The World of Yesterday

For those who learn little of European history (i.e. Anglos) this book is an insight into that history from a great writer, who was personally affected by the events of the twentieth century.

Easy to read, personal. Highly recommended.

It amazes the clarity of thought to describe the two major conflicts in Europe which ended in horrendous wars. Notable too that in the late thirties and being apolitical he describes the events that put Hitler in position and the mechanisms he used to dominate. Through the reading one cannot stop to compare the Nazi movement with the political turmoil our country, Amerikka, is suffering under Trump. Eerie!

Stefan Zweig writes a great memoir about the world before the Nazi Destruction of Europe. He was a true international person who tragically could not relate to the severe nationalism that swept the world. He felt comfortable in so many countries; unfortunately his own country disowned him and even though Brazil took him in, he did not have the desire to start over. His descriptions of famous personalities like Freud are the real strength of the book and make the book historically valuable.

Amazing description of the pre-WW 1 optimism in Ausrtria about civilization and the continued progress of the world economicaly, socialy and moraly.. Then came the opposite during and ater the two world wars

Stephan Zweig is one of the most famous writers in the world. This autobiography describes his professional life and all the great personalities mostly in the world of art he met during his life. His wonderful productivity and genius was wiped up by Nazism

I discovered Stefan Zweig after watching Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" which is based on his writing. While excerpted in the film tie-in book, "The Society of the Crossed Keys", the "World of Yesterday" is best enjoyed in its full form. Anderson does an exceptional job of recreating the world in which Zweig was raised, thrived and eventually lost everything due to the rise of anti-semitism in Europe. Zweig had everything and he lost it all, gradually and then suddenly (homage to Hemmingway). This book is particularly relevant now as we face many of the turbulent forces in society that the world faced in 1915.

Oh, and it's beautifully written. Zweig is a master who should be read by everyone.

the autobiography of Zweig is both informative and heartfelt. One comes away from reading this book with a deeper understanding of life in Vienna and Europe during one of its greatest and at the same time troubled times.

A great writer brings to life a fascinating period of European history: late 19th and early 20th century Vienna, World War I, the perior in between the two world wars, and Nazism. The author's ideal of an integrated Europe finally became true many years after his death with the birth of the European Union.

This master piece, part autobiography, part history of European culture and society, from the best to the very worst of times. It is a tour de force by one of Austria’s greatest writers which takes you on a journey through Vienna and Paris from the 1870s – 1940s. It covers the the golden ages of Vienna (1870-1890) and Paris (1920's) where you meet Freud, Rilke, and other brilliant intellectuals and artists, But it also takes you through the madness of the First World War seen through the eyes of someone who was there is Vienna. It then chronicles the disastrous economic demise of Vienna with the fall of the Austro-Hapsburg Empire following its defeat in WWI. Then as Vienna begins to recover, the Great Depression hits and chaos grows in Austria and Germany. Zweig then takes you through his very personal experience of the rise of Hitler. Zweig, who is Jewish, lived at that time in Salzburg quite near to Munich when Hitler is beginning his rise. It then ends in the midst of WWII. Zwieg, once one of the most famous authors in the world, is financially and culturally destroyed by the Nazis. They attempt to erase his memory burning all his books in the Austria and German thereby reducing Zweig to near penury in exile. Often said quite rightly to be one of the greatest memoirs of the 20th Century. Brilliantly written and filled with profound insights. A chilling, but vital book, filled with insights quite apropos in the current climate of rising nationalism and xenophobia.

Stefan Zweig's life coincided with earth shaking events that shaped the present day. This is not just an autobiography - it is a piercing and masterful examination and analysis of these events by someone who was at the epicentre and whose own life was shaken to the core. Thus the insights it provides can also help us shape the future

A true human autobiography during mankinds darkest era, World War I & World War II. I've read Mein Kampf a couple times in my life. This is what I would consider the opposite, the true spirit of what happened during the era. I felt as if Stefan Zweig were talking directly to me. He was a man that collected memories of some of the greatest authors, poets and musicians of his time. He really knew all the greats personally.

