Cargando
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a leerInformación sobre el libro
Ardiente secreto
Por Stefan Zweig
Descripción
"Se encontraba en esa edad decisiva en la que una mujer empieza a lamentar el hecho de haberse mantenido fiel a un marido al que al fin y al cabo nunca ha querido, y en la que el purpúreo crepúsculo de su belleza le concede una última y apremiante elección entre lo maternal y lo femenino. La vida, a la que hace tiempo parece que se le han dado ya todas las respuestas, se convierte una vez más en pregunta, por última vez tiembla la mágica aguja del deseo, oscilando entre la esperanza de una experiencia erótica y la resignación definitiva. Una mujer tiene entonces que decidir entre vivir su propio destino o el de sus hijos, entre comportarse como una mujer o como una madre. Y el barón, perspicaz en esas cuestiones, creyó notar en ella aquella peligrosa vacilación entre la pasión de vivir y el sacrificio".
"Pequeña joya que reúne dentro de ella todo lo mejor del autor y que desde el principio logra atraparnos, seducirnos."
Lola Santiago, ABC
"Esta novela corta destaca por dos motivos que dejarán huella en el lector: los sentimientos de indefensión del hijo de la protagonista y sobre todo, la insuperable descripción de la figura del seductor."
J.M. Cabrales Arteaga, El Diario Montañés
"La historia de una conquista amorosa se convierte en la crónica del paso de la infancia a la adolescencia, casi siempre doloroso."
J.M. Goicoechea, Tiempo
"Pequeña joya que reúne dentro de ella todo lo mejor del autor y que desde el principio logra atraparnos, seducirnos."
Lola Santiago, ABC
"Esta novela corta destaca por dos motivos que dejarán huella en el lector: los sentimientos de indefensión del hijo de la protagonista y sobre todo, la insuperable descripción de la figura del seductor."
J.M. Cabrales Arteaga, El Diario Montañés
"La historia de una conquista amorosa se convierte en la crónica del paso de la infancia a la adolescencia, casi siempre doloroso."
J.M. Goicoechea, Tiempo
Reseñas
Five pretty powerful longish short stories.The title story tells of an experienced seducer on a boring holiday; he entertains himself by befriending a lonely twelve-year old boy, with the aim of getting to the mother through the son. As the child realises the man's overtures of friendship were nothing but a ploy, he sets out to ruin the developing relationship, which he barely understands...The other four stories all have a theme of madness or obsession:-The Royal Game tells of a chess match during a cruise. The main protagonist is a stolid world champion...but his rival developed a fixation with the intricacies of the game while in lengthy solitary confinement.-Amok also takes place on a ship, where the narrator encounters a doctor returning home from the colonies, after a tragedy This was for me the weakest of the collection, not ringing true at all.-Fear was a BRILLIANT evocation of a well to do wife facing blackmail and possible exposure from a meaningless liaison. The constant terror, temptation to confess...was wonderfully conjured up.-Letter from an Unknown Woman, while a tearjerker was, again, very OTT. A woman writes to an author- we must assume from the letter that she's already dead- and recalls their (brief) shared history. She was the young daughter of neighbours, adoring him from afar; later they had a brief liaison, meaning everything to her, while he never gave her another thought. The sadness of someone's entire life given up to a pretty worthless human being, while he has no recollection of her...Pretty gripping read.
Well, I enjoyed this more than 'Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman'. It was as corny as hell but insightful about the human condition nonetheless. The central conceit - a Lothario attempting to seduce a woman through befriending her son and how this backfires on him - is an entertaining one. It was light enough to fit into my work bag and not to tax me on my morning commute.
This is one of the best novella's I've ever read. A rather simple story of a visitor to a spa who finds himself attracted to a lady visitor and, to get her attention, befriends her young son. Soon after that, the story switches focus to the son, who initially is proud to have such an old friend, then feels betrayed and finally -- in a brilliant ending -- feels he has discovered the Adult's Secret.I love Zweig's clear prose and it's a shame he isn't more widely read (or more widely translated) as he used to be.
Really enjoyed this short one! Zweig was a fantastic writer, somehow in this story was able to make you feel sympathy for all three of the main characters, despite their different personalities and goals; an bon vivant serial seducer, a woman trapped in an unhappy and unfaithful marriage, and a pretty self absorbed immature pre teen.
