Page 1 About the Author
Letter from a Strange Woman was written by Stephen Zweig (28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian novelist, poet, playwright and biographer. Coming from a wealthy Jewish family, Zweig studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and Berlin in his youth, and later traveled the world, making friends with and influencing the likes of Roman Roland and Freud. He is the author of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and biographies, most famous for his biographical and novel achievements. Engaged in anti-war work during World War I, he was deported by the Nazis in 1934 and went into exile in Britain and Brazil. He committed suicide in Brazil on February 22, 1942.
Zweig's works, especially his novel creation, mainly with the theme of "emotion, passion - lust, women", through the description of the inner world of the characters, and the various complex and rich emotional activities and psychological states displayed, which are in harmony with the aesthetic expectation horizons of Chinese readers. These novel texts either attach importance to the psychological analysis of the youthful excitement of young boys and girls, or record the painful confessions of adult men and women who commit the crime of passion driven by lust, or describe the tragic memories of the intense emotional journey of men and women in twilight.
Although the characters in Zweig's novels belong to the class of propertied people who do not worry about food and clothing and are not threatened by survival in material life, Zweig knows that the material peace of eating all day long cannot escape the spiritual troubles, in order to experience, Zweig sets up various special environments for his characters: the strange woman's "living world is very narrow", "trying to tell others about her heart", no one "points, reminds, has no experience", "the heartless girl is cold and sluggish". After Zweig's death, Brazil's president ordered a state funeral for the master.
Page 2 Summary of contents
"Letter from a Strange Woman" mainly tells the story of a girl who lives a poor life with her mother due to the early death of her father, and the girl and her mother live in simplicity and small towns. As time passes, the girl begins to abandon her real state of existence with her mother.
When the girl was thirteen, the neighbor moved in with a handsome young writer. For a girl whose life was very narrow, a famous and handsome writer in another big world was a miracle, and for a girl the writer was a seductive mystery, so in the days to come, she devoted all the energy of a thirteen-year-old girl to peeking into the life of a writer. By chance, the girl almost collided with the oncoming writer. The girl with no life experience does not know that the attractive, emotional and soul-destroying, natural seductive gaze of the writer to the women around him and his usual gentle and attentive attitude towards women does not mean admiration, she thinks that the writer's tenderness is only for her, so from that moment on the girl's heart will always belong to him.
Girls were not very serious about studying in school, but since the writer came, the girl's life has changed completely. She jumped from middle to first; read thousands of books and read them late into the night every day, because she knew that writers liked books; suddenly and persistently practiced the piano because she thought writers liked music; she was afraid that writers would look down on her because of a patch in her old student skirt, so every time she went upstairs, she always blocked the patch with her school bag.
When the girl was 16 years old, her mother remarried and her family moved to a different place. She spent her youth in unrequited love. When she came out as a beautiful girl, the childhood adoration and crush on writers quickly developed into a fiery love. In order to be with him in the future, she returned to Vienna alone as an adult, and every night quietly wandered around the writer's residence, silently following his whereabouts. At first she just wanted to look at the writer and meet him once.
By chance, the writer crossed the road in a hurry, and when he turned his provocative eyes to her, she ran away timidly and shyly. But how much she wanted him to pay attention to her, recognize her, and fall in love with her. One night the writer finally noticed her, but from the curious and interested gaze of the writer at the young girl, she immediately realized that the writer had not recognized her as the girl next door, and that this was the first time that the girl had suffered the fate of not being recognized.
In the obsessive wait day after day, the outstanding girl finally attracted the attention of the writer. They spent three soul-destroying nights, and the lingering and twisted love made her fascinated and never forget, but she did not tell her love for him, but hoped that when the writer took her in his arms, a vague and distant memory could be stirred up in her heart, but the writer still did not recognize her as the girl next door.
When the girl realizes that the writer likes to give love to all women indiscriminately, but is unwilling to make any sacrifices.
She didn't want the writer to think she was a burden, and even hated her for it, so after giving birth to a child in a poor hospital, she took on the burden of life alone. Because the girl's unconscious desire is to seek the writer's approval of herself, she wants the writer to think of her without a trace of worry, to make herself the only one among the women he has loved, and to let him miss her forever with love and gratitude.
In order to enable their children to be educated in a good environment and grow up to be like a writer in high society, she did not hesitate to commit herself to a rich man, but refused the marriage proposals of admirers, in order to avoid marriage, maintain a free body, and fantasize about returning to the writer one day. In the years that followed, she and the writer often met in the theater, at concerts, in the park, on the street, and again and again, and her heart called deeply: "Recognize me, recognize me as the girl next door to you!" It's that girl! And the writer's gaze on her is never recognized.
In desperation, she remembered that the writer had sent her a few white roses after three nights of passion, so that every time the writer's birthday came, she would send someone to send a bouquet of roses to the writer, just to awaken the writer's memories of those three nights and continue to repeat her desires. At the ball where the strange woman and the writer met for the last time, the writer's instinctive, passionate gaze burned her to the ground, so she left the officer who provided her with a superior life and followed the writer through the night of the soul again.
