Review of the Book Fantastic Night and other Stories

Review of the Book Fantastic Night and other Stories

Introduction

The book “Fantastic Night and Other Stories” was written by Stefan Zweig in 1922. He was a famous writer, novelist, and journalist who died in 1942. The title of the book is a mind capturing one as it makes the reader develop an interest in knowing the fantastic events in the night. The collection has several stories, which include “The Governess,” “Letter from an Unknown Woman,” and “The titular story.” The book describes the transformation of a young man’s life in an evening. He led a boring life, which later turned when he gets wealthy. The young man found himself and therefore giving a moral story that to survive, a man ought to begin from scratch. The essay will focus on the role that love plays in the story “A letter from an Unknown Woman and “The Governess.”

Thesis Statement: Love is beautiful, and everyone craves to feel wanted. Although love is known to bring happiness, it could also have its negative side, which would bring sadness and rejection.

Role of Love

There is evidence of fiction in the opening paragraph of the story of “A letter from an unknown woman.” The tone of the story is depressed, and there is evidence of romance through a letter, email, and phone. There is, however, a problem as one party is obsessed with an individual who is uninterested with them. The author, who is known as R, receives on his birthday a mysterious letter from a woman with whom they have no memories, yet she said she had always loved him as stated, “I have only you, who never knew me, and whom I have always loved.” There is clear evidence of young and naive love as the woman vividly explains how she began developing feelings as a young girl of eight years. It is evident from her Letter that she was full of infatuations and had a strong belief that they were meant to be together.

In the Letter, the woman claims to have known him for twenty years as they were neighbors when she was eight years old, where she secretly admired him and fell in love with him (Zweig, 139). The girl was so young, and she did not have enough understanding of what love was supposed to feel like. She was also growing and, therefore, not in the best age to choose who she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with.

On another note, the power of first love is seen in how the girl behaves when she gets pregnant and how she holds on to her feelings for an extended period. It is out of love that the woman decided that she was not going to disturb her lover and therefore took full responsibility in raising their son. She lost her job out of the pregnancy. Even though it might be termed as immoral and a poor choice, she resolved in becoming a courtesan to get funds to raise their child. She conceived while she was a mistress to him. Years later, after she had given birth, she met with the writer, spent a night together, but he did not recognize her. The power of this first love is further seen in how she visited Vienna just to set her eyes on him despite the author being seen with other women. It is seen in the efforts she made in making the trips despite her parents moving out of the building where they lived as neighbors. Her mother had relocated to Innsbruck after she remarried.

The nature of devotion is seen in many aspects of this story. It is first revealed where the lady in love rejects all offers for marriage to keep herself for the man; she believes she is destined to be with. Despite spending nights with numerous rich men, her heart belonged to the writer, and she therefore never married any of them.

Love in different forms is seen in the story of “The Governess,” which is a simple one about a nanny who got pregnant for a university student. It explains about a governess who fell after being seduced at a young age by a family member of where she worked. The girls are naïve in a charming way as they do not clearly understand whatever is happening. They conclude that the governess is in love with Otto as she behaves differently. They eavesdrop in their conversation only to hear her ask Otto about their baby, which leaves them confused. They do not understand why the governess was always sad, yet they believed that love was supposed to bring happiness. The girls were left curious, and they discovered that their nanny had an affair. The lady was deeply affected by how her employer treated her with disregard, to point where it also changed how she viewed herself. The nanny was so attached to the children she took care of, and in return, they loved her back. When no one else was concerned about her wellbeing, the children bought her roses for they thought she was ill. The parents were cold to her a can be seen in these comments, “Excuses, excuses! Every promiscuous girl will offer that excuse! She’ll blame the first man that comes to mind and thinking nothing of it…” Zweig’s work is seen to be about passion, love, and consequences.

Love is evident in most of Zweig’s work. In as much as love is believed to be a source of happiness, it can sometimes cause suffering when it is not reciprocated or when there is rejection. It is evident in the story of the Letter from an unknown woman where she secretly suffers for not being with the person; she believes she is destined to be with. Every person should enjoy love, and when there are emotions, efforts to make each other happy should be evident as love is basically about devotion. It is in mind, and people make choices to bind their lives with the lives of other people. Lust, however, is what drives Otto to seduce the nanny and making her pregnant. It is also seen that she is unhappy. In as much as love has both negative and positive outcomes, the choices we make regarding our loved ones are what matters in how willing we are to protect them from getting hurt and sad.