Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman and The Royal Game

Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman and The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig

Two of Stefan Zweig's most compelling novellas are presented together in one volume. As heard on BBC Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime", Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman is the story of a middle-aged English widow who travels through Europe to escape loneliness and boredom. One evening, during her stay at the French Riviera, while enjoying the elegant atmosphere of the Monte Carlo Casino, she becomes mesmerised by the obsessive gambling of young Polish aristocrat. This fateful encounter leads to passion, despair and death, changing their lives forever. The Royal Game takes place on a cruise ship bound for Buenos Aires, where a tantalising encounter takes place between the reigning world chess champion and an unknown passenger. The stranger's diffident manner masks his extraordinary ability to challenge the Grand Master in a game of chess, but also conceals his dark and damaged past, the horror of which emerges as the game unfolds.

"One hardly knows where to begin in praising this workPerhaps it would be best to concentrate on the almost supernatural ability Zweig had to get into the heart and mind of a woman... superb translation." Nicholas Lezard The Guardian "Perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game. Never mind that you may have never moved a pawn to King four; the story will grip you." The Economist"

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna, a member of a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a translator and later as a biographer. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and enjoying literary fame. His stories and novellas were collected in 1934. In the same year, with the rise of Nazism, he briefly moved to London, taking British citizenship. After a short period in New York, he settled in Brazil where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in bed in an apparent double suicide.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781901285611
ISBN 10	1901285618
Title	Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman and The Royal Game
Author	Stefan Zweig
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pushkin Press
Year published	2006-06-30
Number of pages	136
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable