-
Beware of Pity
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Royal Game
- A Chess Story
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fame of the The Royal Game is evident in the number of translations. The last work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig can be read today in over 60 languages. The first translation into English appeared in New York in 1944. In Germany, the book has become a constant bestseller. The first-person narrator learns of the presence of the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic on a boat trip from New York to Buenos Aires. Together with his acquaintance Mc Connor and other chess players, the first-person narrator manages to challenge the world champion to a game of chess.
-
-
Brief but wonderful
- By Cat S. on 02-17-21
By: Stefan Zweig
-
The World of Yesterday
- Memoirs of a European
- By: Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars. Zweig's passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the brink of extinction. It is an unusually humane account of Europe from the closing years of the 19th century through to World War II, seen through the eyes of one of the most famous writers of his era.
-
-
Lucidity whilst Civilization reverts to barbarism
- By none on 06-25-17
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
A Magical Journey
- By Paul on 08-20-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
The Burning Secret
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Mark Young
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A suave baron takes a fancy to twelve-year-old Edgar's mother, while the three are holidaying in an Austrian mountain resort. His initial advances rejected, the baron befriends Edgar in order to get closer to the woman he desires. The initially unsuspecting child soon senses something is amiss, but has no idea of the burning secret that is driving the affair, and that will soon change his life for ever.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Letter from an Unknown Woman
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Heather Wood, K. Anderson Yancy
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
-
-
Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
The Royal Game
- A Chess Story
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fame of the The Royal Game is evident in the number of translations. The last work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig can be read today in over 60 languages. The first translation into English appeared in New York in 1944. In Germany, the book has become a constant bestseller. The first-person narrator learns of the presence of the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic on a boat trip from New York to Buenos Aires. Together with his acquaintance Mc Connor and other chess players, the first-person narrator manages to challenge the world champion to a game of chess.
-
-
Brief but wonderful
- By Cat S. on 02-17-21
By: Stefan Zweig
-
The World of Yesterday
- Memoirs of a European
- By: Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars. Zweig's passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the brink of extinction. It is an unusually humane account of Europe from the closing years of the 19th century through to World War II, seen through the eyes of one of the most famous writers of his era.
-
-
Lucidity whilst Civilization reverts to barbarism
- By none on 06-25-17
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
A Magical Journey
- By Paul on 08-20-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
The Burning Secret
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Mark Young
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A suave baron takes a fancy to twelve-year-old Edgar's mother, while the three are holidaying in an Austrian mountain resort. His initial advances rejected, the baron befriends Edgar in order to get closer to the woman he desires. The initially unsuspecting child soon senses something is amiss, but has no idea of the burning secret that is driving the affair, and that will soon change his life for ever.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Letter from an Unknown Woman
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Heather Wood, K. Anderson Yancy
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
-
-
Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
-
-
An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
-
Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
-
-
Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
-
Speak Memory
- An Autobiography Revisited
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
-
-
Speak, Mnemosyne!
- By Darwin8u on 08-09-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Magus
- By: John Fowles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, and it continues to create tension and concern today.
-
-
One of the best novels that I really think I hate.
- By Darwin8u on 01-29-14
By: John Fowles
-
The Radetzky March
- By: Joseph Roth, Joachim Neugroschel - translator, Nadine Gordimer - introduction
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth's classic saga of the privileged von Trotta family, encompasses the entire social fabric of the Austro-Hungarian Empire just before World War I. The author's greatest achievement, The Radetzky March is an unparalleled portrait of a civilization in decline, and as such a universal story for our times.
-
-
A classic finally translated!
- By A.P.O Day on 07-02-20
By: Joseph Roth, and others
-
The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 51 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orson Welles stars in this full-cast performance of Dumas' classic novel.
