from a noble family from Poland. Mrs. C convinces him to accompany her to a hotel where he can sleep for the night. While there makes an offer to him that if he swears off gambling for ever and returns to his family she will settles his gambling debts and fund his return home; he agrees. This novella was about a woman who assumed that passion has long since died, and had been revived by a brief encounter with a twenty-four year old man.
April 17, 2017
An excellent drama exploring the ways of the heart in old Europe, but not without enough dry passages of over-visualizing the nothingness that can happen in such a story, pages of watching a man not move on a park bench, or pages of descriptions of hands at a gambling table. Well written, no doubt, and the ending is worth the brief journey, but this particular outing is like a fine wine that's a bit too dry for my taste, hence the three out of five.
March 9, 2016
Sveyq iti oxunaqlı yazıçıdır və bu əsər sanki dediyimin sübutudur
March 16, 2017
Amazing book about our life and our feelings. The book shows us how human get slave of feelings. Everybody needs to read the book, because it help you control yourself.
March 1, 2024
A very interesting read. It's one of those stories that definitely made me feel something, but I can't yet pinpoint what exactly it made me feel. I will need more time to let this novella simmer in my brain.
I feel like this book will probably live in my head rent-free for a little while. I liked Zweig's writing a lot, and I will definitely take a look at his other works.
I feel like this book will probably live in my head rent-free for a little while. I liked Zweig's writing a lot, and I will definitely take a look at his other works.
June 13, 2023
El verdadero dilema entre poner 3 o 4 estrellas
October 2, 2009
Two novellas by German author Zweig. And they seem incredibly well translated.
Twenty-four hours is quite simply a story a woman tells a listener (and the readers) of 24 hours of her life in which she behaved rather uncharacteristically. The story really is rather simple but it is so beautifully written and so engaging that i read the novella in one sitting. Not a huge task, but considering all the other demands i have right now, an accolade to the writing.
The tale is actually about addiction and passion; deceit of others and of the self; hope and foolhardiness; and ultimately, about the separateness of us all. It’s about one woman’s hope that she could make a difference and her realisation that perhaps none of us can; about how society dictates and may not always be right. And about how the constraints of society, while exhilarating to flaunt, are almost impossible to truly escape.
While these are always arresting themes in a book, what makes this story so much more valuable is that this novella was first published in 1944, but Zweig died in ’42 so it was probably written in the 30s. Progressive thinker he was in the creation of his protagonist.
The Royal Game is, predictably, about chess. Or so it seems. Again, the story starts and seems to be about one thing and then isn’t. In this novella, a dim-witted idiot savant is discovered to be a chess genius. The story diverges from him when the narrator encounters him on a ship and tries to arrange an accidental meeting over a chess board. And so is introduced perhaps the ‘real’ story of the novella. Or perhaps not. It’s hard to decide.
This story raises the question of the difference between pride and a self-destructive inability to lose, obsession and addiction, single mindedness and monomania. It looks at chess as a motif for the ways in which we construct and conduct our lives; and the ways in which others, more powerful, do that for us.
Interesting stuff and also a hugely readable and engaging story.
I also really love the way this man writes – in some ways it is so old fashioned as to be a breath of fresh air.
‘Visitors who had come to see their friends scurried hither and thither, page boys with caps smartly cocked slithered through the public rooms shouting names snappily,...’
I loved both of these novellas and am glad to found Zwieg.
Twenty-four hours is quite simply a story a woman tells a listener (and the readers) of 24 hours of her life in which she behaved rather uncharacteristically. The story really is rather simple but it is so beautifully written and so engaging that i read the novella in one sitting. Not a huge task, but considering all the other demands i have right now, an accolade to the writing.
The tale is actually about addiction and passion; deceit of others and of the self; hope and foolhardiness; and ultimately, about the separateness of us all. It’s about one woman’s hope that she could make a difference and her realisation that perhaps none of us can; about how society dictates and may not always be right. And about how the constraints of society, while exhilarating to flaunt, are almost impossible to truly escape.
While these are always arresting themes in a book, what makes this story so much more valuable is that this novella was first published in 1944, but Zweig died in ’42 so it was probably written in the 30s. Progressive thinker he was in the creation of his protagonist.
