Journeys by Stefan Zweig
Journeys is a selection of sixteen travel essays written between 1902 and 1940; the final piece penned two years before Austrian poet and essayist Stefan Zweig killed himself. Zweig spent his life on the road, in exile, fleeing a poisoned tide of opinion. In Germany, his books were burned.
The first essays in this collection describe not so much the place they are named after, but a particular impression noted by Zweig. In Ostend, summertime gambling; in Bruges, death; in Seville, the ‘magical frenzy’ of flamenco. The essay on Hyde Park is a roll-call of park visitors: the early swimmers, galloping horses, children, orators, and “when the moonlight and fog form a hanging web above the heath, then a last hum comes along, the evening finale of all parks: love.”
Organised chronologically, the essays become more interesting, more sophisticated, and darker. The latter pieces explore aspects of travel: disaster tourism, heritage buildings, mass travel, rural fairs, the interplay between earth, air, and water in cities, and shelters for migrants. Zweig rails against tourists who are shepherded comfortably past the sites of war before relaxing with cigarettes and postcards.
“For ten marks you have it all: the entire four years of war, the graves, the huge guns, the shelled cloth-hall, with lunch or dinner, all comforts and a nice strong tea…”
Zweig witnessed the outbreak of both world wars and his descriptions of the difference between the Viennese in 1914 and Londoners in 1939 is interesting, as is his theory that an Englishman’s sangfroid grows in his garden. Zweig’s essay on what makes a town beautiful should be read by today’s town planners, and he is persuasive on architectural heritage being a chain through the ages and the effect this has on a town’s soul.
More than anything these are essays of lost times.
Journeys will appeal to Zweig fans, of course, and readers looking for turn-of-the-century ideas on foreign travel and urban heritage, and insight into the interwar mind.
Many thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.
This was my first introduction to Zweig’s writing, and perhaps not the place to start. If you are a fan of Zweig, point me in the right direction: which works best express his skills?
