The World of Yesterday

Name: The World of Yesterday
ISBN: 9787532777150

斯特凡·茨威格 / 徐友敬Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaJul 2018

4.5

Word count: 269K words
Chapters: 18
ISBN: 9787532777150

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Summary

In The World of Yesterday, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig offers an autobiographical work written between 1939 and 1941, completed during the forced exile of his final years. It was published in Stockholm in 1942, after Zweig's death. In this book, Zweig fuses his personal fate with the spirit of the age: through the people and events he experienced, he portrays the cultural life of the cities and countries in which he lived, chronicles the turbulent European society from the eve of the First World War to the Second, describes his encounters with world-famous poets, writers, sculptors, and musicians, discloses little-known anecdotes from the lives of celebrated cultural figures, and interweaves his own delicate reflections. Zweig begins with his birth city of Vienna and his Jewish family and carries the narrative up to September 1939, when he had just turned sixty and the Second World War broke out—a moment he regarded as "the definitive end of the era of us sixty-year-olds."

Editor's review

Yesterday's World is the memoir of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and the last work of prose he completed in his lifetime. It is not a strict autobiography but a sensitive observer's and participant's affectionate yet searching look back at European social, cultural, and intellectual life from 1881 to 1941. In exquisite, elegant, and deeply compassionate prose, Zweig depicts the golden age of prewar Europe and how two world wars utterly destroyed the "yesterday's world" he loved and regarded as his spiritual home. The book is filled with vivid portraits of literary, artistic, and philosophical giants, and it also records the hopes, disillusionments, and perseverance of an ordinary intellectual caught in the tide of history. Reading it is not only to understand a crucial period of history but to experience the last radiance of a noble cultural spirit. Zweig's writing has the power to transcend time, and his call for freedom, humanity, and peace remains profoundly resonant in today's world.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in modern European history, especially the social and cultural transformations between World War I and World War II
Literature lovers who appreciate elegant, profound, essayistic narrative rich in humanistic concern
Those seeking to understand the intellectual and spiritual struggles of twentieth-century intellectuals
Thinkers seeking spiritual orientation and historical lessons in turbulent times

Not a good fit for

Readers of fiction seeking fast pacing and strong plot
Readers seeking purely academic historical analysis

Reading tips

Read in a relatively quiet environment and immerse yourself in the flow of the author's memories and reflections.
You may consult a map of modern European history or related biographies to deepen your understanding of the historical background.
As you read, consider the connection between the loss of Zweig's 'spiritual home' and the contemporary world.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

版权信息
前言
太平世界
上世纪的学校
情窦初开
大学生活
永葆青春的城市——巴黎
我的崎岖道路
走出欧洲
欧洲的光彩和阴暗
一九一四年战争爆发初期
为崇高的情谊而奋斗
在欧洲的心脏
重返奥地利
又回到世界上
日落
希特勒的崛起
和平的濒死状态

FAQ

Is this book a strictly speaking autobiography?

Not entirely. It is closer to a memoir of an era: Zweig uses his personal experience as a thread, but the core is a portrait of the rise and fall of Europe as a whole, especially the Viennese cultural circle, and its spiritual transformations.

Why is the book titled The World of Yesterday?

'The World of Yesterday' refers to the relatively stable, culturally flourishing Europe before World War I in which Zweig grew up and which he loved. That 'world' was utterly destroyed in the two world wars, and the title is full of remembrance and mourning for a vanished era.

What are the difficulties in reading this book?

The main difficulty lies in its dense historical and cultural background. The book involves a large number of European (especially Austro-Hungarian) historical events, cultural luminaries, and intellectual currents, which may pose a challenge to readers unfamiliar with the background, but Zweig's elegant narration is itself highly engaging.

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About the author

斯特凡·茨威格 Author

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer known for his delicate psychological portraiture and concise storytelling. The library holds 11 of his works, spanning fiction, biography, and historical vignettes: novels such as The Royal Game and Letter from an Unknown Woman; biographies such as Three Writers: Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy and Three Masters; historical portraits such as Decisive Moments in History; the memoir The World of Yesterday; and collected editions including the nine-volume Zweig Works and the fifteen-volume Translated Biographical Works. His writing centers on inner life and turning points of fate, with a restrained yet charged style; his works are commonly classified under foreign literature, general biography, and world classics. It should be noted that the library records no details of his nationality or dates of birth and death, and public information is limited, so the above outline is confined to the themes and style of his works.

徐友敬 Author · China

Xu Youjing is a Chinese author about whom little public information is available; neither the years of birth and death, nor educational background, nor specific personal experiences have been clearly recorded. The library currently holds one work by this author, Yesterday's World, which is classified under general biography. Judging from this category and the title, the work is likely a memoir or biographical narrative, carrying a sense of looking back on the past and tracing personal and historical memory. Such writing usually emphasizes authenticity of narration and the accumulation of detail, with the author often adopting the perspective of a witness or organizer to connect scattered fragments of life into a readable text. Since information about Xu Youjing's body of work and life remains insufficient, it is too early to assess the overall style and influence of this author; nevertheless, Yesterday's World can be regarded as the main basis for this author's presence among Chinese readers and offers limited clues for further understanding.