The Royal Game is, predictably, about chess. Or so it seems. Again, the story starts and seems to be about one thing and then isn’t. In this novella, a dim-witted idiot savant is discovered to be a chess genius. The story diverges from him when the narrator encounters him on a ship and tries to arrange an accidental meeting over a chess board. And so is introduced perhaps the ‘real’ story of the novella. Or perhaps not. It’s hard to decide.
This story raises the question of the difference between pride and a self-destructive inability to lose, obsession and addiction, single mindedness and monomania. It looks at chess as a motif for the ways in which we construct and conduct our lives; and the ways in which others, more powerful, do that for us.
Interesting stuff and also a hugely readable and engaging story.
I also really love the way this man writes – in some ways it is so old fashioned as to be a breath of fresh air.
‘Visitors who had come to see their friends scurried hither and thither, page boys with caps smartly cocked slithered through the public rooms shouting names snappily,...’
I loved both of these novellas and am glad to found Zwieg.
September 19, 2017
I cannot begin to express how the writings of Zweig never cease to astound me, to submerge me into some kind of catharsis that I wouldn’t dare refuse. His understanding of passion, desperation and anxiety – of what is inherent to the human spirit itself – can only come from a man who himself had been found hopeless and, as we can all guess by now, on the brink of despair. I strongly recommend this short yet profound novel (like “Chess story”, it should not be missed).
December 19, 2016
Expected better from Zweig. The psychological insight was precise and clear but the prose was wordy and circular and at times I kept picturing an ouroboros. That's what this story was like, a snake eating it's own tail. Puzzling and unnecessary. Even tough it was short, could have been much shorter.
March 11, 2018
Two novellas by the Austrian author Zweig, who knows how to portray troubled minds beautifully.
Twenty Four Hours ... deals with passions, addiction and moral views of society who would condemn a woman for the choices she makes.
The Royal Game deals with another sort of passion or addiction which plays havoc on a chess player's mind.
Brilliantly written.
Twenty Four Hours ... deals with passions, addiction and moral views of society who would condemn a woman for the choices she makes.
The Royal Game deals with another sort of passion or addiction which plays havoc on a chess player's mind.
Brilliantly written.
February 13, 2015
Two long stories about passion. I think Zweig's talent is all about juicy details of human psychology :)
Shelved as 'on-hold'
December 7, 2019“But, I have just said it, all suffering is cowardly: it recoils before the power of will-life which is anchored more strongly in our flesh than all the passion of death is in our mind.”
July 4, 2021
What a pleasant little story! For sure, “Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman” is a delightful novella, and if I read it its original language, German, which could have taken away some of the poetry since I did not necessarily understood every word I was reading, it still constitutes a very pleasant and distracting reading.
The novella takes place in a hotel, where the narrator meets Mrs. C., an elder lady who decides to share with him a particular part of her life she experienced during her stay in Monte Carlo. She indeed encountered there a very special man, decades ago, as she was a middle-aged widow suffering from deep boredom and loneliness after the death of her beloved husband. In a hundred pages or so, she explains her meeting with a mesmerizing stranger addicted to gamble, who change her life in just 24 hours. Through the pages, her narrative takes us to the genuine ambiance of the French Riviera, where passions are unleashed, and where the characters seem to flirt constantly with despair and death. Both glamourous and gloomy, Mrs. C. ‘s story tackles very vast subject such as addiction, gambling, and respectability questions, but approach at the same time a broader questioning around moral and ethics.
It is overall a very charming story. The universe described by Mrs. C. , whose epicentre is a casino gambling table, is genuinely unique, and bathes the reader into an old and glamourous ambiance charming and repulsive in the same time when it arouses addictions amid the player. The writing is fluid, the descriptions are both pure and detailed, and Mrs. C. truly succeeds in describing those 24 hours which changed her life forever.
Moreover, the novella tackles issues such as the “respectability” of a woman, it mocks the moral perfection expected from them, and constitutes both the apology and the deep critic of passions when they are erected as key words. It succeeds furthermore to explore the feelings inside a woman’s heart, and the dynamics which could lead her to choose passion over reason.
