Zweig, Stefan "The Post Office Girl"

  

Zweig, Stefan "The Post Office Girl" (German: Rausch der Verwandlung) ~1930/1982

Ever since reading "The World of Yesterday" (Die Welt von Gestern), I have long wanted to read another book by Stefan Zweig; and since it happened to be the starter book for "Six Degrees of Separation" this month, I decided to finally pick it up.

Stefan Zweig wrote this book in the 1930s—nearly a hundred years ago. However, it was not published until 1982, when it was released posthumously from his literary estate. The publisher revised the manuscript fragment and supplemented it with notes left by the author.

The story is set in Austria shortly after the First World War. In truth, it could have taken place in any of the post-war nations. Many men never returned home from the war; most people could barely find work and eke out a very meager existence.

Then, an invitation arrives from some wealthy relatives, inviting Christine—a young postal clerk—to stay at a hotel. She is catapulted into a completely alien world—one, however, that does not last very long.

After this holiday, she meets Ferdinand, a returning war veteran who is struggling just as much as she is.

It is a sad story—a bleak story. Stefan Zweig himself did not lead a happy life, and this is reflected in his work here. Yet, he possesses a rare gift—one unmatched by almost any other writer—for gazing into the human soul and making it accessible to us.

I absolutely must make a point of reading another book by this magnificent writer. Do you have any suggestions?

Book Description:

"The post-office girl is Christine, who looks after her ailing mother and toils in a provincial Austrian post office in the years just after the Great War. One afternoon, as she is dozing among the official forms and stamps, a telegraph arrives addressed to her. It is from her rich aunt, who lives in America and writes requesting that Christine join her and her husband in a Swiss Alpine resort.

After a dizzying train ride, Christine finds herself at the top of the world, enjoying a life of privilege that she had never imagined. But Christine’s aunt drops her as abruptly as she picked her up, and soon the young woman is back at the provincial post office, consumed with disappointment and bitterness.

Then she meets Ferdinand, a wounded but eloquent war veteran who is able to give voice to the disaffection of his generation. Christine’s and Ferdinand’s lives spiral downward, before Ferdinand comes up with a plan which will be either their salvation or their doom.

Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel."