000			02340 a2200253 4500
001			1412845955
005			20250317100353.0
008			250312042012GB eng
020			_a9781412845953
037			_bTaylor & Francis _cGBP 48.99 _fBB
040			_a01
041			_aeng
072	7		_aQD _2thema
072	7		_aHP _2bic
072	7		_aLIT004190 _2bisac
072	7		_aPHI000000 _2bisac
072	7		_a809.93592 _2bisac
100	1		_aStefan Zweig
245	1	0	_aCasanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy: Adepts in Self-Portraiture _bVolume 3, Master Builders of the Spirit
250			_a1
260			_aOxford _bRoutledge _c20120215
300			_a420 p
520			_bCasanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy: Adepts in Self-Portraiture , the final volume of Stefan Zweig's masterful Master Builders of the Spirit trilogy, discloses the smaller version of a writer's own ego. Unconscious though it is, no reality is as important to the writer as the reality of their own life. Giacomo Casanova, Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), and Leo Tolstoy have different approaches to self-portraiture, but Zweig shows that together they symbolize three levels which represent successively ascending gradations of the same creative function. Casanova is depicted as having a primitive gradation; he simply records deeds and happenings, without any attempt to appraise them or to study the deeper working of the self. Stendhal's self-portraiture is depicted as psychological; he observes himself and investigates his own feelings. Tolstoy has the highest level; he describes his own life, records what led him to his own actions, and focuses on self-reflection in a completely unexaggerated manner. At first glance it might seem as if self-portraiture is an artist's easiest task. With no further trouble than a probing of memory and a description of the facts of life, "the truth" is revealed. The history of literature shows that ordinary autobiographers are no more than commonplace witnesses testifying to facts that chance has brought to their knowledge. A practiced artist is needed to discern the innermost happenings of the soul; few who have attempted autobiography have been successful in this difficult task. The present volume expounds the characteristics of these subjectively minded artists, and of autobiography as their typical method of personal expression.
999			_c366 _d366