Stefan Zweig is having something of a renaissance in this country thanks to Pushkin Press. A few years ago, they published a revised edition of his brilliant novel Beware of Pity and more releases have followed. Typically, larger publishers have got in on the act, but Pushkin remains the place to be if you’re interested in Zweig’s work.
Journey into the Past is a novella, like so much of Zweig’s work, and is told in three timeframes. As Paul Bailey notes in his introduction, Zweig’s narratives are often framed in this way, and its structure is also reminiscent of Joseph Roth’s work, for example The Legend of the Holy Drinker.
It starts as a man and a woman meet at a train station to begin a journey back into their past in attempt to recover what they lost through separation and war. Gradually, we come to understand how this couple’s story developed, and how and why they have come to meet on the train. Many of the classic inter-war issues are present – the effect of the Great War, rampant commerce, the shadow of the far right and the disintegration of the social mores that existed before the war.
Unfortunately, it all seems a little routine, and never achieves the power or subtlety of Zweig’s other work, but it’s a diverting and readable volume none the less.
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