Over the past months I've read a number of Zweig's short stories and novellas and I've been struck by a common pattern. Zweig's settings and characters are almost invariably old-world Mitteleuropean but, on the other hand, the author's quasi-Freudian approach to analysing the conflicting emotions of his protagonists is very modern for its time. Zweig was writing against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the inter-war years and it seems that his books, with their internal friction between setting and style, reflect a feeling of flux, of being on the cusp of great upheavals, a tug-of-war between the old and the new."Burning Secret" is no exception. It tells of a member of the minor aristocracy, "the Baron", who is a guest at an Austrian hotel/sanatorium and who attempts to seduce a beautiful and seemingly well-off woman who is staying there with her twelve-year old son. The Baron at first successfully manipulates the son to get to the mother. The boy however soon realises that he is being used, and although he is still sexually innocent, he realises that the drama unfolding before him is part of a secret adult world to which he has not yet gained access. He spends the rest of the novella playing the "terzo incomodo", as the Italians say, getting a perverse kick out of thwarting the adults' attempts to spend time together.The book is an often intense coming-of-age novella, a psychological study of an adolescent's roller-coaster of emotions and the mental turmoil which precedes young adulthood. Veteran translator Anthea Bell brilliantly conveys Zweig's highly-charged writing in this attractive Pushkin Collection edition.
A beautifully written novella about loss of innocence and the "burning secrets" of life and love. This is my first Stefan Zweig read and I am really impressed. Reading this novella started off a year long group read of Zweig works, and I eagerly anticipate the next books I will be reading. This book has everything I look for; great characters, a compelling plot, and above all, absolutely beautiful writing!
A lonely twelve-year-old boy Edgar, befriended a charming,lady-killer baron.it was some time before the naive Edgar realizes the true motives behind the Baron's kindness and interest, When his adored friend meanly give up on his friendship and turns his seductive attentions to his mother, the boy's jealousy and insecurity feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable, Once Edgar recognizes the truth,he is invaded by new and previously unknown emotions and new behaviors.....
It was painful for that boy, who progresses from his childish dreams into the adult world of Deception ,dishonest and evil in only a few days......
Edgar's mother was at first resistant to the Baron charms......
but after a while she was getting many mixed feelings of regretting having stayed faithful to a husband she never really loved,she is still young ,beautiful and desirable, an urgent choice between maternal and feminine love........her son was her inner voice of conscience...
It was painful for that boy, who progresses from his childish dreams into the adult world of Deception ,dishonest and evil in only a few days......
Edgar's mother was at first resistant to the Baron charms......
but after a while she was getting many mixed feelings of regretting having stayed faithful to a husband she never really loved,she is still young ,beautiful and desirable, an urgent choice between maternal and feminine love........her son was her inner voice of conscience...
The Book Report: Wet, drippy little Edgar, his bored, would-be glam mama Mathilde, and the louche horndog Count Otto meet in an Austrian mountain resort. Otto takes a fancy to Mathilde, since she's a visibly bored Jewess of a certain age. He decides he'll lay siege to her virtue via befriending little larva Edgar, who mistakes his overtures for real friendship because it's never occurred to him that adults lie, cheat, and steal in pursuit of sex. After revolting Count Otto thinks he's about to achieve the leg-over, he drops Edgar, and his troubles begin. Hell hath no fury, apparently, like a barely pubescent boy disappointed in love. What this nasty little child dreams up to do to the perfidious, selfish adults is really quite impressive! In the end, his life is completely changed, and one rather trembles at the path his future will take...*cue Horst Wessel*....My Review: Peopled with deeply dislikable characters, and set in an anonymous vacation destination with no sense of permanence, it's a little hard to invest in the dramatis personae for a goodly stretch of time. I don't think I ever really did all the way. I don't care at all about anyone here, in that if each of them had fallen off an Alp I would've pursed my lips, tutted, and gone about my day.But the story is a very involving one, paradoxically, because the nature of love comes in for a pretty thorough and fairly damning examination, one that would have seemed very risky for Jewish Zweig to conduct so openly in 1913, the year it was published. The love of mother for son, of son for mother, and mother for sex is explicitly explored. The love of any one of these people for anything is revealed in all its unglory as deeply selfish and terribly destructive, as my cynical heart believes love always to be. (Want to screw up a friendship? Fall in love with your friend! *bang* goes any hope of remaining on good terms...but I digress.)A movie version of this novella, starring Faye Dunaway, appeared about 25 years ago. It wasn't very good. I am amazed at that, since Zweig's writing is so clear and simple that I'd think it was a shoo-in to have excellent dialogue come out of the characters' mouths. C'est la vie, as conventionally Francophile Mathilde would say...doubtless in a heavy Viennese accent.So, okay, the point is: Recommended to Zweigers, cynics, and those with pubescent boys at home. Romantics, leave on shelf. "Life is Beautiful" and "La Traviata" fans, turn your backs upon. Multi-eyed, part-alien cyborgs, read and learn...this is what humans are *really* like, and it's not a terribly pretty picture.