-
-
It is only the FIRST Chapter
- By SCM on 02-12-12
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
The Good Soldier Svejk
- By: Jaroslav Hasek
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 28 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Good Soldier Švejk, written shortly after the First World War, is one of the great antiwar satires - and one of the funniest books of the 20th (or any) century. In creating his eponymous hero, Jaroslav Hašek produced an unforgettable character who charms and infuriates and bamboozles his way through the conflagration that tore through the heart of Europe, upending empires and changing social history. It is the closing period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassination at Sarajevo has just occurred and armies are on the march.
-
-
This is real!
- By Lorenzo Coopman on 10-08-20
By: Jaroslav Hasek
-
A Town Like Alice
- By: Nevil Shute
- Narrated by: Robin Bailey
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.
-
-
An all time favorite I have read many times...
- By Peyton on 03-16-10
By: Nevil Shute
-
The Human Factor
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a leak is traced back to a small sub-section of SIS, it sparks off security checks, tensions and suspicions - the sort of atmosphere where mistakes could be made. This novel opens up the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the Secret Service.
-
-
Non-traditional Espionage Novel that Subverts ALL
- By Darwin8u on 06-25-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
- Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Eliot's first full-length novel Adam Bede is a profound rendering of 19th century English pastoral life. This timeless story of seduction and betrayal follows the virtuous carpenter Adam Bede, whose world is soon disrupted when the all-too-beautiful Hetty betrays him for another villager. Her actions precipitate a turmoil of tragic events that shake the very foundations of their serene rural community.
-
-
Great narration
- By mom of teen on 03-20-19
By: George Eliot
-
The Possessed
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 27 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Also known as Demons, The Possessed is a powerful socio-political novel about revolutionary ideas and the radicals behind them. It follows the career of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky, a political terrorist who leads a group of nihilists on a demonic quest for societal breakdown. They are consumed by their desires and ideals, and have surrendered themselves fully to the darkness of their "demons". This possession leads them to engulf a quiet provincial town and subject it to a storm of violence.
-
-
Womderful
- By Tad Davis on 12-07-17
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
Publisher's summary
In the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a young cavalry officer is invited to a dance at the home of a rich landowner.
There - with a small act of attempted charity - he commits a simple faux pas. But from this seemingly insignificant blunder comes a tale of catastrophe arising from kindness and of honour poisoned by self-regard.
Beware of Pity has all the intensity and the formidable sense of torment and of character of the very best of Zweig's work. Definitive translation by the award-winning Anthea Bell.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Oblomov
- By: Ivan Goncharov
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.
-
-
funny and smart
- By Bennett Weiss on 07-29-20
By: Ivan Goncharov
-
The Glimpses of the Moon
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas.
-
-
Couldn't stop listening
- By Michael Breed on 12-09-09
By: Edith Wharton
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Nikolay Trifilov
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Znamenityj roman vvodit nas v bogatyj, raznoobraznyj, udivitel'no uyutnyj i privlekatel'nyj mir russkoj dvoryanskoj zhizni Moskvy i Peterburga. Tolstoj vystupaet zdes' pevcom povsednevnoj zhizni, kotoruyu on poehtiziruet i v kotoroj vidit filosofskuyu glubinu, primiryayushchuyu stol' razitel'nye protivopolozhnosti, kak tragicheskaya nezakonnaya svyaz' Anny Kareninoj s Vronskim i schastlivaya semejnaya zhizn' Kiti s Cherbackoj i Levina.
-
-
Fantastic narration!
- By Anastasia Lattanand on 03-10-16
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 39 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vladimir Nabokov called Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Set in imperial Russia, Anna Karenina is a rich and complex meditation on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. Married to a powerful government minister, Anna Karenina is a beautiful woman who falls deeply in love with a wealthy army officer, the elegant Count Vronsky.
-
-
Not good dramatization but an ok reading
- By Bookoholics Anon on 05-07-11
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
-
The Best Man
- By: Grace Livingston Hill
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cyril Gordon, an intrepid Secret Service Agent, has completed part of his mission in obtaining a coded message vital to the nation's security. But desperate men are pursuing him and with the help of a handy cab and a disguise, he makes his escape. The cab deposits him at a church where, astoundingly, everyone seems to be waiting for him to complete a wedding party, certain he's the missing best man.
