{"product_id":"journeys-isbn-9781782274759","title":"Journeys","description":"\u003cb\u003eA collection of the great writer's observations, made during his travels across the Europe he loved so much\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I am on a journey, all ties suddenly fall away. I feel myself quite unburdened, disconnected, free - There is something in it marvellously uplifting and invigorating. Whole past epochs suddenly return: nothing is lost, everything still full of inception, enticement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the insatiably curious and ardent Europhile Stefan Zweig, travel was both a necessary cultural education and a personal balm for the depression he experienced when rooted in one place for too long. He spent much of his life weaving between the countries of Europe, visiting authors and friends, exploring the continent in the heyday of international rail travel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eComprising a lifetime's observations on Zweig's travels in Europe, this collection can be dipped into or savoured at length, and paints a rich and sensitive picture of Europe before the Second World War.‘A fascinating glimpse into interwar Europe that still feels fresh today.’ — \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lady\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘[The pieces] blend travel writing with a journalistic dedication.’ — \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePendora Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Zweig's accumulated historical and cultural studies [are] almost too impressive to take in.' \u003cb\u003e— Clive James\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eZweig's   accumulated historical and cultural studies [are] almost too impressive to   take in. --Clive JamesStefan Zweig was one of the most popular and widely translated writers of the early twentieth century. Born into an Austrian-Jewish family in 1881, he became a leading figure in Vienna's cosmopolitan cultural world and was famed for his gripping novellas and vivid psychological biographies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1934, following the Nazis' rise to power, Zweig fled Austria, first for England, where he wrote his famous novel \u003ci\u003eBeware of Pity\u003c\/i\u003e, then the United States and finally Brazil. It was here that he completed his acclaimed autobiography \u003ci\u003eThe World of Yesterday\u003c\/i\u003e, a lament for the golden age of a Europe destroyed by two world wars. The articles and speeches in Messages from a Lost World were written as Zweig, a pacifist and internationalist, witnessed this destruction and warned of the threat to his beloved Europe. On 23 February 1942, Zweig and his second wife Lotte were found dead, following an apparent double suicide.The Season in Ostend\u003cbr\u003e The season in Ostend signifies a colourful and unbroken alternation\u003cbr\u003e of festivals and public events. For all who frequent this,\u003cbr\u003e the largest and most elegant among the Belgian coastal resorts,\u003cbr\u003e the motivation, officially at least, is that which otherwise incites\u003cbr\u003e most people to visit bathing resorts: the need for peace and\u003cbr\u003e relaxation. The person who, through the course of a year, has\u003cbr\u003e the sense of being dragged through the stimulating and thrilling\u003cbr\u003e round of metropolitan pleasures, who feels the pulse of life and\u003cbr\u003e all their resilience stretched to the limit and is, one might say,\u003cbr\u003e bloated with culture and refinement, becomes accustomed to\u003cbr\u003e profiting from summer weeks of harmonious relaxation in the\u003cbr\u003e calm contemplation of nature cut off from these energies. But\u003cbr\u003e for the clientele of Ostend it’s different. For them, this summer\u003cbr\u003e halt is not a rest, a chance to switch off, on the contrary it’s only\u003cbr\u003e another shining link in the endless chain of society distractions,\u003cbr\u003e an ersatz for the broiling boulevards of the metropolis, for their\u003cbr\u003e theatres, their festivals, their gardens, which summer renders\u003cbr\u003e unapproachable. Little by little Ostend has become the unofficial\u003cbr\u003e rendezvous-location for the real and bogus aristocracy that\u003cbr\u003e one sees floating like a spume above the waves of capitals,\u003cbr\u003e everywhere encountering and recognising itself, and for whom\u003cbr\u003e a home-town is merely a station in transit from which they\u003cbr\u003e seek to reach the great international centres of pleasure. Ostend\u003cbr\u003e shelters these welcome guests in high summer, from July to the\u003cbr\u003e last days of August.