Operetta not opera

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	• Schachnovelle. Erläuterungen und Materialien. (Lernmaterialien) Stefan Zweig Bange, 2002 - 92 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Operetta not opera

Stefan Zweig was not a great character builder or a 'complicated story' teller. His strenght was the short novel stuffed with secret plots, unexpected U-turns and stunning disclosures or endgames, coupled with a good psychological insight.
Some critics called his work 'a heap of superficial effects'.
I don't agee, although he surely has not the depth of a Dostoyevsky.
He was more the master of the operetta, not of the opera. However I must make an exception for his master work 'The World of Yesterday'.

In a natural flowing and enthusiastic style he perfectly sketched his characters and quickly aroused the readers's interest by posing intriguing questions.
The 'Chess Story' is a perfect example of his strenghts, putting the following riddle to the reader: How can a totally unknown person beat a chess world champion?

Read this most intriguing and sometimes harsh pearl of a short novel, which combines anti-totalitarian sentiment, haughtiness and a strong will to survive.

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Gripping!

"Die Schachnovelle" or "Chess Short Story" is an excellent little book. As far as I am aware, it is one of the few books in modern German "classic" literature that directly deal with the Nazi past (some others are "Mephisto" by Klaus Mann, "The Seventh Cross" by Anna Seghers, and "The Tin Drum" by Guenther Grass). The "Schachnovelle" is the short story of an Austrian gentleman travelling by ship during the time of the Third Reich. This gentleman is chess amateur. By chance, the unbeaten world champion in chess, an arrogent, conceited, unlikeable man, is also on board the ship. The Austrian gentleman passes his time on board watching chess matches between passengers and the chess master. As the Austrian gets drawn into some losing chess matches between himself with a group of passengers and the chess master, an interesting little man appears in the group just in time to offer the playing passengers asounding insight and advice so that the seemingly hopeless match ends a draw. It becomes clear that the mysterious stranger is a chess guru whose knowledge of the game well exceeds that of the champion. However, the stranger visibly suffers when in contact with chess...it absorbs him and possesses him until he exaustingly pulls himself away. The Austrian traveller notices that the stranger is also Austrian and enters into a discussion with him. Here the stranger recounts his haunting story of how he was arrested by the Nazi Gestapo, put in prison and interrogated day after day, suffering under the physical and psychological pressure of the Nazis. He tells how the sole thing he had in his foresaken prison cell was a book on chess stratagies and manouvers that he had managed to steal during his incarceration. He studied this book inside and out, mentally expanded past its examples and played chess in his mind against himself. Though this kept him sane and able to resist the Nazi's treatment, it eventually became excessive and led to a schizophrenic breakdown as his mind was engaged in a chess battle against itself. Thereafter it was necessary for him to avoid chess like a former drug addict must avoid his drug.
The author, Stefan Zweig, is one of Austria's greatest writers. As a man of culture and a jew, he greatly suffered under the Nazi regime; mostly his suffering was psychological and emotional as he saw his beloved Vienna, Austria, and Europe sink into barbarism. He eventually fled to Brazil where he committed suicide towards the end of World War II.

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