Maria Stuart

After more than at least 12 years I turn again to a book of Stefan Zweig. He was one of those i devoured at some stage of my life. Sometimes I just want to read everything what a certain author wrote. I always liked his seemingly antiquated German – but you actually would like to write and speak like this. It is in fact antiquated, but never snobbish. He always finds or creates the right word. Mary Stuart is one of his famous fictionalized biographies. He is so good at interpreting and moving together historical facts and psychological profiling of his characters. Of course, you can question this technique – but I personally like it more than just the historical dry facts. I believe the interpretation of human behavior can lead to deeper insight.
As coincidence would have it, I read the book on a travel to Petrópolis near Rio de Janeiro. where Zweig lived in exile and killed himself in depression. How could he do that in such a nice environment!