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haeunlee365 's review for:
Burning Secret
by Anthea Bell, Stefan Zweig
I always feel so vulnerable and exposed when reading Zweig. It is so clean and concise.
Edgar’s egocentric and childish understanding of the world (or lack thereof) makes up most of the story. This filter, of looking through the eyes of a child, is one that I would think is difficult to imagine, let alone write about - one that is wholly thinking and feeling but with the delusion of omniscience. The third person limited pov switches between child and man seamlessly - really shows this childishness in contrast. His immature understanding of these “secrets” around him seem to come from books and movies, as he references. He eventually does develop some understanding of what he does not yet know and abolishes this false sense of omniscience.
In the beginning, he harbours “unsolicited passion” towards the unnamed baron, which largely obscures the view of the romance blossoming between the two other characters. As the reader, it feels as though I am actively trying to peek through his obsessive thoughts to see what is really happening. I can see how maybe this could progress to Poe’s kind of madness.
These sentiments later transition to a petty anger, which portrays the child’s mind as super volatile and melodramatic, but imho, Edgar was put into a tough position - he really wasn’t doing anything “wrong”, aside from the petty, perverse and childish anger fuelled by the collateral effects from the wrongdoings of the adults around him. Maybe if he was an adult, his hate would not be justified and it would be his own problem to work through. In this case though, with his obvious lack of knowledge and experience taken into account, as well as the fact that his mother should be there as his guardian, he cannot be blamed that he harbours such strong feelings towards the adults. Most importantly, he WAS being toyed with, and even if his feelings and actions are out of proportion, I think it is more the fault of the baron who is using the child as a means to his selfish ends, which isn’t even ethical in the first place.
Also, would a mother really feel this way towards her child or should she ever? I mean, it is easy for me to say, but I think a mother needs to prioritise the needs of the child - I have seen admirable demonstrations of this, in reality, by mothers I know. Zweig did resolve the mother’s priorities at the very end though, so I guess this is agreed upon.
*Disclaimer of sorts: I am not implying Zweig is placing the child in a bad light - in fact, I think his writing makes the point that I am making, esp. with the guilt that the mother feels, how the child is an embodiment of her conscience, the baron’s clearly shallow attitude and self-serving actions, in the fact that the child is acting in the best interests of the mother (if not for his, obviously childish, delusions), etc. - this is more a rant in response to a comment someone made about the child being “annoying”. Everybody’s actions here are questionable, but the child is blameless, as he is merely suffering the consequences of the immoral actions of the adults around him and is simply acting in the best way he knows how, albeit with this veil of naivety and egocentrism.