Journeys

`Is it because the world shakes on its foundations that one is so used to living in perpetual movement? Is it the premonition that a time is approaching when countries will erect barriers between them, so you yearn to breathe quickly, while you still can, a little of the world’s air?’

`When I am on a journey, all ties suddenly fall away. I feel myself quite unburdened, disconnected, free...There is something in it marvellously uplifting and invigorating. Whole past epochs suddenly return: nothing is lost, everything still full of inception, enticement.’

Stefan Zweig’s writings on his travels in Europe are made available for the first time in English through Will Stone’s sympathetic translation. Representing a lifetime’s observations, this collection can be dipped into or savoured at length, and paints a rich and sensitive picture of Europe before the Second World War.

For the insatiably curious Zweig, travel was both a necessary cultural education and a personal balm for the depression he experienced when rooted in one place for too long. He spent much of his life weaving between the countries of central Europe, visiting authors and friends, exploring the continent in the heyday of international rail travel. This collection features his writings on London, Seville, Salzburg, Bruges, Ypres and many more destinations.