-
-
Art Deco Romance
- By Miss Right on 12-12-18
-
Oblomov
- By: Ivan Goncharov
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.
-
-
funny and smart
- By Bennett Weiss on 07-29-20
By: Ivan Goncharov
-
The Glimpses of the Moon
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas.
-
-
Couldn't stop listening
- By Michael Breed on 12-09-09
By: Edith Wharton
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Nikolay Trifilov
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Znamenityj roman vvodit nas v bogatyj, raznoobraznyj, udivitel'no uyutnyj i privlekatel'nyj mir russkoj dvoryanskoj zhizni Moskvy i Peterburga. Tolstoj vystupaet zdes' pevcom povsednevnoj zhizni, kotoruyu on poehtiziruet i v kotoroj vidit filosofskuyu glubinu, primiryayushchuyu stol' razitel'nye protivopolozhnosti, kak tragicheskaya nezakonnaya svyaz' Anny Kareninoj s Vronskim i schastlivaya semejnaya zhizn' Kiti s Cherbackoj i Levina.
-
-
Fantastic narration!
- By Anastasia Lattanand on 03-10-16
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 39 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vladimir Nabokov called Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Set in imperial Russia, Anna Karenina is a rich and complex meditation on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. Married to a powerful government minister, Anna Karenina is a beautiful woman who falls deeply in love with a wealthy army officer, the elegant Count Vronsky.
-
-
Not good dramatization but an ok reading
- By Bookoholics Anon on 05-07-11
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
-
The Best Man
- By: Grace Livingston Hill
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cyril Gordon, an intrepid Secret Service Agent, has completed part of his mission in obtaining a coded message vital to the nation's security. But desperate men are pursuing him and with the help of a handy cab and a disguise, he makes his escape. The cab deposits him at a church where, astoundingly, everyone seems to be waiting for him to complete a wedding party, certain he's the missing best man.
-
-
Art Deco Romance
- By Miss Right on 12-12-18
-
Hunger
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....
-
-
Great book great narrator
- By Gunnar on 08-27-20
By: Knut Hamsun
-
Letter from an Unknown Woman
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Heather Wood, K. Anderson Yancy
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
-
-
Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Ethan Frome
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer, is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena.When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage.
-
-
Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast until it isn't
- By Darwin8u on 05-29-13
By: Edith Wharton
-
The Shuttle
- By: Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Narrated by: Tabi That
- Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosalie Vanderpoel, the daughter of an American multimillionaire marries an impoverished English baronet and goes to live in England. She all but loses contact with her family in America. Years later her younger sister Bettina, beautiful, intelligent and extremely rich, goes to England to find what has happened to her sister. She finds Rosalie shabby and dispirited, cowed by her husband's ill-treatment. Bettina sets about to rectify matters.
-
-
More than Lovely
- By jTacy67 on 01-17-18
-
The Idiot
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 27 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Idiot, Prince Myshkin possesses a childlike innocence and trusting nature that leave him vulnerable to abuse by those around him. Returning to St. Petersburg to collect an inheritance, Myshkin realizes he is a stranger in a society obsessed with wealth, manipulation and power.
-
-
Avoid Constance Garnett
- By Anthony on 04-09-17
-
The Double and The Gambler
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The two strikingly original short novels brought together here - in new translations by award-winning translators - were both literary gambles of a sort for Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first real expression of his genius, The Double is a surprisingly modern hallucinatory nightmare in which a minor official named Goliadkin becomes aware of a mysterious doppelgänger. Written 20 years later under the pressure of crushing debt, The Gambler is a stunning psychological portrait of a young man's exhilarating and destructive addiction.
-
-
Exciting
- By Tad Davis on 02-25-19
By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others
-
The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 51 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orson Welles stars in this full-cast performance of Dumas' classic novel.
