Mesoscope's Reviews > Die Welt von Gestern. Erinnerungen eines Europäers

This is the kind of book where you finish the last sentence and remain staring at the page, astonished and subdued, and deeply saddened that you have to leave the world it created. Zweig's account of life in Vienna, Salzburg, and Europe is spellbinding. Merely as the autobiography of one of the most accomplished German-speaking writers of the early 20th century, this book would be exceedingly worthwhile, not only for the light it sheds upon his own work and creative process, but for its countless of closely-observed and brilliantly-related stories of encounters with some of the greatest European artists and thinkers of his day, including Rodin, Rilke, Theodor Herzl, James Joyce, Richard Strauss, and Sigmund Freud. But beyond that we get much more - a profoundly-involving and deeply-moving personal perspective on history on the continent as it was observed and interpreted by a perceptive and expressive genius. The story reaches from the very heights of human possibility to its deepest depths, and the harrowing story of onset of xenophobic authoritarianism has chilling echoes with current events.

This book is endlessly illuminating and entertaining. To any reader interested in European art in the early 20th century, or history, or Stefan Zweig, or all three, I would enthusiastically recommend this book. I'm shelving it with my favorites.