The next morning, the woman hinted at the writer with the white rose on the table, hoping that he would remember something, and her eyes were shouting: "Recognize me, finally recognize me!" And at this moment in the writer's mind she was stranger than ever, because a few minutes later the writer carefully tucked a few bills into her handbag, and at that moment her heart was completely broken, as if she had fallen into the abyss in an instant.
On the verge of death, the only requirement of the "strange woman" for the writer is to buy some roses for herself to offer in the vase every year on the writer's birthday, just as she once did for him, just so that she can continue to live quietly in his heart, just as she once lived by his side in the past, but sadly, until the "strange woman" died alone in the desolation and pain of losing her child, the writer never recognized the woman who met him several times and even fell in love in the dark as the girl next door. Only as a laughing girl in the scene, one of countless sexual encounters.
After reading the "Strange Woman" double, the writer only vaguely felt some emotional clues, but he never accurately recalled her image.
Page 3 Background of writing
In January 1922, Zweig, who had experienced the First World War, calmly waited for the various waves of doctrine in the pre-war world to leave, recalled the problems of yesterday's world, reflected on his own creation, and began the most important ten-year creative period.
"Letter from a Strange Woman" is a masterpiece of his ideological transition period. This text is a literary expression of the spiritual crisis of Zweig's era of change, as well as Zweig's doubts and reflections on his self-centered value after the retreat of Romanticism. Zweig also received two letters from "strange women" in his life. It was these two letters that inspired Zweig. Therefore, this book can also be seen as Zweig's "autobiography".
Some people think that Zweig uses the eyes of a child to write about adult love in order to portray the psychology of children, and this is not wrong. But the reason this depiction is valuable is not only due to realism, but more importantly, he is exploring a traditional topic of growth. This type of Enlightenment novel, which originated from the German-speaking world, is not only the motif of Goethe's novels that Zweig admired, but also almost the typical novel genre of the German Romantics, which is synonymous with enlightenment novels.
But Zweig does not, through travel and adventure, draw on how a teenager experiences the events of the world to finally reach a perfect personality, or to get the revelation of what a man is; there is no higher and more perfect world for the child to discover or create, and there is no more noble and complete life for the child to experience. In Zweig's premise, the world that children face that they are about to step on is a comfortable world, an adult world of man-woman relationships that have natural rules of operation and are always there. But children do not understand these rules or know their existence when they are not yet grown, and they are isolated from the real world and live in another greenhouse constructed by romantic fantasies and adult concealment.
Biography
Strange Woman: Her life trajectory has regressed from seeking independence to her mistress's state of existence. She refused financial assistance from her wealthy stepfather at the age of 17 and returned to Vienna to work as a clerk. This path implies professional life and financial independence, but it can only last until the birth of a child.
In order to provide her children with good life and educational opportunities, she became the mistress of wealthy men. The combination of physical infidelity and inner fidelity, such a complex situation that beautifies the transformation of the life path of a strange woman into a mother's sacrifice pattern, is undoubtedly continuing to spread the gender stereotypes that were widely spread in the 1920s.
Male protagonist: Is a Viennese Don Su, like "easy, game, not heavy everything", by nature, is an extremely forgetful playboy.
Page 4 Reader Comments
1, "Letter from a Strange Woman" The family of the heroine protagonist is very unfortunate. His father died at an early age, his mother lived in seclusion and did not interact with people, and the neighbors' family problems were serious. She couldn't see a normal adult world or understand normal relationships. All this adds to the strangeness between the girl and the adult world. However, the appearance of R writers breaks this isolated life for the first time, so that the adult world of gender relations stands out in front of the girl, just like fate, forcing her to fall into the abyss.
2, this world is the world of adults. In Zweig's novels, there is an important theme, that is, children and adults. Zweig describes the strange woman as a unrequited lover who constantly demands that the other person recognize him. She doesn't ask for material rewards, she doesn't ask for physical greed, she's just interested in his existence, just as she's obsessed only with her own existence. It can be seen that the strange woman always recognizes the status of the other, and her ego needs to be defined by the other, and her tragedy is not that the self cannot assimilate the other as the self, but that the ego cannot connect with the other and maintain the independence of the self and the other at the same time.
Page 5 Quotes
1, what is a friend, what is self-esteem, and I will do this next time. Your voice has a mysterious power that I can't resist, and after more than ten years of change, it still hasn't changed. As long as you call me, I will be in the grave, and I will gush a force, stand up, and follow you.
2, when I face you, I have no scruples, even if it is a sea of fire, I will go deeper.
3, a few days later, you came back, but never looked for me again, in those two months, I saw you in and out of the courtyard door every day, at that time, I suddenly found that for your soul, whether it is separated by countless mountains and valleys, or in our eyes there is only a line of separation, in fact, it is the same distance.
4, my heart, nervous like a tight string, as soon as you appear, it is trembling in the middle.
5) I tell you everything, my dear, and all these trivial, ridiculous things, so that you may understand that from the very beginning you have had that magic power over me, a shy, timid child. Before you yourself could break into my life, you were surrounded by a circle of aura, a rich, peculiar, and mysterious light.
(To be continued)
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