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mdesch's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Het ligt niet in de menselijke aard alleen op herinneringen te teren.
Reis naar het verleden is een novelle over de tragedie van de tijd, die voelen en willen vervormt en vernietigt.
Jammer genoeg is het boek lang niet zo goed geschreven als de andere van Zweigs werken die ik al gelezen heb, maar het is wel op een thematisch toepasselijke manier geschreven. Dat betekent echter niet dat ik er bepaald van genoot. Het was nogal dik, bij momenten nogal traag, en vaak net wat te dramatisch. Niet voor deze lezer geschreven.
Jammer genoeg is het boek lang niet zo goed geschreven als de andere van Zweigs werken die ik al gelezen heb, maar het is wel op een thematisch toepasselijke manier geschreven. Dat betekent echter niet dat ik er bepaald van genoot. Het was nogal dik, bij momenten nogal traag, en vaak net wat te dramatisch. Niet voor deze lezer geschreven.
aureles's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
sereenaro's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
readmetwotimes's review against another edition
4.0
La mia copertina di Linus. Zweig che parla di amore e guerra e ricordo e paura. Due persone che si sono amate e ora non lo sanno più. Sempre bello, troppo breve.
brandonalan's review against another edition
5.0
My second Zweig in two days, reading both this and Chess Story in one sitting. Perhaps I'm becoming Zweig obsessed. Deeply psychological, vastly readable. This novella, along with Chess Game, operated like one giant current or wave sweeping me forward through the narrative. It's not until I crashed onto the shore at the completion of the book that I was are able to pause and take inventory of all I had read. A reading experience that is both easy to process on the level of the personal, or at large, widening the lens to humanity itself. This is what Zweig is a master of, unearthing the whispers that exist in the mind, the motivations that are both said and unsaid, conscious and unconscious. He points to your shadow so that you may understand what has and continues to impel you forward through the ceaseless current of time. But of course there are a lot of other things going on here too, it's really astonishing how much Zweig can pack into less than 100 pages.
coffeebooksrepeat's review against another edition
5.0
Neither she nor he was the same any more, yet they were searching for each other in a vain effort, fleeing one another, persisting in disembodied, powerless efforts like those black spectres at their feet.”
"He listened yet more intently to what was within him, to the past, to see whether that voice of memory truly foretelling the future would not speak to him again, revealing the present to him as well as the past."
————
My first encounter with Stefan Zweig was in 2021 through Chess Story. I was so engrossed that I finished it in under a couple of hours. It was a tiny yet powerful novella. Journey Into The Past is no different.
Ludwig, the male protagonist, is a successful businessman whose humble beginnings and destitute conditions as a young boy were his driving force to perform well in school and to be good in whatever endeavor he partakes in — as a private tutor or right-hand man of a German industrialist.
The German industrialist’s wife, the female protagonist, is a soft-spoken and kind woman who Ludwig couldn’t stop falling in love with the first time he laid eyes on her.
Ludwig and the German industrialist’s family, including her wife, lived in the same house. During their time together, even though the tension between Ludwig and the lady of the house was on a constant rise, neither acted on it; until he announced his impending departure.
Set in the 1920s to 1930s, this type of "relationship" still exists — common even — at present. One needs to leave for career growth, while the other stays for another, or sometimes, for the same reason.
Do they still want the same thing even after all this time?
Did their love survive the almost decade-long of being absent from each other's lives?
Would you?
"He listened yet more intently to what was within him, to the past, to see whether that voice of memory truly foretelling the future would not speak to him again, revealing the present to him as well as the past."
————
My first encounter with Stefan Zweig was in 2021 through Chess Story. I was so engrossed that I finished it in under a couple of hours. It was a tiny yet powerful novella. Journey Into The Past is no different.
Ludwig, the male protagonist, is a successful businessman whose humble beginnings and destitute conditions as a young boy were his driving force to perform well in school and to be good in whatever endeavor he partakes in — as a private tutor or right-hand man of a German industrialist.
The German industrialist’s wife, the female protagonist, is a soft-spoken and kind woman who Ludwig couldn’t stop falling in love with the first time he laid eyes on her.
Ludwig and the German industrialist’s family, including her wife, lived in the same house. During their time together, even though the tension between Ludwig and the lady of the house was on a constant rise, neither acted on it; until he announced his impending departure.
Set in the 1920s to 1930s, this type of "relationship" still exists — common even — at present. One needs to leave for career growth, while the other stays for another, or sometimes, for the same reason.
Do they still want the same thing even after all this time?
Did their love survive the almost decade-long of being absent from each other's lives?
Would you?
ands2010's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
edgarsk's review against another edition
5.0
Cveigs satiek Zēbaldu, Amsterdamas dzelzceļa stacija satiek Heidelbergas dzelzceļa staciju, pa vidu ir deviņi gadi un šausmīgi smeldzīga atkalsatkšanās. "What makes me keep comparing the past with the present?".
willemvdz's review against another edition
4.0
Stefan Zweig's Chess was one of the books that reinvigorated my love for reading back a few years ago and I wanted to return to his writing ever since. While this very brief novella maybe doesn't feel as fully formed as that famous piece of literature, it certainly has a charming romantic touch to it where Zweig combines his famous anti-fascist stance with a nostalgic, loving feeling for the past - more specifically his own past. While the romance at heart isn't all that unique, the way it symbolizes Zweig's departure and break with Germany as it succumbed to the evils of WWII, is felt palpably all throughout its meager 80 or so pages. And Zweig's talent for conjuring up the most amazing, poetic images to illustrate the tragic romance at the heart of this deceivingly simple tale are of a quality that should make the readers of the dime-a-dozen fairytale romances that are pumped out these days shit bricks ;P
kathleenthinksthings's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
4.25