Uninspiring but informative about the time--especially its hostility to youth and the art-mania of younger Viennese. Zweig memorably recalls the vast hordes of prostitutes that teemed in European cities before the relaxation of sexual mores after WWI. The story of a life broken by the Nazis. In despair at the destruction of their world, Zweig and his wife committed suicide together in Argentine during WWII.

Well written book, I was just disappointed in the actual material covered. I was expecting more actual history rather than accounts of the author's relations with well known artists and writers of that time. Otherwise, very well written.

A lesser known but most actual of Sweig books. Actual in the sense that most of the prevailing trends Sweig identifies in the prewar I and II epochs in Europe' politics are so analogous to what is happening now in 2017.

This is the pre-suicide autobiography of accomplished Viennese writer Stefan Zweig, who lived through the final dissolution of the old Austrian Hapsburg dynasty and ended his life in 1943 before the end of WWII. The original was written in German, which must have been exceedingly difficult to translate adequately, given its complex thought-streams and complicated sentence structure. So first off, an admiring nod to the translator, Anthea Bell, who did a masterful job of conveying the heart and soul of this book to readers of the English language and supplying excellent background in her translator's note which opens the book.

Zweig was a man of many faces -- brilliant, yes! and also exceptionally self-aware. The book opens with a fascinating account of his Jewish boyhood in Vienna, his early training in the rigorous and pedantic German schools, and builds to a climax as he reflects on his experiences as a disenfranchised member of the Jewish artistic community during and after the Nazi take-over in Germany and Austria.

He was conscious of the deep changes that were undermining the old regime in his native Austria and in Europe, particularly the rise of fascist sympathizers in many places in Europe during his lifetime. The tension was palpable in his haunting descriptions of life on the edge of communal insanity as the Hitler machinery marched through Europe in the late 1930’s and struck down one basic human freedom after another. It was an insidious and covert operation that became obvious to most only after-the-fact. All his books were ultimately banned by the Nazis and he fled the country and lived in exile for several years. He seems to have largely discounted his ultimate success as a major contributor to the historical record of his day while he was living through the process, chagrined that he could do nothing about it except to experience it deeply and shoulder his burden as a super-sensitive soul.

In many ways, as I read through this rich and elegant exploration of his life and times in Vienna, Paris, Italy and America, I quietly sympathized with him at the loss of his beloved country to war and hate. I can almost hear his stark voice commenting here that he was much more rooted in literature and philosophy than he was in routine daily life, and that he expected his artistic and scholarly efforts, small as he may have viewed them, to affect or change the course of world history for the better. He had maximum refinement but lacked the common touch at a time when common people were rising and trying to upend the old regime in Austria and in so doing, opening themselves to the Nazi take-over. In light of his imminent suicide shortly after completing this book, it is fair to assume that he felt adrift on this planet as a writer who could no longer grasp what went so terribly wrong all at once -- or how to amend it with all his worldly knowledge and massive literary skills.

The realization that his past conditioning was no longer sufficient to sustain him must have been personally wrenching. In his mind, a new day was coming unbidden, and with it a profound shift in mores. In my own life, with the ascent of Trumpism and its blatant disregard for human rights, it felt like deja vu to absorb this book, which is not only a shout-out to our collective past as scholars and thinkers, writers, musicians and artists of the sort who were at home in pre- WWI Vienna, but also a potent reminder that a shift in culture can be ruthless and insane before the “new normal” becomes apparent. It is both a swan song and a warning – and that is primarily why our book club chose to experience this book together. As a sympathetic portrait of a man and a world in acute distress, it is helpful to read it while trying to live through the crude and unconscious political agendas of our own times. It sparked intense debates and fruitful discussion among our group. Take some time to read through it slowly and let it sink in -- it is a complex book of many layers and uncannily prescient.

from P.M. Sheppard...a wonderful story which made me think 4 stars.

I have reread the story again because something made me. The writers perception of an amazing life forced me to recognize his values and the accidental wishes of the masses. .
I now have given it 5 stars.

Of course, I got this book after seeing the film "The Grand Budapest Hotel." The director gave the book to Ralph Fiennes to prepare him for the era portrayed in the movie. I was curious to see what insights might be gleaned from it. 'The World of Yesterday" is something between a personal memoir and a portrait of what life was like from turn of the century and through two World Wars in Europe, but only for a person of means.