I would therefore recommend this book to everybody seeking for a nice, easy and distracting reading. If it didn’t mark me as much as others, it still constitutes a very pleasing novella. Moreover, the format of 180 pages (more or less) is very well chosen: it permits a synthetic storytelling, without actually making of this novella a 30-pages narrative, which would have been sincerely saddening!
The novella takes place in a hotel, where the narrator meets Mrs. C., an elder lady who decides to share with him a particular part of her life she experienced during her stay in Monte Carlo. She indeed encountered there a very special man, decades ago, as she was a middle-aged widow suffering from deep boredom and loneliness after the death of her beloved husband. In a hundred pages or so, she explains her meeting with a mesmerizing stranger addicted to gamble, who change her life in just 24 hours. Through the pages, her narrative takes us to the genuine ambiance of the French Riviera, where passions are unleashed, and where the characters seem to flirt constantly with despair and death. Both glamourous and gloomy, Mrs. C. ‘s story tackles very vast subject such as addiction, gambling, and respectability questions, but approach at the same time a broader questioning around moral and ethics.
It is overall a very charming story. The universe described by Mrs. C. , whose epicentre is a casino gambling table, is genuinely unique, and bathes the reader into an old and glamourous ambiance charming and repulsive in the same time when it arouses addictions amid the player. The writing is fluid, the descriptions are both pure and detailed, and Mrs. C. truly succeeds in describing those 24 hours which changed her life forever.
Moreover, the novella tackles issues such as the “respectability” of a woman, it mocks the moral perfection expected from them, and constitutes both the apology and the deep critic of passions when they are erected as key words. It succeeds furthermore to explore the feelings inside a woman’s heart, and the dynamics which could lead her to choose passion over reason.
I would therefore recommend this book to everybody seeking for a nice, easy and distracting reading. If it didn’t mark me as much as others, it still constitutes a very pleasing novella. Moreover, the format of 180 pages (more or less) is very well chosen: it permits a synthetic storytelling, without actually making of this novella a 30-pages narrative, which would have been sincerely saddening!
March 29, 2024
“I secretly wished for a pause in which to recover from feelings that had been too violently aroused.”
That and many other lines stayed with me. I'm a woman, I am a sensitive and deeply emotional being. Within the book, I felt through some lines, my ways of seeing life and sensing it more than anything else.
That being said, I have to admit that I Just finished reading this. It was recommended to me by a beloved friend who although I recently just met, I have an inkling feeling that he'll stay there with me as I will for him. Distance has separated us, therefore you might now understand why some parts of this book hurt deeply, more than I could have anticipated. Amidst this, here is my not so well crafted review:
Such a delicate, tenderness piece of art, filled with just enough words so that it does not become monotonous but profoundly exact. Zweig's portray of a woman's heart for just one day, its impeccable, as a woman myself, I saw through the main character's story my heart.
Feelings tend to turn us into beasts, but also into gentle and tender beings, it is when passion becomes profoundly painful, that our tender ways of seeing life, make the worst out of us, but in the long run, it is those troubled stories that turn our memories into beautiful but everlasting hurtful narratives, narratives that will eventually be passed by us onto those that will make us turn ourselves back into those stories. And then again, the beauty of bringing ourselves back into those moments, and sharing them with others, it is that somehow, in the end, by forces of nature that seem to expand in ways that this ordinary life could explain, the pain will be relived as well as relieved.
That and many other lines stayed with me. I'm a woman, I am a sensitive and deeply emotional being. Within the book, I felt through some lines, my ways of seeing life and sensing it more than anything else.
That being said, I have to admit that I Just finished reading this. It was recommended to me by a beloved friend who although I recently just met, I have an inkling feeling that he'll stay there with me as I will for him. Distance has separated us, therefore you might now understand why some parts of this book hurt deeply, more than I could have anticipated. Amidst this, here is my not so well crafted review:
Such a delicate, tenderness piece of art, filled with just enough words so that it does not become monotonous but profoundly exact. Zweig's portray of a woman's heart for just one day, its impeccable, as a woman myself, I saw through the main character's story my heart.
