Chess: A Novel (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Anthea Bell (Translator), Anthea Bell (Translator), Stefan Zweig (Author), Stefan Zweig (Author)

New
Paperback
2017
$10.64

'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!' A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.

Synopsis

'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!' A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 96
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 01 Jun 2017
ISBN 10: 0241305160
ISBN 13: 9780241305164
Book Overview: Stefan Zweig's classic novella of obsession, madness and chess.

Media Reviews

A brilliant writer * New York Times *
One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories -- Edmund de Waal
Stefan Zweig was a late and magnificent bloom from the hothouse of fin de siecle Vienna * The Wall Street Journal *
Zweig is one of the masters of the short story and novella, and by 'one of the masters' I mean that he's up there with Maupassant, Chekhov, James, Poe, or indeed anyone you care to name -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *
A new favourite writer of mine -- Wes Anderson
Perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game -- Economist
His great achievement in short form * The Times *

Author Bio

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna to a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. Recognition as a writer came early for Zweig; by the age of forty, he had already won literary fame. In 1934, with Nazism entrenched, Zweig left Austria for England, and became a British citizen in 1940. In 1941 he and his second wife went to Brazil, where they committed suicide. Zweig's best-known works of fiction are Beware of Pity (1939) and The Royal Game (1944), but his most outstanding accomplishments were his many biographies, which were based on psychological interpretation.