-
-
It is only the FIRST Chapter
- By SCM on 02-12-12
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 1
- By: Anton Chekhov
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, (1860-1904), was born in Russia at Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. His name has become synonymous with a certain literary style much admired and widely copied since his death. Typically, a Chekhov story is a "mood", a state of mind, usually with regard to relations between one person and another. Under the influence of the constant, infinitesimal, and unforeseen pinpricks of life, there occurs a gradual transformation of that state of mind.
-
-
A Box of Chocolates
- By Darlene on 02-08-05
By: Anton Chekhov
-
Crime and Punishment
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Timothy on 02-20-16
-
The Four Feathers
- By: A. E. W. Mason
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just before his regiment sails off to war in the Sudan, British officer Harry Feversham quits the military. He is immediately given four white feathers as symbols of cowardice, one by each of his three best friends and one by his fiancée. To disprove this grave dishonor, Harry dons an Arabian disguise and leaves for the Sudan, where he anonymously comes to the aid of his three friends, saving each of their lives. Having proven his bravery, Harry returns to England, hoping to regain the love and respect of his fiancée.
-
-
Deep Realistic Story Masterfully Read
- By Kappavpi on 07-05-04
By: A. E. W. Mason
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity.
-
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Scarlet Pimpernel
- By: Baroness Orczy
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution... The title character represents the original "hero with a secret identity" that inspired subsequent literary creations such as Don Diego de la Vega (El Zorro) and Bruce Wayne (the Batman). The popularity of the novel encouraged Orczy to write a number of sequels for her "reckless daredevil" over the next 35 years. The original play was performed to great acclaim in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, while the novel was translated into 16 languages.
-
-
This version does not do the novel justice!
- By Wayne on 12-04-18
By: Baroness Orczy
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Great Moments of Humanity
- 12 events that shaped history
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Stefan Zweig traces 12 fateful events of world history in his unique artistic style: from the conquest of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople by the Turks, to the Battle of Waterloo to Sir Robert Falcon Scott's tragic South Pole expedition. The human character and sometimes simple fate are decisive historic factors that have led to dramatic and lasting changes in the past. Often short, coincidental and highly dramatic moments have the potential to change the future of mankind in a decisive manner – the so called "Great Moments of Humanity".
-
-
Gritty and Enlightening
- By Gael Dalton on 05-03-24
By: Stefan Zweig
-
The World of Yesterday
- Memoirs of a European
- By: Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars. Zweig's passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the brink of extinction. It is an unusually humane account of Europe from the closing years of the 19th century through to World War II, seen through the eyes of one of the most famous writers of his era.
-
-
Lucidity whilst Civilization reverts to barbarism
- By none on 06-25-17
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
The Royal Game
- A Chess Story
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fame of the The Royal Game is evident in the number of translations. The last work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig can be read today in over 60 languages. The first translation into English appeared in New York in 1944. In Germany, the book has become a constant bestseller. The first-person narrator learns of the presence of the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic on a boat trip from New York to Buenos Aires. Together with his acquaintance Mc Connor and other chess players, the first-person narrator manages to challenge the world champion to a game of chess.
-
-
Brief but wonderful
- By Cat S. on 02-17-21
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Nietzsche
- Fighting Demons
- By: Stefan Zweig, Vanessa Walsh - translator
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dazzling biographical study of the greatest German philosopher of the nineteenth century by one of the most widely read German-language authors of the twentieth century. In this vivid and eloquent biography, Zweig largely eschews the traditional academic discourse on the philosopher's work, instead concentrating entirely on Nietzsche as a person, his habits, his passions and his obsessions. Stefan Zweig describes the tragedy of Nietzsche's existence, his seclusion from the world, in self-imposed isolation, in a compelling and impressive way.
