”With no idea where he was going”

Stefan Zweig, “The Star Above the Forest.” 1904. The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig. Trans. Anthea Bell (London: Pushkin Press, 2013).

I love these Zweig stories, which turn stock elements of fiction into the stuff of small masterpieces: a castle, footsteps on a gravel path, a distant forest, a weeping governess, a letter left on a breakfast table, an old painter, a waiter in a grand hotel.

Other Zweig posts
Destiny, out of one’s hands : Erasmus ekphrasis : Fanaticism and reason : Happy people, poor psychologists : Little world : “The safest shelter” : School v. city : “A tremendous desire for order” : Urban pastoral, with stationery : Zweig’s last address book