The Burning Secret

Zweig, Stefan, 1881-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 138K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Burning Secret by Stefan ZweigAuthor: Zweig, Stefan, 1881-1942,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: May 25, 2014

Editor's review

The Burning Secret is a novella by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, a public-domain German-language literary resource. It continues Zweig's characteristic psychological approach, using a boy at a holiday resort who stumbles into the hidden emotions of the adult world as its entry point to portray in fine detail a psychological process woven from curiosity, voyeurism, being used, and disillusionment. The narrative perspective stays close to the boy, while adult ambiguity and calculation gradually come into view through the child's observation; the tension comes not from external events but from psychological development. For readers it offers both Zweig's signature delicate craft and a sample for observing the moment of growing up and the boundaries of the adult world. Of moderate length, it suits a reading style of finishing it in one sitting and then returning to savor it. While reading, note the shifts in narrative perspective and how the author uses setting and detail to suggest characters' psychology.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy psychological portrayal and delicate narrative
Readers interested in German-language short fiction and Zweig's works
Readers concerned with coming-of-age themes and the boundaries of the adult world
Foreign literature enthusiasts seeking classic reading of moderate length

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong action and fast-paced plots
Readers expecting a full social panorama in a long novel
Younger readers impatient with psychoanalytic narrative

Reading tips

Read the story first through the boy's perspective, then look again for hints and foreshadowing in the adults' words and actions.
Mark passages where the perspective shifts and feel the tension created by changes in narrative distance.
After finishing, compare it with other Zweig novellas to identify common techniques in his psychological portrayal.
If reading a translation, first learn about the source of the translation to avoid shifts in tone caused by relay translation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a novella?

The Burning Secret is a novella by Zweig. It is not long and can usually be finished in one or two evenings. Its weight lies not in length but in the density of psychological portrayal, and it suits continuous reading followed by a return to key passages.

Can I read this directly without having read other works by Zweig?

Yes. The plot is relatively concentrated, there are few characters, and it does not depend on prior reading. It works well as an introductory text for getting to know Zweig's psychological narrative style; afterward, turning to his better-known novellas will make his writing easier to grasp.

Is the boy in the story the protagonist?

The boy is the central viewpoint character, and the story unfolds mainly through his eyes and feelings. The motives and secrets of the adult characters are gradually revealed through his observations and misunderstandings, so understanding the boy's psychological changes is key to understanding the book.

Is the Gutenberg edition in English or German?

According to the listing, the book's language in Project Gutenberg is English, as an English translation of German literature. Note how the translation handles the feel of the original; where possible, read it against the German original or different translations.

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About the author

Zweig, Stefan, 1881-1942 Author

Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) was an Austrian writer known for delicate psychological portrayal and tightly constructed narrative; since the library holdings give only limited biographical detail and public information is likewise limited, this note focuses on his works. The library holds ten of his works, spanning fiction, drama, and literary criticism: novellas and stories such as Amok: Novellen einer Leidenschaft, Brennendes Geheimnis: Erzählung, and Die Liebe der Erika Ewald: Novellen center on intense emotion and inner conflict, revealing characters' psychology at moments of crisis; the drama Jeremiah: A Drama in Nine Scenes (also Jeremias: Eine dramatische Dichtung in neun Bildern) develops dramatic conflict from biblical material; and Drei Meister: Balzac, Dickens, Dostojewski offers critical assessments of three writers. His concise language and attention to inner life have earned him a wide readership in Chinese.