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3.69k reviews for:

Satranç

Stefan Zweig

4.19 AVERAGE


My first Zweig! More to come :)
dark reflective sad
challenging tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark emotional reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Superb, my first time reading Stefan Zweig and luckily over the course of 2020 I have picked up lots of his books in Pushkin Press' lockdown sales.

A very fun and moving read on a battle of chess between the World Champion and Dr B, going into detail about Dr B's past.
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

second chess related book in 3 months haha this one was quick (love a 100 pager) with a most interesting premise
dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

halfway through the story, i had realised that the writing was good and the story easy to understand. 

after having read two penguin classics, i have realised that reading the introduction after completing the story is ideal. since this was my first time reading an nyrb, i read the introduction first. it did a great deal introducing me to the author that was stefan zweig and while most the most of the plot was revealed, i better understood peter gay’s introduction of zweig after completing the story. 

around the time i decided to read the story, i had just discovered nyrb. coincidentally, i found a woman on instagram who later started her own yt channel in front of me, to be a huge fan of nyrb. she pretty much reads 6-8 books a month and does a great job at introducing me to non-mainstream literature. most of her social handles are after zweig’s book titles and you can best believe she’s the one who influenced me to read zweig. i have the epubs of his ‘beware of pity’ (which great title btw) and ‘the post-office girl’. the only reason i picked up ‘chess story’ was because it was 50 pages lol. 

peter gay’s introduction for chess story in nyrb helped me understand the author and his life in brief. and i am glad i picked his last novella to be published because now, i thanks to introduction and having read the novella, i can understand how he writes.

it’s always good when i understand a story on the first read. but even if i don’t i have to keep going despite, despite, despite. excited for more reading plans soon!

ps: through one of the reviewers I follow on here, i gather that on some level this story is a reposting of the age old question of whether is it better to be ignorant or knowledgable.