Stefan Zweig wrote quite a few mini-biographies. Some of these paint a clear picture of his subject in the opening pages. In a couple of paragraphs, he grants us the illusion of deep insight. Suddenly all we know of Erasmus, Casanova or Tolstoy makes sense. It fools us into a deeper understanding. Such sudden insight is of course fictitious and Zweig has played a neat trick on us. We’ll realize this later on, when he changes tone several times.
I loved Zweig’s Erasmus for the complex personality it unfolds. Did he admire or abhor his personality? Is Erasmus the father of Europe? Should we consider him a hero or a coward? Did he fail to do what he could to appease the religious conflicts during the reformation, or plant a seed for humanity in a period of turmoil that lights our path today and tomorrow? To all these questions, Zweig answers with a ‘yes’ or ‘both’. Continue reading Zweig’s Erasmus
Brussels Circle for General Semantics 