Audiobooks by Stefan Zweig

"Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological. Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story. This new translation of Chess Story brings out the work's unusual mixture of high suspense and poignant reflection."

Stefan Zweig (Author), Joe Hempel (Narrator)

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The Post-Office Girl

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Christine Hoflehner is twenty-eight years old, works behind the counter of a provincial Austrian post office, and cares for her invalid mother on wages that barely cover the rent. It is 1926. The war ended eight years ago, but for Christine — and for most of Austria — the ending changed very little. She has no expectations. She endures. Then a telegram arrives from a wealthy American aunt she has never met, inviting her to a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. For a few extraordinary weeks, Christine lives in a world she did not know existed — fine clothes, beautiful rooms, people who have never once worried about money — and discovers, to her amazement, that she belongs there. That she is, in the right clothes and the right setting, indistinguishable from the people she has always served. And then the invitation ends. She goes home. And the woman who comes back is not the same woman who left. The Post-Office Girl is Stefan Zweig's most powerful and most unexpected novel — a ferocious indictment of class inequality, a precise account of what poverty actually costs, and a dark, propulsive story of two damaged people who have run out of reasons to be careful. Written in the 1930s during Zweig's exile from Nazi-occupied Austria, left unfinished at his death in 1942, and discovered among his papers forty years later, it is the book that revealed an entirely unsuspected dimension of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. By Stefan Zweig. Author of Chess Story, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Beware of Pity."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Audrey Ellsworth (Narrator)

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Castellio Against Calvin: A Conscience against Violence

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Geneva, 1553. John Calvin rules the city as absolute theocrat. When the scholar Michael Servetus arrives, fleeing the Catholic Inquisition, Calvin has him arrested, tried for heresy, and burned alive—slowly, over green wood, taking half an hour to die. One man speaks against this atrocity: Sebastian Castellio, a scholar and former ally of Calvin's who'd been driven from Geneva for questioning the reformer's authority. From exile in Basel, Castellio publishes Concerning Heretics, Whether They Are to Be Persecuted—the first systematic defense of religious tolerance in European history, arguing that burning people for their beliefs contradicts everything Christianity claims to stand for. Stefan Zweig published Castellio Against Calvin in 1936 as Hitler consolidated power. The parallels were unmissable and deliberate: Calvin represented totalitarian tyranny claiming divine or historical justification; Castellio represented individual conscience refusing to submit. Zweig rescues Castellio from obscurity, showing how this forgotten scholar articulated principles of tolerance that took centuries to achieve partial realization. Written as fascism triumphed, the book asks: what does individual conscience matter against organized power? Zweig's answer: everything. Even when conscience loses in its own time, it plants seeds for future freedom. The subtitle—A Conscience Against Violence—captures Zweig's conviction that moral resistance matters regardless of immediate outcome. For readers confronting contemporary authoritarianism, religious extremism, or ideological intolerance, Castellio's sixteenth-century stand remains urgently relevant: the defense of human dignity against those who claim absolute truth justifies absolute power."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Charles Owen (Narrator)

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The Confusion of Emotions

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Roland is a young man without direction — sent by his father to a provincial university, indifferent to study, waiting for something he cannot name — when he encounters the professor whose lectures change everything. The man is extraordinary: a scholar who inhabits the literature he teaches, who makes intellectual life feel like something worth giving a life to. Roland is captivated. He moves into the professor's household. He becomes, over one semester, the center of a world he does not fully understand. He does not understand, in particular, why the professor sometimes burns with warmth toward him and sometimes withdraws into a coldness that feels like punishment. He does not understand the role the professor's wife plays, her particular kindness, the shadow in it. He does not, yet, understand himself. The Confusion of Emotions, first published in 1927, is Stefan Zweig at his most psychologically exact — a novella about repressed homosexual desire and the devastation it leaves in its wake, written with a compassion and a directness that were remarkable for their moment and have not aged by a day. It is narrated by an older Roland looking back on the episode that made him, finally understanding what he could not have understood at the time: what the professor was carrying, what concealment of that magnitude costs a person, and what it means to love someone you could not help. Zweig does not offer resolution. He offers something more honest: the portrait of a man who could not be what his world would not allow, and of the student who spent a lifetime trying to do justice to that fact."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Charles Owen (Narrator)

