The Society of the Crossed Keys: Selections from the Writings of Stefan Zweig, Inspirations for The Grand Budapest Hotel

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Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide. Stefan Zweig was a massive name in literature in the first half of the twentieth century although his fame seems to have missed Britain. He wrote novellas and novels, plays and biographies; and his work was adapted for stage and film both in Europe and in Hollywood. He was a star, but by the start of the 21st century his work was virtually unknown. That is until the wonderful Pushkin Press started republishing his works. Now an extensive collection of his writing is available in English. I first came across Zweig when a copy of Beware of Pity came into the shop, as a massive fan of central European literature and of anything relating to the Hapsburg empire especially I knew that I would enjoy this novel about the concept of honour in the Austrian officer class in the run up to the First World War. I was right, the novel is wonderful I urge anyone who has any interest in the period to read it. Since then I've been able to read a fair few of Zweig's other works, some of his biographies and a few of his novellas, each one has been a perfect self contained piece of writing. The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson’s selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel.

It features one of Zweig's best short stories, 24 Hours In The Life Of A Woman: a tale-within-a-tale about a posh lady's tumultuous encounter with a young gambling addict in Monte Carlo. There's also a small section from Beware Of Pity. The next is 'Beware of Pity', Zweig's first and only novel. The excerpt is, I think, the beginning parts of the novel detailing the life and the mind of a Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer. The humorous, witty nature of this novel is clearly reflected in the movie and it was interesting to read. I really liked the ending of the excerpt, and it left me wanting more. As this excerpt was considerably shorter than the one for The World of Yesterday, I'm very intrigued to read more. The first work from Zweig is his memoir 'The World of Yesterday'. Personally, I'm not a fan of memoirs so it was a bit difficult for me to read through (took me almost a year). However I did enjoy Zweig's writing, particularly about social customs that changed and evolved throughout his life. Zweig's writing mannerisms, especially regarding his descriptive writing about his surroundings (the setting, the people, everything), was very well reflected in the movie. The extract of the memoir comprises of the largest portion of the book, and after reading, it is clear why - the movie was clearly inspired by The World of Yesterday. Here's a quote that I enjoyed from The World of Yesterday: Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and, between the wars was an international bestselling author. With the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath, New York and Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide. He talks about how his Jewish family, and thousands like them, had come to Vienna to work and study, becoming bourgeois and doing it so well that their manners, their intellectual and artistic pursuits came to define Viennese civilisation. He reminds us how liberal the Austro-Hungarian Empire was, and when he considers how all this came crashing down in the first world war he makes an interesting point I'd not heard made before.One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories.'--Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes

A fascinating intro to Stefan Zweig's life and work. All the stars for Zweig's writing (especially the engrossing sample chapters from The World of Yesterday). It turns out that the fictional Society of the Crossed Keys, a guild of top concierges whose deep connections in Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotelhelp save the life of Ralph Fiennes‘ suave Gustave H., was inspired by the Society of the Golden Keys, first started as a French-only affair in 1929 before going global in 1952. The last but definitely not the list is 'Twenty-Four Hours In the Life of a Woman'. This one was definitely my favorite - it is a short story regarding a chance encounter that a women experienced years ago that haunts her to present day. I think there's only one word that's apt to describe what I thought of this short story: intoxicating. The writing and the dialogue was so mesmerizing that as I was reading, it felt like I was trapped into the story itself. One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig’s stories.’–Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes The Society of the Crossed Keys contains Wes Anderson's selections from the writings of the great Austrian author Stefan Zweig, whose life and work inspired The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Potom slede delovi iz Cvajgovih memoara i baš sam uživala u prikazima društva i događaja iz perioda njegove mladosti. Posebno je zanimljivo kako piše o muško-ženskim odnosima, kako su mladi bili na neki način ugnjetavani socijalnim konvencijama i kako je strašno što su devojke morale da budu utegnute u korsete i da večito vode računa o tome da li su pokrivene, očešljane... pa kako je to sve uticalo na njihovu seksualnost i potiskivanje strasti. Cvajg feminista. Not that The World Of Yesterday is about war. It's about Viennese bourgeois life, Zweig's first attempts to break into journalism, his bad early poetry and how it felt to be liberal, Jewish and arty at the start of the 20th century. He says the anti-Semite Karl Lueger becoming mayor of Vienna in 1897 had surprisingly little effect on his circle. They thought the peace, prosperity and cultural pre-eminence they'd grown up with would prove more enduring than petty hate.