\u003cbr\u003e One could speak copiously and endlessly of these days without\u003cbr\u003e ever evoking by a single word the happy situation of Ostend,\u003cbr\u003e for in the overall canvas, nature is merely a backdrop. You might\u003cbr\u003e say that here nature is only so prodigious in beauty in order\u003cbr\u003e to glorify the triumph of modern civilisation and to provide\u003cbr\u003e a frame worthy of its perfection, where within is celebrated\u003cbr\u003e human beauty and mankind’s conquests in ingenuity. Here, the\u003cbr\u003e effect of the shore does not depend on the view extending into\u003cbr\u003e the distance over the sea, which bears to you a tangy and healthgiving\u003cbr\u003e air, so much as on admiring the extraordinary elegance\u003cbr\u003e of the hotels on the front and the splendid outfits of the women\u003cbr\u003e gathered there as if they were promenading in the city. The pier,\u003cbr\u003e which runs far out into the sea, signals the great achievements\u003cbr\u003e of modern technology, the port with its elegant steamships and\u003cbr\u003e yachts; the beach is of more interest for the particular style of the\u003cbr\u003e bathing costumes and the rather prodigious display of freedom\u003cbr\u003e of manners, than through any effect of its own. As has been said,\u003cbr\u003e here nature is modest in comparison with the works of men, for\u003cbr\u003e culture comes to stand facing her, all-conquering with its last,\u003cbr\u003e most important and most refined achievements.\u003cbr\u003e The physiognomy of Ostend is naturally the exact mirror\u003cbr\u003e of its visitors. People most active throughout the year feel in\u003cbr\u003e summer the need for idleness; on the other hand, those without\u003cbr\u003e profession, or whose jobs do not detain them, always aspire to\u003cbr\u003e some superficial occupation that they may satisfy here through\u003cbr\u003e sport or gambling. One fact proves to what extent gambling\u003cbr\u003e has become for Ostend a condition of existence: last year when\u003cbr\u003e the gaming rooms had to be closed at Ostend and Spa, the\u003cbr\u003e Belgian state wanted to award these two towns a compensation\u003cbr\u003e package of seven million francs – a decree that for the moment\u003cbr\u003e has not come to bear. In any case, the amount of compensation\u003cbr\u003e gives a rough idea of the astonishing level of receipts that each\u003cbr\u003e season’s gambling gives rise to.\u003cbr\u003e The centre of Ostend’s world of elegance is the Kursaal. This\u003cbr\u003e splendid and substantial edifice stands alongside the sea wall,\u003cbr\u003e flanked on both sides by rows of the most elegant villas offering\u003cbr\u003e a view from the rear over Léopold Park and the town. In the\u003cbr\u003e great room, afternoons and evenings, the distinguished public\u003cbr\u003e of Ostend attend concerts; particularly in the evening when the\u003cbr\u003e men may only appear in society dress or dance attire, and\u003cbr\u003e women of all nations compete in the magnificence of their\u003cbr\u003e outfits and jewellery, when the vast room is filled to capacity\u003cbr\u003e by the noble ranks of the beau monde – and this is true even of\u003cbr\u003e the demi monde – in such moments Ostend leaves a veritably\u003cbr\u003e grandiose impression, even on the inhabitants of a major city.\u003cbr\u003e Every day after the concert they give a ball; but the majority of\u003cbr\u003e visitors retire then to the other rooms at the rear of the casino,\u003cbr\u003e which form part of the assembly rooms. In the first the gambling\u003cbr\u003e is public and open to all; of course, here the turnover is not\u003cbr\u003e so high and the most audacious bid for Red or Black is fixed at\u003cbr\u003e three hundred francs. Gambling properly speaking takes place\u003cbr\u003e at Cercle Privé, the biggest club in Ostend, which nevertheless\u003cbr\u003e does not operate a rigorous admissions policy and requests a\u003cbr\u003e mere twenty francs for the price of entry. There unfold the most\u003cbr\u003e interesting scenes, which from the very next day are customarily\u003cbr\u003e the talk of the town; losses and wins of several thousand\u003cbr\u003e francs at Roulette. The most sumptuous outfits mix together,\u003cbr\u003e sometimes belonging to real princesses, sometimes to princesses\u003cbr\u003e of the music hall; one encounters here also numerous cosmopolitan\u003cbr\u003e people of whom no one knows anything other than\u003cbr\u003e that they frequent all the world’s casinos and are never absent\u003cbr\u003e so long as the gaming rooms remain open. And this scene continues,\u003cbr\u003e unchanged, from morning until the dawn of the following\u003cbr\u003e day.","brand":"Pushkin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301953196261,"sku":"NP9781782274759","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782274759.jpg?v=1767730483","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/journeys-isbn-9781782274759","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}