Chess - (Little Clothbound Classics) by Stefan Zweig (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd--a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of the past"--

Book Synopsis

Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith
A Penguin Classics Hardcover

A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd--a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of the past.

Review Quotes

A brilliant writer--New York Times

One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories--Edmund de Waal

Stefan Zweig was a late and magnificent bloom from the hothouse of fin de siecle Vienna--The Wall Street Journal

Zweig is one of the masters of the short story and novella, and by 'one of the masters' I mean that he's up there with Maupassant, Chekhov, James, Poe, or indeed anyone you care to name--Nick Lezard, Guardian

A new favourite writer of mine--Wes Anderson

Perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game--Economist

His great achievement in short form--The Times

About the Author

Anthea Bell (translator) has published acclaimed translations from French, German, Danish, and Polish, including W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz. She lives in Cambridge, England.

Coralie Bickford-Smith (cover illustration) is an award-winning designer at Penguin Books, where she has created several highly acclaimed series designs. She studied typography at Reading University and lives in London.