Beware of Pity

Stefan Zweig's most famous novel, reissued with a new jacket and title'I can't take any more of your revolting merciful kindness!'Who would have thought that the great military hero Captain Hofmiller - that living monument to his own courage - would have anything burdening his soul? But when he reveals his story, it is not one of bravery but tragedy- a simple blunder at a dance from which disaster grows, ruining lives with his weak, foolish pity...Beware of Pity is Stefan Zweig's greatest novel, fiercely capturing human emotions in all their subtleties and extremes - while Hofmiller, his unforgettable, naive creation, misunderstands everything, resulting in his downfall.Translated by Jonathan Katz.

His stories are full of characters poisoned by things left unsaid, or situations misread... an interior state of mind is beautifully translated into memorable yet familiar imagery... a ring of interior psychological veracity. -- Nicholas Lezard The Guardian
The most exciting book I have ever read ... a feverish, fascinating novel. -- Antony Beevor Sunday Telegraph

Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna to a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. Recognition as a writer came early for Zweig; by the age of forty, he had already won literary fame. In 1934, with Nazism entrenched, Zweig left Austria for England, and became a British citizen in 1940. In 1941 he and his second wife went to Brazil, where they committed suicide. Zweig's best-known works of fiction are Beware of Pity (1939) and Chess (1942), but his most outstanding accomplishments were his many biographies, which were based on psychological interpretation.Jonathan Katz was born in London in 1950 and educated in London, Munich and at Oxford, where he is currently a Fellow of Brasenose College and the University's Public Orator. His previous translations from German include works by Goethe, Theodor Storm and Joseph Roth. His translations of Six Stories by Stefan Zweig are also published by Penguin.

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