`Author:` Stefan Zweig `Availability:` > [!info] > ![[TheWorldofYesterday.jpg]] ## Summary A memoir, written in 1942, and is considered one of the most essential literary works about the era. · Subject: Zweig, an Austrian Jewish writer, nostalgically recounts the golden age of pre-WWI Viennese culture and intellectual life in Europe. He then describes with profound sadness and horror the collapse of that world into the barbarism of World War I, the interwar period, the rise of Nazism, and the onset of World War II. · Why it's famous: It is a beautiful and heartbreaking first-hand account of a lost world and a poignant warning about the fragility of civilization. It is absolutely about the context and impact of the World Wars, but from a deeply personal, cultural perspective. Zweig completed the manuscript just before he and his wife died by suicide in exile in Brazil, overwhelmed by the destruction of the Europe he loved. ## Key Takeaways ## Quotes - ## Notes `Concepts:` `Knowledge Base:` [[Books index]]