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Review: Chess Story

Chess Story

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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  Is it a short story (quite short, leading to a single conclusion) or a novella (develops two or three characters). I think of this writing as mittelEuropa: the characters behave in a very polite old-world fashion, and worry about the behavior and place in society. The psychological detail is Kafkaesque, as it seems designed to be at once boring and yet build suspense. 

I can readily imagine this being read aloud some evening around the fireplace, gradually building the suspense. 

And I could not help wondering about the writer's own frame of mind, as this was his last work before suicide. The three protagonists -- beside the "objective" professorial narrator -- are described as sharply distinct emotional and intellectual people, each engaged in their own attempt to check and mate their vague inner demons. Who wins? The plodding idiot savant, presented as having little intellect or interiority. There's the lesson -- don't think too much; it'll drive you to..

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