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[German] - Freud – Die Heilung durch den Geist. Versuch einer Ideengeschichte.: Hörbuchzeit: Klassiker der Weltliteratur

"Eine brillante biografische Ideengeschichte über Sigmund Freud – ungekürzt gesprochen von Sven Görtz. Über das Hörbuch: Stefan Zweig, bekannt als Meister der Novelle, brillierte auch als Autor feinsinniger biografischer Porträts. In 'Die Heilung durch den Geist' widmet er sich drei bedeutenden Denkern mit geistig-analytischem Heilansatz – in diesem Hörbuch steht Sigmund Freud, der Begründer der Psychoanalyse, im Zentrum. Zweig zeichnet das geistige Porträt eines Mannes, der mit analytischer Schärfe, seelischer Tiefensicht und unerschütterlicher Überzeugungskraft die moderne Sicht auf das Unbewusste revolutionierte. Die Darstellung ist dabei keine bloße Biografie, sondern eine Ideengeschichte voller Einfühlung, Stil und geistiger Klarheit. Ein selten gelungenes Aufeinandertreffen zweier Geister: Zweig erzählt Freud – verständlich, respektvoll, eindrucksvoll. Warum dieses Hörbuch? - Stefan Zweig als Biograf großer Denker – prägnant, psychologisch & literarisch - Thema: Psychoanalyse, Unbewusstes, Wissenschaftsgeschichte - Ungekürzte Lesung von Sven Görtz – ruhig, klar & mit Gespür für intellektuelle Tiefe - Ideal für Hörer großer Lebensgeschichten & moderner Geistesgeschichte Jetzt als ungekürztes Hörbuch – klug, einfühlsam & zeitlos aufschlussreich. Gesprochen von: Sven Görtz (P)2023 BÄNG Management & Verlags GmbH & Co. KG"

Hörbuchzeit, Stefan Zweig (Author), Sven Görtz (Narrator)

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[German] - Brennendes Geheimnis. Eine Novelle.: Hörbuchzeit: Klassiker der Weltliteratur

"Verführung, Eifersucht & das Erwachen verborgener Gefühle – Stefan Zweigs psychologisch meisterhafte Novelle über Kindheit und Geheimnisse, eindrucksvoll gesprochen von Sven Görtz. Über das Hörbuch: Mit 'Brennendes Geheimnis' schuf Stefan Zweig eine seiner bekanntesten und feinfühligsten Novellen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der junge Edgar, der während eines Kuraufenthalts die Bekanntschaft eines charmanten Barons macht. Was zunächst wie ein harmloses Spiel erscheint, entwickelt sich zu einem emotionalen Konflikt voller Misstrauen, Sehnsucht und unausgesprochener Wahrheiten. Zum ersten Mal erlebt Edgar die komplizierte Welt der Erwachsenen – und das schmerzhafte Gefühl, ausgeschlossen zu sein. Zweig entfaltet mit großer psychologischer Präzision das Innenleben eines Kindes zwischen Neugier, Verletzlichkeit und wachsendem Bewusstsein. Ein eindringliches Meisterwerk – atmosphärisch, bewegend und von zeitloser Intensität. Warum dieses Hörbuch? - Meisterhafte psychologische Novelle von Stefan Zweig - Themen: Kindheit, Geheimnisse, Sehnsucht & emotionale Entwicklung - Gesprochen von Sven Görtz – klar, eindringlich & atmosphärisch - Ideal für Hörer klassischer Literatur & psychologischer Erzählkunst Jetzt als Hörbuch – spannend, sensibel & zeitlos faszinierend. Gesprochen von: Sven Görtz (P)2023 BÄNG Management & Verlags GmbH & Co. KG"

Hörbuchzeit, Stefan Zweig (Author), Sven Görtz (Narrator)

