Stefan Zweig (188 1- 1942) is a famous novelist and biographer in modern Austria. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and Berlin when he was young, then traveled around the world, met romain rolland and Rodin and was influenced by them. Engaged in anti-war work in World War I and became a famous pacifist. I went to the former Soviet Union in the 1920s and met Gorky. 1934 was expelled by the Nazis and exiled to Britain and Brazil. 1942 committed suicide with his wife in loneliness and disillusionment. His novels are characterized by paying attention to structure and being good at exploring human nature and mind. Representative works include: Madman in Malay, Twenty-four Hours of Women, Destruction of Heart, Female Teacher, Letter from a Strange Woman, Moonlight Hutong, etc. Biography includes three masters and the struggle with the elves.

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Last year, I bought two complete works of Zweig's novels in the stall of the senior of the school (later I found this set at my sister's house, originally three, but I didn't win the prize). Coincidentally, the first book and the second book were bought by different people, and I bought them together. My first understanding of Zweig was, of course, a novel I came into contact with in high school, which was in a Chinese reading. I felt a unique style and something special in the German-Austrian system. Later, after reading Biography of Richard Strauss, I learned that Zweig was also the playwright of Strauss's later operas, which made me really want to see what he wrote.

These two books have been on my shelf for almost a year and have only been swallowed recently. Because I read Kafka's experience in advance, I stubbornly believe that Deao's style is a kind of plain but depressing narrative style. But Zweig's short stories are really different. The first is a clear theme-love and desire. There is hardly a novel without these two keywords. Secondly, the technique of the novel is also bold. In fact, the so-called boldness here is not the meaning of our explicit description now, but the subversion of many concepts in the novel. For example, the background and time of a large number of novels have been diluted, and even some aspects of the protagonist are not so important. The two themes mentioned above are constantly emphasized. For another example, descriptions such as stream of consciousness occupy most of the length of many novels. The first person is also a major feature of these short stories.

Under the characteristics of these forms, some of Zweig's philosophical views are also reflected to the greatest extent. In these novels, all kinds of love appear one by one. Among these loves, the most obvious feature is "desperate unrequited love with tragic character". I invented this term. Some time ago, A Letter from an Unknown Woman directed by Xu was a typical example of this kind of love. This kind of love appears repeatedly in Zweig's novels, and the protagonists, men, women and children, have formed a certain phenomenon. I think one of Zweig's great successes in dealing with this kind of love lies in his grasp of "tragedy" and "despair". The protagonist often knows that this kind of love will not have a result, but the greatest artistry lies in "unremitting pursuit of things without results", so Zweig treats this point infinitely. The inner world of the protagonist is often described throughout, especially in the desperate consciousness. In terms of techniques, it is basically a long monologue, and the influence of stream of consciousness is very obvious.

The second notable feature is Zweig's very direct attitude towards love, that is, "love is the embodiment of desire". This is obviously Freud's literary embodiment. An interesting evidence is that Zweig has described the hero's dream in many novels, and the dream itself plays an irreplaceable role in Freud's system. Zweig made no secret of his preference for the view that desire is the cause of love. In fact, unlike many writers today, Zweig directly throws the process of desire to readers through words, as if to guide readers to feel carnal desires, but focuses on describing the psychological embodiment of desire. In Zweig's works, animals are everywhere in cities and villages, but these animals have been suppressed as never before. And love is the product of these repression in a certain space. In fact, many of Zweig's loves are direct passions. But Zweig's understanding of the topic "How to satisfy desire" is higher than that of many writers today. The body is not the only or final solution to desire. What Zweig reveals to us is precisely the great pleasure caused by the unsatisfied desire. In fact, Zweig is far less interested in how these desires are satisfied than in how these desires are conceived and erupted in his heart. It seems that desire can be solved in this province.

Maybe you will get tired of reading Zweig's short stories soon, because the theme and technique seem too single. However, the consistency of this long-term creation has made people, especially me, interested in other types of Zweig's literary works. It should be said that the works of Chinese and European German writers often come into direct contact with the most essential things of human nature. Zweig's understanding of love is absolutely profound. Although we can't completely equate love with desire, desire must exist in everyone who loves and is loved. At the beginning of the 20th century, Zweig was able to fully explore this desire, especially the possibility of different desires for love, which truly reflected the demeanor of a generation.