In the past couple of decades, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has gained a new-found readership in the English-speaking world. This is largely thanks to the impassioned advocacy of a handful of independent publishing houses. Foremost amongst these is Pushkin Press, which has published most of Zweig's work in new translations, the majority of them by award-winning translator Anthea Bell.

Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as facile and superficial. His novella Confusion should put such criticism to rest. The premise of the work is admittedly simple - a Privy Councillor who has dedicated his life to academia recalls the aging professor who, in his student days, kindled in him a love for learning. The (then) student’s instant and obsessive admiration for his teacher led him to take up lodgings in the same building where the professor lived with his young wife, and to assume the role of amanuensis/disciple to the older man. The novella effectively projects and dissects the “confusion of feelings” which this awkward triangular relationship gives rise to. Zweig’s interest in psychology, especially of the Freudian stamp, is evident in this novel’s insightful exploration of the mind-set of its characters and in the suppressed eroticism implied by words said and unsaid.

I have elsewhere commented on my impression of Zweig as a “nostalgic” adrift in a rapidly changing world ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1673924203 ) This 1927 novella is, however, very much of its time – not only in its psychological concerns, but also in its head-on approach to (what must then have been) a taboo subject. If there is a harkening back to the 19th Century, it is in its rather overblown, melodramatic language – this, however, lends authenticity to the voice of the narrator who is, after all, an academic who has devoted his life to the study of past literature.

This paperback edition of Confusion (in Anthea Bell’s brilliant translation) forms part of the attractively presented (and temptingly collectible) Pushkin Collection series. ( )

To kick off #NovellasInNovember, here's a classic masterpiece from Stefan Zweig.

Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. One of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world, he fled the rise of fascism in 1934, first to England, then to New York and finally to Brazil, where he and his wife committed suicide in 1942.

Zweig was prolific across nonfiction and biography but is best known for his short fiction:

• Letter from an Unknown Woman (1922),


• Amok (1922), see my review


• Fear (1925),


• Confusion of Feelings (1927),


• Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman (1927), see my review


• Beware of Pity, 1939), and


• The Royal Game (1941).

Confusion is remarkable for its portrait of repressed sexuality. It's the story of a young man called Roland and his English professor, a relationship which turns out to be fraught with suppressed desire. Initially Roland is infatuated intellectually — it is this professor who transforms him from an idle young wastrel into a passionate enthusiast of literature (which becomes his own career). He takes lodgings near the professor and is welcomed into his home, where he soon discovers that the professor's marriage is a sham. He and his wife live together, and share meals at which Roland is present, but they never speak to or about each other.

Readers realise what's going on before Roland does. The professor deals with his attraction to his young students by being warm and affectionate sometimes, while brusque and unkind at others in order to resist temptation.

How I suffered from this man who moved from hot to cold like a bright flash of lightning, who unknowingly inflamed me, only to pour frosty water over me all of a sudden, whose exuberant mind spurred on my own, only to lash me with irony—I had a terrible feeling that the closer I tried to come to him, the more harshly, even fearfully he repelled me. Nothing could, nothing must approach him and his secret.

For I realised more and more acutely that secrecy strangely, eerily haunted his magically attractive depths. I guessed at something unspoken in his curiously fleeting glance, which would show ardour and then shrink away when I gratefully opened my mind to him; I sensed it from his wife's bitterly compressed lips. (p.69)

The professor's wife is under no illusions.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/01/confusion-by-stefan-zweig-translated-by-anth... ( )

To keep it short, Zweig's prose (which actually took me by surprise after trudging through the lifeless heap of words that is The Glass Bead Game) and story-telling trumps the predictable ending (which wasn't to my liking).

My 2nd Zweig novella, and this guy continues to captivate me. Definitely asking for more Zweig! ( )

In the past couple of decades, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has gained a new-found readership in the English-speaking world. This is largely thanks to the impassioned advocacy of a handful of independent publishing houses. Foremost amongst these is Pushkin Press, which has published most of Zweig's work in new translations, the majority of them by award-winning translator Anthea Bell.

Zweig enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and this led some critics to dismiss his works as facile and superficial. His novella Confusion should put such criticism to rest. The premise of the work is admittedly simple - a Privy Councillor who has dedicated his life to academia recalls the aging professor who, in his student days, kindled in him a love for learning. The (then) student’s instant and obsessive admiration for his teacher led him to take up lodgings in the same building where the professor lived with his young wife, and to assume the role of amanuensis/disciple to the older man. The novella effectively projects and dissects the “confusion of feelings” which this awkward triangular relationship gives rise to. Zweig’s interest in psychology, especially of the Freudian stamp, is evident in this novel’s insightful exploration of the mind-set of its characters and in the suppressed eroticism implied by words said and unsaid.

I have elsewhere commented on my impression of Zweig as a “nostalgic” adrift in a rapidly changing world ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1673924203 ) This 1927 novella is, however, very much of its time – not only in its psychological concerns, but also in its head-on approach to (what must then have been) a taboo subject. If there is a harkening back to the 19th Century, it is in its rather overblown, melodramatic language – this, however, lends authenticity to the voice of the narrator who is, after all, an academic who has devoted his life to the study of past literature.

This paperback edition of Confusion (in Anthea Bell’s brilliant translation) forms part of the attractively presented (and temptingly collectible) Pushkin Collection series. ( )

هل جربت يوما التعامل مع شخوص متناقضة تحيرك بأسالبيها
تارة تهتم بك وتارة أخري تقصيك من طريقها وتفاجأ بسوء المعاملة بدون أي ذنب اقترفته
هناك أشخاص يوقعونك في مشاعر ملتبسة فلا تدري وتحاسب نفسك علي كل هفوة صدرت منك لتبرير كل غريب يصدرمنهم من قول أو فعل
هذا هو رولان الأكاديمي المتميز يعود بذاكرته إلي الوراء ليتذكر أكثر شخصية ملهمة أثرت به والتي أوقدت حماسته بعد أن كان شابا مستهترا
ولكنه دخل متاهة من الأحاسيس المتضاربة حيث تعلق بأستاذه أشد التعلق والذي كان لطيفا ومتفهما لأبعد حد معه فكان يفعل المستحيل ليثير إعجاب أستاذه فيفاجأ بمردود محبط منه علي غير المتوقع ثم يعود للطفه مرة أخري
وهكذا يدخل رولان في صراع نفسي من جراء هذه التصرفات
وفي النهاية نعرف سر المعاملة المتضاربة والتي كانت بسبب خوف أستاذه عليه من شذوذه ومحبته العارمة له
خدعنا زفايج فكنا نظن ان رولان هو الواقع في فوضي الأحاسيس وإذ نفاجأ في النهاية أنها كانت من نصيب الأستاذ الغامض ( )