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Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky

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Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky

In these early 20th century literary essays, Stefan Zweig offers a Central European view of the writers he believed to be the â€œthree greatest novelistsâ€ of the 19th century: Balzac, Dickens, and Dostoevsky.

In Zweigâ€™s view, Balzac set out to emulate his childhood hero Napoleon. Writing 20 hours a day, Balzacâ€™s literary ambition was â€œtantamount to monomania in its persistence, its intensity, and its concentration.â€ His characters, each similarly driven by one desperate urge, were more vital to Balzac than people in his daily life.

In Zweigâ€™s reading, Dickens embodied Victorian England and its â€œbourgeois smugnessâ€. His characters aspire to â€œA few hundred pounds a year, an amiable wife, a dozen children, a well-appointed table and succulent meats to entertain their friends with, a cottage not too far from London, the windows giving a view over the green countryside, a pretty little garden, and a modicum of happiness.â€ The ideal of middle-class respectability suffuses Dickensâ€™ fiction.

Dostoevsky drew on the struggles of his own life to illuminate the contradictions of the human soul. In Zweigâ€™s view, his heroes had no desire to be citizens or ordinary human beings. While Balzacâ€™s heroes â€œwould gladly have subjugated the world, Dostoevskyâ€™s heroes wished to transcend it.â€

Country	USA
Author	Stefan Zweig
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Plunkett Lake Press
Manufacturer	Plunkett Lake Press
NumberOfPages	291
PublicationDate	2012-05-23
Publisher	Plunkett Lake Press
ReleaseDate	2012-05-23
Studio	Plunkett Lake Press

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