-
-
Stunning
- By Hammad Khan on 07-02-23
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
Letter from an Unknown Woman
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Heather Wood, K. Anderson Yancy
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
-
-
Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Biografías
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Alfonso Mendiguchía
- Length: 88 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
De la amplia obra de Stefan Zweig, celebrada por generaciones de lectores alrededor del mundo, quizá sus biografías son las que mejor dan muestra de la destreza del escritor para el retrato, de su agudeza psicológica y de la profunda comprensión del alma humana.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Great Moments of Humanity
- 12 events that shaped history
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Stefan Zweig traces 12 fateful events of world history in his unique artistic style: from the conquest of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople by the Turks, to the Battle of Waterloo to Sir Robert Falcon Scott's tragic South Pole expedition. The human character and sometimes simple fate are decisive historic factors that have led to dramatic and lasting changes in the past. Often short, coincidental and highly dramatic moments have the potential to change the future of mankind in a decisive manner – the so called "Great Moments of Humanity".
-
-
Gritty and Enlightening
- By Gael Dalton on 05-03-24
By: Stefan Zweig
-
The World of Yesterday
- Memoirs of a European
- By: Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars. Zweig's passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the brink of extinction. It is an unusually humane account of Europe from the closing years of the 19th century through to World War II, seen through the eyes of one of the most famous writers of his era.
-
-
Lucidity whilst Civilization reverts to barbarism
- By none on 06-25-17
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
The Royal Game
- A Chess Story
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fame of the The Royal Game is evident in the number of translations. The last work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig can be read today in over 60 languages. The first translation into English appeared in New York in 1944. In Germany, the book has become a constant bestseller. The first-person narrator learns of the presence of the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic on a boat trip from New York to Buenos Aires. Together with his acquaintance Mc Connor and other chess players, the first-person narrator manages to challenge the world champion to a game of chess.
-
-
Brief but wonderful
- By Cat S. on 02-17-21
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Nietzsche
- Fighting Demons
- By: Stefan Zweig, Vanessa Walsh - translator
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dazzling biographical study of the greatest German philosopher of the nineteenth century by one of the most widely read German-language authors of the twentieth century. In this vivid and eloquent biography, Zweig largely eschews the traditional academic discourse on the philosopher's work, instead concentrating entirely on Nietzsche as a person, his habits, his passions and his obsessions. Stefan Zweig describes the tragedy of Nietzsche's existence, his seclusion from the world, in self-imposed isolation, in a compelling and impressive way.
-
-
Stunning
- By Hammad Khan on 07-02-23
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
Letter from an Unknown Woman
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Heather Wood, K. Anderson Yancy
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately following the death of her young son, distraught and heartbroken, a woman sends a heart-wrenching letter to the only man she has ever loved, chronicling their love affair, opening with, "To you, who have never known me."
-
-
Tough 2 Hear With Background Music & Sound Effects
- By DK on 09-19-15
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Biografías
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Alfonso Mendiguchía
- Length: 88 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
De la amplia obra de Stefan Zweig, celebrada por generaciones de lectores alrededor del mundo, quizá sus biografías son las que mejor dan muestra de la destreza del escritor para el retrato, de su agudeza psicológica y de la profunda comprensión del alma humana.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
-
-
An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
-
Charles Dickens
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 1 hr and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Dickens is the highest poetic expression of the English tradition between the heroic century of Napoleon, the glorious past, and imperialism, the dream of his future. (...) Only when one hates the hypocritical narrow-mindedness of Victorian culture from the bottom of one's soul can one appreciates with full admiration the genius of a man who compelled us to find this disgusting world of sated sluggishness interesting and almost endearing, who redeemed life's most banal prose into poetry".
-
-
NOT the “German edition”
- By A+A on 02-18-23
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Abigail
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abigail, the story of a headstrong teenager growing up during World War II, is the most beloved of Magda Szabo's books in her native Hungary. Gina is the only child of a general, a widower who has long been happy to spoil his bright and willful daughter. Gina is devastated when the general tells her that he must go away on a mission and that he will be sending her to boarding school in the country. She is even more aghast at the grim religious institution to which she soon finds herself consigned.
-
-
Who knew boarding school could be exciting?