Feelings tend to turn us into beasts, but also into gentle and tender beings, it is when passion becomes profoundly painful, that our tender ways of seeing life, make the worst out of us, but in the long run, it is those troubled stories that turn our memories into beautiful but everlasting hurtful narratives, narratives that will eventually be passed by us onto those that will make us turn ourselves back into those stories. And then again, the beauty of bringing ourselves back into those moments, and sharing them with others, it is that somehow, in the end, by forces of nature that seem to expand in ways that this ordinary life could explain, the pain will be relived as well as relieved.
December 31, 2023
I really enjoyed this. It is very short (which I did not realize when I purchased the ebook). Zweig was very talented. The gist of this (SPOILER) is a "scandal" occurs at a resort on French Riviera as one of the married wives leaves her husband for a younger, charming playboy type (that she met only days earlier). As the rest of the resort guests (familiar with one another as per familiar circles) gossip on the situation, the first protagonist defends the infidelity as an uncontrollable passion. As the other guests are appalled at this take, an unexpected defender emerges. A staid, respected elderly widow.
From this, the widow takes an opportunity the next day to invite the protagonist to her room to tell her about an event she herself experienced decades before at a Monte Carlo casino.
From this, the widow takes an opportunity the next day to invite the protagonist to her room to tell her about an event she herself experienced decades before at a Monte Carlo casino.
March 28, 2024
Eine sehr interessante Novelle, die finde ich persönlich die Spontanität des Menschen gut darstellt und auch zeigt wie bedeutsam oder nicht bedeutsam diese für einen persönlich sein können. An sich würde ich die Geschichte makellos finden, aber Zweig geht viel zu viel darauf ein das dies ja 24 Stunden einer Frau sind und es scheint so, als ob diese Charakterzüge nur Frauen zustehe nach Zweig.Ich finde dieser Abenteuerliche Geist ist eher etwas was mit Mensch-sein zu tun hat und nicht Frau-sein.
December 18, 2020
Perhaps meant originally as a study of human passion and addiction, it just comes across as a little sad that a person would suffer 20 or so years for a sexual liaison where she surrendered to her passion drawn in by an addicted youth she meant to save.
Seems more of an essay than a novella or short story. Easy to read in one sitting.
Seems more of an essay than a novella or short story. Easy to read in one sitting.
October 27, 2021
Zamanın tabılarıyla oynayan inanılmaz bir kitap. Bir kadın olmayı hatta hassas bir insan olmanın zorluklarını gözlemleyebildim. Almancadan İngilizce çevirimi gayet iyi olmuş. %70 anladım. Anlamadığım yerler gösteriyor ki son derece titiz bir edebiyatla yazılmış.
February 19, 2022
ده اول كتاب اخلصه السنة دى و حقيقى مبسوطة انا مقراتش للكاتب ده قبل كدة، لكن حبيت فكره الرواية اوى، و ازاى قدر يوصف مشاعر الست بسهولة، حبيت فكره انه اننا ممكن نحكم على تصرفات ناس من بره لكن لو اتحطينا فى نفس ظروفهم هنعمل زيهم، فيها افكار و مشاعر و تفاصيل كتيرة و جميلة رغم صغر الرواية
May 16, 2022
Nice story, the reading flows. I really liked how he portrays this story of a woman that goes against all that society "expects" from her or thinks is the "right" thing for her to do. A story of comprehension and empathy. Loved it
June 19, 2022
this book was very interesting, i really enjoyed Mrs C's way with words, loved that part, i also enjoyed the ups and downs which were quite unexpected. not stefan's best work since i loved his other books way more, yet, it still is a good book, very enjoyable and sort of thrilling.
July 19, 2022
I felt deeply the woman's feelings. All of our feelings and experiences are with us until we die. But from time to time these feelings are felt in a soft way. Sometimes we forget that time turns bad feelings into good ones.
July 18, 2020
A 3.5 rounded down. Still, a classically strong Zweigian finish.
August 30, 2020
Short and striking book. A good page turner as well. Only con is, you finish reading in a day :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews