'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!'

A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.

Stefan Zweig's classic novella of obsession, madness and chess.

About the Author
Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna to a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. Recognition as a writer came early for Zweig; by the age of forty, he had already won literary fame. In 1934, with Nazism entrenched, Zweig left Austria for England, and became a British citizen in 1940. In 1941 he and his second wife went to Brazil, where they committed suicide. Zweig's best-known works of fiction are Beware of Pity (1939) and Chess (1942), but his most outstanding accomplishments were his many biographies, which were based on psychological interpretation.

Reviews
A brilliant writer * New York Times *
One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories -- Edmund de Waal
Stefan Zweig was a late and magnificent bloom from the hothouse of fin de siecle Vienna * The Wall Street Journal *
Zweig is one of the masters of the short story and novella, and by 'one of the masters' I mean that he's up there with Maupassant, Chekhov, James, Poe, or indeed anyone you care to name -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *
A new favourite writer of mine -- Wes Anderson
Perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game -- Economist
His great achievement in short form * The Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241305164
Author Stefan Zweig
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 78g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 5mm