- By Wendy on 10-25-20
By: Magda Szabó, and others
-
The Door
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
-
-
Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
-
Sigmund Freud
- Life and Work
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Dan Mellins-Cohen
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig dedicated this largely biographical work to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Zweig acknowledges Freud's scientific contributions and highlights some weaknesses of his fellow countryman. Freud's actual achievement is less to be found in scientific detail, but in the multitude of his contributions with which he enabled and inspired the thinking, rethinking and research of many of his successors. Zweig describes the life of Freud and the genesis of psychoanalysis with his usual linguistic virtuosity.
-
-
Ode to Freud
- By Amazon Customer on 09-08-22
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Madame Bovary
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Madame Bovary, one of the great novels of 19th-century France, Flaubert draws a deeply felt and sympathetic portrait of a woman who, having married a country doctor and found herself unhappy with a rural, genteel existence, longs for love and excitement. However, her aspirations and her desires to escape only bring her further disappointment and eventually lead to unexpected, painful consequences. Flaubert’s critical portrait of bourgeois provincial life remains as powerful as ever
-
-
Excellent narrator, beautiful writing
- By DHW on 06-11-14
By: Gustave Flaubert
-
Momentos Estelares de la Humanidad
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Gustavo Dardes
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Zweig trabajó más de veinte años en Momentos estelares de la humanidad. El libro reúne catorce momentos históricos retratados por Zweig, fundamentales desde su punto de vista para el transcurso de la historia. El asesinato de Cicerón, la expedición fallida al Polo Sur del capitán Scott y la fiebre del oro de California en 1848 son solo algunos de estos relatos que ilustran la visión del mundo que tenía Zweig, que apela a los procedimientos narrativos de sus novelas para dar vida a narraciones que siempre oscilan entre lo ficcional y lo fáctico.
-
-
Asombroso el texto. Terrible el narrador
- By Tamara Trottner on 08-01-23
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Montaigne
- By: Stefan Zweig, Vanessa Walsh - Übersetzer
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The others form the human being, I depict him; and here I present an individual who is quite poorly formed and whom I would certainly make largely differently if I had to reshape him. But now that's the way he is." This phrase from the famous essays of Michel de Montaigne outlines the character of the author and his work. Montaigne wrote his essays not from a position of certainty but from an awareness of his inadequacy. He thus reveals a level of critical self-reflection that, before his time, was rarely put on paper.
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
The Burning Secret
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Mark Young
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A suave baron takes a fancy to twelve-year-old Edgar's mother, while the three are holidaying in an Austrian mountain resort. His initial advances rejected, the baron befriends Edgar in order to get closer to the woman he desires. The initially unsuspecting child soon senses something is amiss, but has no idea of the burning secret that is driving the affair, and that will soon change his life for ever.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Magellan
- A Man and his Deed
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the age of voyages of discovery in the 15th century, the curtain of history slowly came down on the late Middle Ages. Portuguese and Spanish seafarers set out to remeasure the dimensions of the earth. Numerous spices and fruits, which we would hardly be able to do without today, found their way to Europe for the first time. Columbus discovered America in 1492 on his quest for India. Six years later, it was left to Vasco da Gama to travel through the sea route to India sought by Columbus on the eastern route around Africa.
-
-
Great book - odd narration
- By Anonymous User on 04-08-23
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Tolstoi
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to Stefan Zweig, no contemporary author, not even Marx or Nietzsche, delivered the radical spiritual shock that Tolstoy's works gave millions and millions of people around the world. But which Tolstoy are we talking about? For Zweig it is the essayist Tolstoy, the radical thinker and incorruptible anarchist. The Tolstoy who claims that the state is the great cover-up of social injustice through a complex system of violence based on parliaments, prisons, judges, tax collectors, the police and armies.
By: Stefan Zweig
-
Time's Echo
- The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
- By: Jeremy Eichler
- Narrated by: Jeremy Eichler, Sherrill Milnes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal “Ode to Joy,” he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schiller’s words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, “the deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.”
