I read this because of the note at the end of the movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel" that it was inspired by the works of this author. Each of these these stories takes the form of a mysterious person relating a rather overwrought tale. Each was quite compelling, but each fell a bit flat at the end, where I expected some deep insight or change of character on the part of the interlocutor. Maybe that was intentional. ( )

4435. The Royal Game - Amok - Letter from an Unknown Woman, by Stefan Zweig (read 3 May 2008) These three novellas (Amok and Letter from an Unknown Woman were first published in 1922, The Royal Game after Zweig's 1942 death) are deftly written works, telling stories not too credible, but attention-holding. The Royal Game is a story which combines Gestapo cruelty and chess. Amok tell of a Dutch East Indies doctor who seeks to exchange an abortion for adultery, and involves unlikely behavior. Letter from an Unknown Woman is also an unlikely scenario, where a woman has a child by a man she has loved since she was 13, though the man looks on her as just a passing partner in fornication. All are very readable, but only The Royal Game is really gripping. It tells of an Austrian lawyer who has been isolated in a hotel room by the Gestapo and while so isolated obtains a chess book with 150 great chess games. He, without a board or chess pieces, comes to know all 150 games by heart, but becomes so enthralled he is deemed 'poisoned' by chess. On a trip to Buenos Aires he meets the chess champion and plays two games with him. It is an engrossing story and very well-written. ( )