Zweig, Stefan

Zweig, Stefan (shtef'än tsvīk) [key], 1881–1942, Austrian biographer, poet, and novelist. Born in Vienna of a well-to-do Jewish family, he was part of the humanitarian, pan-European cultural circle that included Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss. Zweig's first works were poetry and a poetic drama, Jeremias (1917, tr. 1929), which expressed his passionately antiwar feelings. Under National Socialism he went into exile in 1934, emigrating first to England. In 1941 he and his second wife went to Brazil, where they committed suicide. Zweig's best-known works of fiction are Ungeduld des Herzens (1938, tr. Beware of Pity, 1939) and Schachnovelle (1944, tr. The Royal Game, 1944), but his most outstanding accomplishments were his many biographies, which were based on psychological interpretation. The subjects of these include Marie Antoinette, Erasmus, Mary Queen of Scots, Magellan, Balzac, and Verlaine. Zweig's historical perception is best evident in Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928, tr. The Tide of Fortune, 1940).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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