Beware of Pity

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE VERY BEST
Review: "Beware of Pity" is a brilliant book by one of the world's great writers.

This fascinating "psychological" novel is reminiscent of "Rebecca" in the way the story unfolds slowly and then totally envelops the reader. I actually read it straight through the first time, had to miss the next day's work. I've loved it just as much with each reread.

Zweig writes beautifully. He demonstrates elegance, economy, subtlety. There is never a wasted word.

While you are at it, read his short story "The Royal Game."
These are two examples of fiction at its very best.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE VERY BEST
Review: "Beware of Pity" is a brilliant book by one of the world's great writers.

This fascinating "psychological" novel is reminiscent of "Rebecca" in the way the story unfolds slowly and then totally envelops the reader. I actually read it straight through the first time, had to miss the next day's work. I've loved it just as much with each reread.

Zweig writes beautifully. He demonstrates elegance, economy, subtlety. There is never a wasted word.

While you are at it, read his short story "The Royal Game."
These are two examples of fiction at its very best.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Zweig
Review: Besides two long and boring passages that, in my opinion, do not add anything to the main story, this book is Stefan Zweig's masterpiece.
The emotions, repressions, frustrations, fears, joy, expressions, gestures, are well studied and described by the author, with the most intimate and subtle details.
The most poignant scene is when she caressed his hand. He did not love her, just pitied her, but what he felt when she caressed his hand was stronger than making love to any woman he had ever desired before. The description of her caress - and of his emotion during that caress - is irrefutably the strongest in literature. A moment of pure bliss...

Rating:
Summary: Blind Compassion
Review: The scenario is settled at the beginning of the XXth century, right before the outburst of WW I with the murder of the prince of Austria, an event subtly knitted to the action taking place in the novel.

25 years old lieutenant Hofmiller, protagonist and narrator, is the prototype of the young man who has never cared much about anything but his own career and who has taken everything for granted during his whole life. Being good hearted, he hasn't yet experienced a strong attachment to a woman, nor he had even been deeply loved by any.

He describes himself as a not very thoughtful or introspective person, whose only worries were related to his horses and his position in the army.... until he meets Edith Von Kekesfalva. She is the lamed daughter of a Jewish rich man who became an aristocrat by purchasing the nobility title and changing his name.

Due to a gaffe Hofmiller commits [inviting the girl for a dance] a dense and excruciating relationship between both starts. The author delves deep into all the intricacies such a bond entails and the situations which arise when pity rules human behavior and is entangled with sincere love. Although the book may not seem very engaging at the beginning, the interest grows as the tension increases between the characters, leading to the dramatic circumstances that trigger the wonderful end.

Rating:
Summary: Excelente novela
Review: Toni Hofmiller, a 25 year-old lieutenant in the Austrian army prior to the outbreak of WWI, meets Edith, the daughter of the local magnate. Toni committs a "gaffe", asking her to dance while not realizing until too late that Edith is handicapped and cannot walk. Suddenly Toni becomes aware of (and, as an immature youth, is trapped by) the power of compassion. Through no fault of his own (unless good intentions can make one culpable), he leads Edith and her father to believe that Edith may be cured.

"Beware of Pity" has been called a psychological novel, perhaps because the narrator (Toni) alternates in describing his feelings of self-love, power and satisfaction (when visiting Edith and thus sharing his goodness and compassion), and those of confusion and despair when realizing, unwittingly, that Edith has fallen in love with him. He is driven deeper into despair when told by Dr. Condor, Edith's doctor, that Edith may die if her love is unrequited. In analyzing the conflicted feelings of Toni, Zweig wrote a formidable novel of compassion and responsibility for one's actions. Dr. Condor serves as the literary foil of Toni; the doctor's true compassion for Edith (i.e., "unsentimental but productive, that knows what it wants and is ready to share in one's suffering to the limit, and beyond") contrasts starkly with Toni's unbridled compassion, which is nothing more than the other type of compassion, false, fleeting and unreliable, "the impatience of the heart" (which, incidentally, in the direct translation of the title from the original German). Zweig does not fault Toni for his youthful immaturity, as shown by Dr. Condor's feelings for Toni. Zweig does not, however, exonerate him from blame, and the tale moves forward, inexorably, to its tragic end.

Rating:
Summary: Zweig's works are always great
Review: Zweig has an unbeleivable talent to describe feelings, and he has a unique understanding of the insides of the human nature, especially women's nature. I just regret he didn't create more during his life!

Regarding "Beware of pity", I honestly don't belive it's a great translation for the book's title... I myself read this book in Russian (which is my first language) and fell in love with Zweig after that. I hope the entire English translation is just as great.

Rating:
Summary: Emotions can be dangerous things
Review: Zweig was one of the world's best known and respected authors in the 1920s and 1930s. The burning of his books by the Nazis, and the subsequent changes in taste after the war have relegated most of his books to an undeserved obscurity. As a personal friend of Freud (Zweig gave the eulogy at Freud's funeral), he understood brilliantly how to portray the psychological state of his characters. This novel is particularly rich in that regard, as the main character finds himself facing a series of moral and spiritual choices he is ill-prepared to make. In an attempt to apologize for a social mistake (unintentionally insulting his host's daughter at a party), he finds himself ever more absorbed into the life and concerns of this family. Every time he's faced with a difficult choice, he gives way to his emotions, and invariably makes matters worse. Zweig's original title, "Impatience of the Heart," aptly describes Toni Hofmiller's problem: he ignores logic and discretion to follow his feelings. We all live in a society that tends to view human emotions as the most important factor in human interaction. Zweig's genius lies to demonstrating for us what a questionable assumption that is. One of the finest novels I've ever read (and that's saying something).