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[German] - Verwirrung der Gefühle. Eine Novelle.: Hörbuchzeit: Klassiker der Weltliteratur

"Bewunderung, Leidenschaft & seelische Konflikte – Stefan Zweigs berühmte Novelle über Nähe, Geheimnisse und emotionale Verstrickungen, eindrucksvoll gesprochen von Sven Görtz. Über das Hörbuch: Mit 'Verwirrung der Gefühle' schuf Stefan Zweig eine seiner psychologisch feinsten und intensivsten Novellen. Der junge Student Roland führt zunächst ein unbeschwertes Leben in Berlin, bis ihn sein Vater zum Studium in eine kleinere Universitätsstadt schickt. Dort begegnet er einem faszinierenden Philologie-Professor, dessen Persönlichkeit ihn tief beeindruckt. Zwischen Lehrer und Schüler entsteht eine ungewöhnlich enge Verbindung – doch zugleich gerät Roland immer stärker in ein Netz aus widersprüchlichen Gefühlen, Unsicherheit und unausgesprochenen Spannungen. Auch die geheimnisvolle Frau des Professors trägt dazu bei, dass sich Rolands innere Welt zunehmend verdunkelt und verwirrt. Zweig entfaltet mit großer psychologischer Präzision eine Geschichte über Bewunderung, Identität und die rätselhaften Tiefen menschlicher Beziehungen. Ein eindringliches Meisterwerk – sensibel, atmosphärisch und von zeitloser Intensität. Warum dieses Hörbuch? - Meisterhafte psychologische Novelle von Stefan Zweig - Themen: Identität, Leidenschaft, Bewunderung & innere Konflikte - Gesprochen von Sven Görtz – klar, eindringlich & atmosphärisch - Ideal für Hörer klassischer Literatur & psychologischer Erzählkunst Jetzt als Hörbuch – intensiv, bewegend & zeitlos faszinierend. Gesprochen von: Sven Görtz (P)2023 BÄNG Management & Verlags GmbH & Co. KG"

Hörbuchzeit, Stefan Zweig (Author), Sven Görtz (Narrator)

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Amerigo: A Comedy of Errors in History

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. How did two entire continents come to bear the name of Amerigo Vespucci, a relatively minor Florentine navigator, rather than Christopher Columbus, who reached the New World first? Stefan Zweig published Amerigo in 1942, his final year, solving this historical mystery through detective work in archives and original documents. The answer involves accident, confusion, and profound historical irony: A German cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller, working in a remote village in 1507, read an account attributed to Vespucci claiming he'd reached the mainland before Columbus. Based on this single document—likely forged or heavily embellished—Waldseemüller labeled the new continents 'America' on his world map. The name stuck. By the time the error was recognized, thousands of copies had spread across Europe. Waldseemüller tried to correct it in later maps, but too late—the mistake had become permanent. Columbus dies believing he'd reached Asia, bitter and neglected, never knowing he'd discovered a new world. Vespucci, a competent but not extraordinary navigator, becomes immortalized through error. The greatest geographical discovery in human history gets named for the wrong person through a series of accidents and misunderstandings. Zweig combines historical research with literary flair, synthesizing original documents—Vespucci's letters, Columbus's journals, Waldseemüller's publications—into dramatic narrative. Vespucci emerges as neither villain deliberately stealing glory nor innocent victim, but ambiti"

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice (Narrator)

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[German] - Die unsichtbare Sammlung: und andere ausgewählte Erzählungen von Stefan Zweig

"Die unsichtbare Sammlung und andere ausgewählte Erzählungen von Stefan Zweig, gelesen von Linda Sixt. Inhalt: 1) Die unsichtbare Sammlung Der renommierte Berliner Kunstantiquar R. sucht in einer Provinzstadt einen alten Kunden auf. Der Veteran mit Vornamen Herwarth, ein Forst- und Ökonomierat a. D., Leutnant a. D. und Träger des Eisernen Kreuzes erster Klasse, hatte seine regelmäßigen Käufe von Grafiken Rembrandts neben Stichen Dürers und Mantegna seit Kriegsbeginn eingestellt. Ein Verkauf der 27 Mappen umfassenden Sammlung war dem Antiquar nicht aufgefallen. Also sucht R. den Sammler auf. Ohne Probleme dringt er zu Herwarth vor. Aber der alte Mann ist inzwischen erblindet. Alle 27 Mappen sind zwar vorhanden und er präsentiert seine Sammlung voller Stolz, doch alle Originalblätter sind nicht mehr vorhanden... 2) Buchmendel Der Erzähler flüchtet vor einem Regenguss in das Wiener Café Gluck. Zwanzig Jahre zuvor war er als junger Mann schon einmal dort gewesen. Auf der Suche nach Literatur über Mesmers 'Magnetismus' hatte ihn ein Freund mit Jakob Mendel, alias Buchmendel, bekannt gemacht. Mendel hatte seit Jahren seinen Arbeitsplatz an einem 'mit Notizen überschmierten Marmortisch' des Cafés. Als Mendel im Jahr 1882 nach Wien gekommen war, wollte er Rabbiner werden. Ein Weiser war er zwar nicht geworden, wohl aber das 'Miraculum mundi' aller Bücher... 3) Der Zwang Der junge deutsche Maler Ferdinand R. aus M. hat sich in einem Dorf über dem Zürichsee eine kleine Wohnung gemietet und ein Atelier eingerichtet und lebt dort mit seiner Frau. Der tiefe Frieden erweist sich als trügerisch. Er erhält per Post einen Stellungsbefehl aus Deutschland. Seine Ehefrau Paula redet ihm ein, er müsse dem Befehl nicht nachkommen, denn er sei ein freier Mann in einem freien Land. Kanonenfutter für den weiteren Krieg gegen Frankreich sei aus der Schweiz nicht zu haben. Ferdinand ist anderer Ansicht. Gehorsam macht er sich auf den Weg in sein Heimatland. An der Staatsgrenze aber hat der Maler eine erschütternde Begegnung mit schwer verwundeten französischen Soldaten… 4) Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau Die Erzählerin wohnt in einer kleinen Pension an der Riviera in der Nähe von Monte Carlo. Einem Gast, Vater von zwei halbwüchsigen Töchtern, brennt die Frau mit einem jungen Mann durch, den sie erst am Tag zuvor kennengelernt hat. Die unerhörte Begebenheit wird unter den Gästen der Pension kontrovers diskutiert. Mrs. C., eine ältere Schottin, kommt mit der Erzählerin ins Gespräch, sie vertraut ihr und erzählt ihr unter vier Augen eine ungewöhnliche und unvergessliche Begebenheit ihres Lebens… Covergestaltung: unter Verwendung eines Gemäldes (Ausschnitt) von Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) 'Girl in a Red Dress, Seated by a Swimming Pool', 1936 (oil on board), Location: Private collection. Anfangsmusik in Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau: Frédéric Chopin: Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 1 'Reunion', Pianist: Ivan Ilic; Schlussmusik:. Frédéric Chopin: Etude Op. 25 no. 1 in A flat major - 'Aeolian Harp / Shepherd Boy', Pianist: Donald Betts.Quelle: Musopen.org. Coverschrift gesetzt aus der DejaVu Serif. Über die Sprecherin: Linda Sixt ist ausgebildete Schauspielerin. Engagements führten sie u.a. an die Theater in Regensburg, Plauen, Meiningen, Bautzen, München, Stuttgart, Detmold und Cottbus. Ihr großes Faible ist es, unterschiedliche Charaktere zu vertonen und so Geschichten lebendig zu machen. Mit diesem Hörbuch gibt sie ihr Debüt als Hörbuchsprecherin."

