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    The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche
    Unavailable
    The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche
    Unavailable
    The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche
    Ebook313 pages5 hours

    The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche

    By Stefan Zweig

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The Struggle with the Daemon is a brilliant analysis of the European psyche by the great novelist and biographer Stefan Zweig. Zweig studies three giants of German literature and thought: Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist and Friedrich Nietzsche - powerful minds whose ideas were at odds with the scientific positivism of their age; troubled spirits whose intoxicating passions drove them mad but inspired them to great works. In their struggle with their inner creative force, Zweig reflects the conflict at the heart of the European soul - between science and art, reason and inspiration.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPushkin Press
    Release dateAug 31, 2012
    ISBN9781908968210
    Unavailable
    The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche
    Author

    Stefan Zweig

    Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) war ein österreichischer Schriftsteller, dessen Werke für ihre psychologische Raffinesse, emotionale Tiefe und stilistische Brillanz bekannt sind. Er wurde 1881 in Wien in eine jüdische Familie geboren. Seine Kindheit verbrachte er in einem intellektuellen Umfeld, das seine spätere Karriere als Schriftsteller prägte. Zweig zeigte früh eine Begabung für Literatur und begann zu schreiben. Nach seinem Studium der Philosophie, Germanistik und Romanistik an der Universität Wien begann er seine Karriere als Schriftsteller und Journalist. Er reiste durch Europa und pflegte Kontakte zu prominenten zeitgenössischen Schriftstellern und Intellektuellen wie Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann und James Joyce. Zweigs literarisches Schaffen umfasst Romane, Novellen, Essays, Dramen und Biografien. Zu seinen bekanntesten Werken gehören "Die Welt von Gestern", eine autobiografische Darstellung seiner eigenen Lebensgeschichte und der Zeit vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, sowie die "Schachnovelle", die die psychologischen Abgründe des menschlichen Geistes beschreibt. Mit dem Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland wurde Zweig aufgrund seiner Herkunft und seiner liberalen Ansichten zunehmend zur Zielscheibe der Nazis. Er verließ Österreich im Jahr 1934 und lebte in verschiedenen europäischen Ländern, bevor er schließlich ins Exil nach Brasilien emigrierte. Trotz seines Erfolgs und seiner weltweiten Anerkennung litt Zweig unter dem Verlust seiner Heimat und der Zerstörung der europäischen Kultur. 1942 nahm er sich gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Lotte das Leben in Petrópolis, Brasilien. Zweigs literarisches Erbe lebt weiter und sein Werk wird auch heute noch von Lesern auf der ganzen Welt geschätzt und bewundert.

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    Reviews for The Struggle with the Daemon

    3.5/5

    32 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I have little enough time for writing this review. So I won't. But what I can tell you is that this book is a fine and perfect example of great writing. Zweig is a master at teaching and expressing his thoughts clearly and he is so very interesting in his approach to this (and any) subject. Though he was profiling three great artists of their own particular time in Holderlin, Kleist, and Nietzsche, Zweig was primarily instructing us on the daemon, which is a word I had heard prior to this reading but never had it explained to me in such clear and precise language. Now, at least, I know what is wrong with me, or what is right, depending on your own personal perception of the artist's drive. How frustration and unhappiness continue to press us on to better work and more serious incisions into our consciousness. This book is amazing on so many levels. To say I loved it would be an inadequate expression of my feelings for it. It is a precious and important work written by a man who was such a great writer and thinker. Zweig certainly did justice to the good and lasting memory of these three subjects, misunderstood and rejected in their own time, but who now live on in immortality as the great writers they really were. The fact that all three were social outcasts was basically by their own design, and it offered them the opportunity to perfect their work privately in a most violent and disruptive way that is scary and a threat to those of us who are delusional in the comforts of our daily living. Truth is, the world is always in chaos and we better not ever forget it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      The only interest lies in seeing what passed for literary criticism in... 19th century--old-fashioned, rejected and surpassed already in Zweig's day. Vague, bombastic impressionistic descriptive twaddle about "Beauty", "Truth", "Damnation", "volcanic flames", "feverish winds", "sublime heights" etc. The best he can muster on the subject of Kant's philosophy is to say it is like "a block of ice". This idea-empty intoning and purple prosing becomes tiresome pretty quickly. It's shocking to remember that he was a contemporary of Benjamin's.