“[Stefan] Zweig himself attributed his popularity to ‘a personal flaw’: radical impatience. In words that sound startlingly contemporary, Zweig expressed irritation at any work that didn’t maintain a breathless clip from beginning to end. Ninety percent of what he read, Zweig reported, struck him as padded arid, high-flown—just not thrilling enough.”

—George Prochnik, The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World; the book is not likely to be of general interest but its peaks are notable.