Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig

Chess Story, the last work written by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881–1942), is one of the most memorable read I have had in recent years. I have almost no knowledge of the rules and strategies of chess. Still, the rivalry between the world chess champion and self-taught master, and the ultimate mind game between them, remains gripping and impactful to me that a story of this length could hardly achieve. This captivating experience has stayed with me ever since I read the first sentence of the novel. Storyline of the novel is certainly enticing. But after all, what truly sets Zweig apart from other writers is his unparalleled ability in offering psychological insight that penetrates deeply into the human mind with his clear, lucid and crystalline prose. 

All these signature elements of Zweig’s works could be found in his other masterpiece—Journey into the Past, a novella posthumously discovered after he committed suicide during his exile from Europe to Brazil with his wife. It is a story about the male protagonist Ludwig, who has worked his way up through hard work and determination to personal success, and during which developed an unlikely affair with his employer’s wife. Yet destiny took Ludwig to Mexico for two years, only to be prolonged by the outbreak of the First World War, a war that changed, and oftentimes destroyed, the peaceful lives of many, including that of Ludwig. This story is a poignant examination of what time and the sudden changes in circumstances can derail our lives. 

The story begins with an upbeat and hopeful tone when Ludwig and his former lover meet at the train station in Frankfurt. They have waited for nine years for that moment. When time has made them more cautious about their reunion, they couldn’t help showing their desires for each other as they long for their train journey and the things they would do together after they arrive at the destination. After nine years of separation, they are eager to pick up what they have left behind in the past. Unfortunately, they are constantly disturbed by boarding passengers. Left with no choice, they drift into their reveries during the journey. Readers are constantly taken into their past by many beautifully, skillfully crafted transitional passages. One of these is as follows: 

“With a slight jolt, the train began to move. The rattling of the wheels drowned out the legal conversation, muting it to mere noise. But then, gradually, the jolting and rattling turned to a rhythmic swaying, like a steel cradle rocking the couple into dreams. And while the rattling wheels invisible to them rolled onward, into a future that each of them imagined differently, the thoughts of both returned in reverie to the past.” 

As the novel progresses, the story before their reunion unfolds. Coming from an impoverished background, Ludwig is a highly promising and hardworking apprentice new to the house of Dr. G, a famous industrialist in town. Determined to succeed, he gives unrelenting focus and effort to his work and is highly appreciated by his boss. His life has been made even more agreeable by the attentive care given by his employer’s wife, who caters to his needs with meticulous details, and gradually they develop a mutual affection for each other. But the affair is almost nipped in the bud when Ludwig’s boss finds that his deteriorating physical condition no longer allows him to take care of his business and he needs to send a competent staff like Ludwig to manage a new project in Mexico. The new responsibility would take Ludwig away from his lover for two years. What follows is the explosive development of their passionate encounters and before things go too far, the woman made a promise to Ludwig that: 

“I couldn’t do it here, in my own house, in his own house. But when you come back, yes, whenever you like.” 

Coincided with the outbreak of the First World War, the intervening nine years that separate them were certainly too long to both of them. In the years of separation, they experienced tremendous life changes: Ludwig is married with two children and is now a capable manager in his own name. His boss has passed away shortly after Ludwig’s departure, leaving his wife to face hardship alone during the war. She has survived the war with her child safely amidst defeat of her country. They corresponded shortly after Ludwig arrived in Mexico, but after some time the woman stopped writing letters to Ludwig. As he devoted himself to work as a way to cope with the disappointments, his feelings for her gradually faded as time went by: 

“Yet all the same, while he thought his feelings were unchanged, his passionate inner tension gradually relaxed. It is not in human nature to live entirely on memories, and just as the plants and every living structure need nourishment from the soil and the new light from the sky, if their colours are not to fade and their petals to drop, even such apparently unearthly things as dreams need a certain amount if nourishment from the senses, some tender pictorial aid, or their blood will run thin and their radiance be dimmed. And so it was with this passionate man before he even noticed it.” 

The story ends as the long-separated one-time lovers finally reunite, which leaves readers with much room for imagination. It is worth noting that after they arrive in Heidelberg, the shadow of World War Two is already looming large as the youth Nazi armies are everywhere on the streets, chanting war songs in high spirit. As a pacifist and a symbol of the multi-racial European culture, Zweig has cast a nostalgic look to the world destroyed by the First World War in his emotionally charged memoir The World of Yesterday. The sense of helplessness, fear and resentment Ludwig experienced in Heidelberg perhaps corresponds well with that of Zweig at the time of writing this novella. 

When I read this book, most of the time I am not aware that I am actually reading a translation, thanks to the masterful rendition done by the renowned translator Anthea Bell. In her highly informative Afterword, she notes that “Zweig’s meticulous but at the same time condensed style makes him a challenge to translate, although an enjoyable challenge. You read him in the original, and on the surface everything is limpid, lucid; then you start translating him, and you have to think hard about what exactly lies below the wording of every sentence.” 

Like Zweig’s time in the 1920s, the world in 2020s is being altered at an unprecedented pace as advanced technology, the coronavirus pandemic and ceaseless international disputes are disrupting and transforming the way we live in unimagined and profound ways. In this age of extreme uncertainties, we all crave for things that remain unchanged, that can give us the bearings to orientate our lives. For many people like me, rereading timeless classics like Journey into the Past is one of the most reliable ways to meet comfort and solace again—which sometimes are losing so rapidly that one can only find through a journey into the past.