fatal moment of Stefan Zweig (Adelphi)
But it is a tragic accident, one of those fateful moments that sometimes the story among his inscrutable decrees, to establish at once the history of Byzantium. It 'something that has happened is unbelievable. Some Turks were able to pass through one of the many open gaps in the exterior walls, not far from the main point of attack. Curious roam between the first and second bastion, when they realize that one of the smaller ports of the city walls - the so-called Kerkaporta - inconceivable for negligence has remained open. Writer sublime, brilliant biographer, essayist, playwright, translator,
Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna in 1881, in a family of the wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie. Religion is not, however, never will play an important role in his life, as though writing about the Neue Freie Presse
conducted by Theodor Herzl
, will never really attracted to the Zionist ideals.
He took refuge first in England and then in the United States after the advent of Nazism, the writer will die along with his second wife Lotte committed suicide, unable to resist the agonizing spectacle of the collapse of European culture.
Grand Master of the Viennese intellectual brilliance, his works, translated into dozens of languages, are unique and exceptional literary era, in addition to the highest names, such as
Hoffmanstha the
Schnitzler, depict a culture and a civilization so refined as melancholy. Best sellers in the world for decades, the writings of Stefan Zweig, which are biographies, short stories, novels or superbly intricate as the famous chess
Novella, have a sweeping narrative rhythm, a dramatic tension where there is always the extreme right Ironically, an extraordinary depth and richness descriptive ethics such that it becomes a symbol of the narrative of the twentieth century.
Published posthumously in 1943,
fatal moment is not a collection of simple stories inspired by historical facts, but beautiful "miniature" descriptive episodes actually occurred and almost unknown writer with such force as to make the text a narrative film clarity.
The "fateful moment" by Stefan Zweig are unique moments when life, or even the story is totally shattered and rebuilt, violent and unexpected inevitable that happen suddenly causing the salvation, the rapture, or destruction, and He addresses these decisive moments with a dazzling drama, but also with a fine ability to penetrate deep inside the human soul. The fleeting moments immortalized by his pen are different in nature and time, and sometimes involving people and places already known, but portrayed with a new perspective and surprising.
Since the discovery of '
Pacific Ocean, which occurred by a daring adventurer and former convict Castilian after weeks of grueling travel, the small door left carelessly unattended which will cause the fall of Byzantium
and the triumph of Mohammed, Stefan Zweig us accompanies his words with events full of narrative tension and great beauty. We meet the composer Handel
who recovered from an illness, but fell into a sort of creative depression, suddenly "resurrected" after reading the text of the Messiah received from an unknown poet and, in the throes of un'irruente exaltation, made what become a masterpiece. We follow
Lenin in His triumphant return to St. Petersburg, while in Germany through the war with Russia ended in a sealed wagons to return to his homeland and lead the Bolshevik revolution. Accompany the old Tolstoy
when, after receiving a visit from two students who still trust in him but do not share his privileged life, abandons his wife and privileges of her class, discovering within himself alive the ideals that have always had extolled ... Just to mention some of these fourteen magnificent historical miniatures, where the great writer, too, unfortunately, like many others, indirect victim of the errors of man and history, it is still and always gave us incomparable emotions.