Stefan Zweig (Author), Linda Sixt (Narrator)

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Burning Secret: A New Translation

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. He thought he had found a friend. He was only a means to an end. Twelve-year-old Edgar has never known such attention. At a fashionable Austrian spa resort, a sophisticated Baron befriends him with elaborate charm, treating the boy as an equal, promising adventures, filling the void left by Edgar's distant, preoccupied father. For the first time, Edgar feels seen, valued, important. But the Baron's interest in Edgar is purely instrumental. His real target is Edgar's mother—beautiful, refined, apparently susceptible to flattery from a titled stranger. The boy is merely the key, the excuse for proximity, the cover for increasingly intimate encounters between the Baron and a married woman whose husband remains conveniently in Vienna. Stefan Zweig's psychologically devastating novella is a masterpiece of compressed intensity—the portrait of innocence confronting betrayal, of a child forced into premature knowledge that scars rather than enlightens. Set in the refined, suffocating atmosphere of pre-World War I Austria, where beautiful surfaces conceal sordid calculations and respectability is merely performance, Burning Secret captures the precise moment when childhood ends—not through gentle education but through trauma, not through maturation but through the discovery that adults lie, that friendship can be theater, that we matter less than we believed. Some secrets illuminate. Some secrets burn. And some burn so deeply that innocence can never be recovered. A devastating exploration of manipulation, desire, and the violent end of childhood—from one of the twentieth century's greatest psychological writers."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Audrey Ellsworth (Narrator)

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Magellan: Conqueror of the Seas

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Stefan Zweig published Magellan in 1938, writing from English exile as Europe collapsed into nationalism. He'd fled Austria after the Nazi annexation, watching the cosmopolitan continent he valued being destroyed. The timing shaped the book: Magellan—Portuguese navigator serving Spanish crown, commanding multinational crew, proving through voyage that the world was one sphere—embodied the internationalist humanism Zweig believed fascism was destroying. Zweig's method was literary rather than scholarly, synthesizing existing sources (primarily Pigafetta's eyewitness account) into compelling narrative with psychological depth. This has strengths and limitations: vivid characterization and readability versus speculative psychology and romanticization. The book follows Magellan from rejection by Portugal through organizing the expedition against opposition, the mutinies that nearly destroyed it, the harrowing Pacific crossing (months without land, crews eating leather and rats), to his death in an unnecessary colonial skirmish in the Philippines. One ship returned to Spain in 1522, circumnavigation complete though Magellan hadn't survived to see it. Reading it means encountering both historical figure and Zweig's 1938 anxieties about nationalism and individual vision. Zweig would die by suicide in 1942, despairing at Europe's catastrophe. His historical biographies represent attempts to preserve humanistic values while fascism triumphed. Literary biography at its most accessible, though not definitive history. His limitations reflect his era; his strengths explain why his works remain in print. He succeeded at what he attempted: bringing historical figures to life, making the past immediate, demonstrating that human determination could accomplish the impossible—a faith composed while fascism destroyed it."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Charles Owen (Narrator)

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Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman

"This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Stefan Zweig’s Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, is one of the most compelling and psychologically nuanced biographies of the doomed French queen. Renowned for his ability to bring historical figures to life, Zweig offers an intimate and deeply human portrayal of Marie Antoinette, tracing her transformation from a carefree Austrian archduchess to the tragic symbol of the French Revolution. Unlike traditional biographies that focus solely on political events, Zweig’s approach is psychological and novelistic, making the book as gripping as a work of fiction. He explores Marie Antoinette’s emotional world, her initial naïveté and frivolity at the court of Versailles, her lavish lifestyle, and her slow awakening to the realities of her position as queen. As France plunges into revolutionary chaos, Zweig examines how Marie Antoinette evolves from a sheltered, pleasure-seeking woman into a figure of resilience and dignity in the face of her impending doom. He neither condemns nor glorifies Marie Antoinette, but instead presents her as a flawed, complex individual caught in the merciless tide of history. His narrative is filled with emotional depth, historical insight, and a keen understanding of human psychology, making this one of the most enduring biographies of the queen. This new edition preserves Zweig’s masterful storytelling, offering readers a deeply immersive experience into one of history’s most infamous lives. Whether you are drawn to royal history, the French Revolution, or simply a story of human strength and transformation, Marie Antoinette remains an essential and fascinating read."

Stefan Zweig (Author), AI Voice Audrey Ellsworth (Narrator)

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Audiobooks by Stefan Zweig

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