In the Future of Yesterday: A Life of Stefan Zweig

In the Future of Yesterday offers a refreshing approach to the life and work of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and delves into his considerable contribution to world literature, rooted in the Austro-Jewish tradition. His privileged social background saw him embrace European culture and cosmopolitanism. A world traveller from the outset he liked to uproot himself but whether he stayed in London, New York or, eventually, in Brazil, his literary baggage continued to contain the flair of fin de siècle Vienna.   This biography re-examines Zweig’s influential time in England and offers new insights into his final years in the United States and Brazil; it discusses some of his prolific literary output in relation to his life; and takes his political views on Europe, Zionism, and the world order more in greater depth than previous appraisals of Zweig’s life.     But the considers the many contradictions in his views and attitudes, which included an initial, and surprising, leniency towards Fascist. Most importantly though, In the Future of Yesterday presents Zweig as a towering figure of a form of writing that was bursting with ‘life’ and was written in the knowledge that there can only be a future if we remain conscious of the past. In that sense at least, Zweig is a writer for our time. 

About the Author :
Rüdiger Görner was Professor of German with Comparative Literature at Queen Mary, University of London. The Founding Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, his books include biographies of Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Trakl and Oskar Kokoschka. In 2025, he was award the Gundolf Prize for the promotion of German culture abroad.

Review :
‘In the Future of Yesterday provides a delightful appreciation of his life and work.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Rüdiger Görner’s lively biography of Stefan Zweig marshals the fruits of an academic career spent thinking deeply about modern European literature and history. His erudition is lightly worn and his digestible essais explore the overlaps Zweig’s reading, writing, and travel. Not merely concerned with the events of Zweig’s life, Görner returns to his literary texts to pose new questions about his subject and the nature of biography itself. Contextualising Zweig’s correspondence and diaries, as well as his fictional and biographical works, within a broader network of modern European writers, In the Future of Yesterday is an intellectual history grounded in Zweig’s personal life and works that yields indispensable insights into this most ambitious and prolific of writers.’ Ian Ellison, University of Oxford, author of Late Europeans and Melancholy Fiction at the Turn of the Millennium ‘A capstone on Rüdiger Görner’s already impressive scholarly work, In the Future of Yesterday is a carefully researched study that eloquently advances new insights in the life of Stefan Zweig.  With an ear for the right word and an instinct for human tragedy, Görner’s meticulous analysis of Zweig’s letters, his diaries, and some of his characteristic works greatly enriches the critical debate about the latter’s world-wide legacy. Full of interesting details on Zweig’s quest for freedom, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the life and work of Europe’s most translated writer of the interwar period.’ Jeroen Dewulf, University of California, Berkeley ‘Rüdiger Görner has written a terrific biography. Resisting the (Zweigian) urge to tell the author’s life as a series of watershed moments speeding unswervingly towards its predestined and tragic end, Görner highlights the conflicts and contingencies that plagued the ever-restless Zweig every step of the way. The result is a monograph that does justice to the complexities of the author’s life and the times he lived in, and that will shape Zweig scholarship for years to come.’ Birger Vanwesenbeeck, Professor State University of New York at Fredonia ‘Rüdiger Görner’s biography of Stefan Zweig is a masterfully narrated and meticulously crafted work. Drawing consistently from Zweig’s literary oeuvre, it seamlessly intertwines both micro- and macro-perspectives on his life with critical reflections on his body of work. This study is particularly distinguished by its adept contextualisation of Zweig’s remarkable life within the broader historical upheavals and the vibrant cultural milieu of early to mid-20th century Europe.’ Stephan Resch, University of Auckland ‘A meticulously researched, supremely erudite and intensely readable biography of one of the greatest European authors of the twentieth century, Stefan Zweig. Rüdiger Görner traces the development of the writer and intellectual, his humanism, pacifism, experience of exile, and enduring global legacy. Illuminating both the Austrian writer’s life and work, Görner persuasively illustrates how Zweig is ‘a writer from the past for our time’. This study offers both a rich biography of the influential German-language author, as well as an expansive literary and intellectual history of early twentieth-century Europe.’ Katya Krylova, University of Aberdeen ‘A ground-breaking biographical study with fascinating insights into the work.’ Arturo Larcati, Director of the Stefan Zweig Centre, Salzburg