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Behind a calm face, a whole life of longing can remain unseen.
In The Love of Erika Ewald, Stefan Zweig turns toward a young woman's unspoken feelings. The title novella leads this collection of four novellas about love, longing, and the hidden life of the soul. Here, the drama lies less in what people do than in the hopes and fears they keep from others.
This early collection reveals a softer, dreamier Zweig, drawn to the moment of wanting rather than the certainty of possession. His people may seem ordinary to family and neighbours, yet their inner lives hold feelings they cannot name. The stories ask you to look past the quiet surface and stay with what remains unsaid.
What you’ll discover
- Erika's silent heart Meet a young woman whose unspoken feelings become the centre of the title story.
- The ache of wanting Explore longing at the moment when the future stays open and every feeling seems sharp.
- Lives beneath the surface Look beyond ordinary appearances to the hopes and fears hidden from family and neighbours.
- A softer Stefan Zweig Discover the lyrical, dreamy voice of a young writer still finding his craft.
- Room for quiet feeling Slow down with stories that give inward experience more space than loud events.
Who will love it
Readers drawn to quiet yearning, unspoken love and lonely people portrayed with tenderness will love these four novellas. They suit lovers of lyrical writing about weather, music and light.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Hidden feelings shape quiet lives
- Shared music hides different desires
- A promise turns into fear
- Longing turns a song into evidence
- Silent service becomes private devotion
- Comfort weakens a sacred purpose
- A stranger renews the painter's hope
- Tenderness grows where persuasion fails
- Small moments carry whole inner lives
Who’s who
- Erika EwaldA shy Viennese piano teacher who hides her rich inner life and gives her whole heart to a gifted violinist.
- The violinistA young virtuoso, spoiled early by admirers, who is drawn to Erika's depth yet torn by his own appetite.
- FrançoisA refined waiter at a Riviera hotel who loves Countess Ostrowska in silence and serves her with secret devotion.
- Countess OstrowskaA proud, beautiful Polish aristocrat who dines at the hotel and never suspects the feeling she stirs.
- The young travelerA faithful man in Judea who leaves home in the night, desperate to see the face of the Savior.
- EstherA fifteen-year-old Jewish orphan in Antwerp, shy and defiant, who longs for love and a child of her own.
- The old painterA devout German artist who cannot paint the Madonna until he finds a face that shows him the way.
- The merchantA prosperous Antwerp man who vowed an altar to the Virgin after a night of reckless living in Venice.
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The Love of Erika Ewald
by Stefan Zweig · 1904
A shy pianist in Vienna walks home beside a famous violinist and starts to love him, with no idea where it leads.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Women are made to endure.”
In short
Picture a quiet piano teacher in Vienna who hides every feeling behind a calm face. One winter night she walks home beside a famous young violinist, and by the end of the walk she has told him secrets she never told anyone.
The Love of Erika Ewald at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 5 min2 h 25 min fast, 3 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 43,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1904by Stefan Zweig
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A shy teacher hides a rich inner life
Erika Ewald gives piano lessons in Vienna, and the work wears her down. All day she bears wrong notes and clumsy hands with endless gentleness. At night she comes home to a house where nobody talks. Her father eats in silence, and her plain sister Jeanette sews under the lamp.
Erika has a gift that makes up for this. Since childhood she has treated books, pictures and music as silent friends. Her shyness is so deep that she never tells another person what she feels.
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Details
- First published
- 1904
- Language
- English
- Level
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Cite this edition
Zweig, Stefan. The Love of Erika Ewald. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-of-erika-ewald.
Zweig, S. (2026). The love of Erika Ewald. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-of-erika-ewald (Original work published 1904)
Zweig, Stefan. The Love of Erika Ewald. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-of-erika-ewald.
@book{zweig2026love,
author = {Zweig, Stefan},
title = {The Love of Erika Ewald},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-of-erika-ewald},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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What is The Love of Erika Ewald about?
It follows a shy Viennese piano teacher who falls in love with a violin virtuoso. Their closeness grows through music and long walks, but each wants something different, and her quiet life is changed within a few weeks.
What stories are in The Love of Erika Ewald?
The book holds four novellas by Stefan Zweig: The Love of Erika Ewald, The Star Above the Forest, The Journey, and The Wonders of Life. Each tells of a person whose strong feeling cannot find a clear answer.
What does the title The Star Above the Forest mean?
It names a single bright star seen over a dark wooded hillside near a railway. The star becomes a silent link between a hotel waiter and the countess he loves, who never learns who he is.
The author
Stefan Zweig
1881–1942 · Austrian novelist and biographer
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer born in Vienna in 1881. He wrote stories, novels, biographies, and essays. The Love of Erika Ewald appeared in 1904, Burning Secret in 1911, and Amok in 1922. He lived in Austria, Britain, and Brazil. He died in Petrópolis, Brazil, in 1942.
“Women are made to endure.”
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