-
-
Beautifully written. Beautifully read
- By TC8931 on 04-09-24
By: Jeremy Eichler
What listeners say about Beware of Pity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Helen
- 06-23-20
Terrific story!
Great classical story of unrequited love, this narrator was fantastic! Will look for more by him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Merlin
- 09-27-20
A great novel–psychologically penetrating
Although I knew of Stephen Zweig, I hadn't heard of this novel before coming across it on Audible. I highly recommend it. It's an interesting story excellently narrated. I find some of the emotional reactions of the characters rather exaggerated--melodramatic, in fact. And the climax involves some unrealistic or obviously stupid actions. For all that, I found the novel compelling, and psychologically insightful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thomas
- 08-07-17
Masterpiece that is also extremely enjoyable
If you could sum up Beware of Pity in three words, what would they be?
Extremely enjoyable masterpiece
Have you listened to any of Nicholas Boulton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
This is the first time I listened and his performance is excellent
Who was the most memorable character of Beware of Pity and why?
The doctor, because he gives off an amazing amount of philosophy, advice, background history, opinion and is a very colorful character in everyday life as well.
Any additional comments?
The reading of this book could not have done a better job, it was excellent. There are so many layers to this story and different references to pity. Besides pity to the girl Edit these is also pity elicited to the lieutenant. In addition, the father of Edit is in need of pity. There are substories within the story which are of high interest as well. The entire story is packed with meaning and submeaning. In addition the mood is set so well that the reader can feel the mood of that period in Vienna and the mindset of a soldier and the atmosphere of the times. Zweig is a master at conveying mood and bringing the reader into his world. The writing is very erudite and there is philosophy at every corner. On top of all that, the story comes off anything but dry and instead is immensely entertaining. This is a classic for all time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rami R.
- 12-27-21
Wow, captivating book, great reading
Timeless and covers humanity to the point and yet describes the period with accuracy and interest. The translation and reading are of the highest level. A must!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vikram
- 01-25-18
Recommended by Jeffrey Archer
In Oxford Union Discussion someone asked Jeffrey Archer which author he really admired and he mentioned this one.
If it's good enough for Mr.Archer it is fantastic for me.
I must comment on the Narrator. He added the passion and drama to the story, so much, that I almost came close to tears at times.
truly remarkable piece of writing. I am glad I found it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aida B
- 07-16-20
Zweig’s perception of human nature is unparalleled
Zweig is my favorite writer and I am naturally biased to praise his writing. However, despite my preference for his style, his insight, his literary excellence, I am fully objective when I determine that this is, indeed, one of his best works.
The performance does justice to characters and the narrative. Such a deeply felt read. I am thankful that Zweig is read and shared so intimately.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E. R. Øyre
- 02-10-18
You beautiful, nervous wreck!
Zweig's story is a beautiful one, yet one i cannot relate to.
Why then do I stil like this book?
It tells the story of a young officer in an austrian cavallery regiment located in Hungary, and his ever more complicated relations with the family " Von Kékesfalva", and subsequently his many and sometimes almost childish and desperate ways of trying to escape these same complications. I hate to spoil a good plot, so I will leave it at that.
I guess much of what denies this book greatness in my eyes, it really a sign of greatness in itself, as it is the frustration and anger I feel towards the story's main character that left me with compicated feelings about the work.
But even when I was frustrated with the plot of the story, other parts of the book would always hold me, and keep me from stopping to listen.
It was, among other things, the allure of the fascinating and mysterious culture and daily life of the Austro-Hungarian empire. I had first listened to The World of Yesterday by Zweig, and wanted to hear all I could about this part of european history that I knew so little of. Zweig truly brought me enjoyment through this work, and it is one that I am sure to revisit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gabriela Ramirez
- 06-22-19
Para disfrutar y pensar
Zweig siempre entrando en lo más profundo del mundo interior humano. Una excelente narración que permite sumergirse en la historia.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- W Perry Hall
- 07-01-18
Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn....
'Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn the limitations of kindness.'
Sufi Proverb
Upon finishing this, Stefan Zweig's only completed novel, after having already read his memoir, The World of Yesterday, I've found that this Austrian author was one of those singularly gifted observers of the human condition, that come along maybe only once a generation, able to regularly discern the profound in the mundane as if such a talent came like riding a bicycle.
Beware of Pity sated my love for an exploration of human emotions I've not yet encountered in a story but have experienced in the real world. First was pity, and the negative that can flow therefrom. Second is the feeling of having someone in love with you at a time in youth when you want nothing to do with her/him.
Though I'd of course encountered the emotion of pity in other novels, none had made it a central theme and covered it like this novel did.
As for the second--see Zweig's brilliant quote below--I look back with deep regret at how mean and callous I was to the girl, and think how I'd have handled it differently. I'd not seen this fleshed out in a story from the viewpoint of the *unloving beloved* before this one.
The surface moral of this novel is laid out by its title: pity, as an emotion, can result in disaster. The deeper message seems the old maxim, you cannot judge a book by its cover. Hofmiller may wear the medal of the Military Order of Maria Theresa--the highest military decoration Austria could offer, equivalent to the Victoria Cross in Great Britain and the U.S.'s Medal of Honor--but he is plagued by his knowledge that his badge of 'courage' actually came from a colossal act of cowardice.
The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's popularity seems to be making a bit of a comeback, with the new publication of a number of his novellas and his memoir The World of Yesterday in which his writing shines. According to a number of sources, when this novel was published in 1939, Zweig was likely the most popular author in the world, for his short stories, novellas and biographies of famous people.
This was, again, the only novel he completed. He wrote it, as a Jewish refugee from Nazi persecution, in the U.S. (where he arrived in 1935) and then England (1938). He and his wife moved to Brazil in 1942 and shortly thereafter committed suicide together.
The story is set in Austria, mostly as it was on the brink of World War I. The tale is told though through a framing narrator (presumably Zweig) who meets the famously decorated cavalry lieutenant Anton Hofmiller at a social function. The narrator asks about the lieutenant's decoration as a hero of WW I, the Military Order of Maria Theresa, which Hofmiller disdains.
To explain why, he must take the narrator (and readers) back to the time he was invited to the castle of an immensely wealthy Hungarian named Lajos Kekesfalva. There, he asked the old man's crippled daughter to dance. A spoiled girl in her late teens, she throws a fit. Feeling pity for the girl, Hofmiller makes trips to see the Kekesfalvas nearly every day for an extended period. He is a man who gets nearly everything wrong: his gaffe that ultimately leads to awful consequences, believing Kekesfalva was a nobleman, and thinking the girl's doctor was incompetent, and leading the girl to believe she and he were engaged to be married only to deny it later in the evening, fearful of what his peers may think of him.
From BEWARE OF PITY, on the 'Torment' of Being "Loved Against Your Will
'a worse torment, perhaps, than feeling love and desire...is to be loved against your will, when you cannot defend yourself against the passion thrust upon you. It is worse to see someone beside herself, burning with the flames of desire, and stand by powerless, unable to find the strength to snatch her from the fire.
If you are unhappily in love yourself, you may sometimes be able to tame your passion because you are the author of your own unhappiness, not just its creature. If a lover can't control his passion then at least his suffering is his own fault. But there is nothing someone who is loved and does not love in return can do about it since it is beyond his own power to determine the extent and limits of that love and no willpower of his own can keep someone else from loving him.'
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ayelet O. Kindler
- 12-24-23
Masterpiece
This is a work of a great novelist, and it will draw you in immediately. Zweig, in my opinion, can be compared to Dostoyevsky. Like a surgeon, and with a delicate knife, Zweig portraits the inner, most delicate emotions, desires, fears, and demons of the mind.
Not to talk about the superb narration by Nicholas Boulton. Bravo!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful