2021年9月21日 星期二

The Royal Game (also known as Chess Story; in the original German Schachnovelle, "Chess Novella")


史蒂芬·褚威格（Stefan Zweig）的小說《象棋的故事》（Schachnovelle，或譯《西洋棋的故事》，英譯為The Royal Game）拍成電影了。
褚威格躲避納粹，流亡巴西，寫下《象棋的故事》，他1942年自殺，這本書在他死後出版。這篇小說篇幅短，通常跟其他小說放在一起出版，台灣商周《一位陌生女子的來信：茨威格中篇小說選》（2016）有這篇小說。這本書的台灣版本不只一本，我記得看過其他出版社做過。
這不是小說第一次影像化，1960年就有一部，我還沒機會看到這部，亞馬遜上有DVD，但我家沒有DVD播放器。新版找了Oliver Masucci出任主角，這名字我想可能大家都很陌生，他就是Netflix那部扯到天邊去的影集Dark的男主角啦，他也是《吸特樂回來了》的希特勒。
我有機會先看了。真好看。德國本週上片，大推。
褚威格傳記電影我推這部：
Vor der Morgenröte
Arte紀錄片我也推：
紀錄片有他躺在床上自殺的容顏，我每次看了都會無法承受。請自行斟酌。
可能是 2 個人、西洋棋和文字的圖像
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The Royal Game
Woodcut Schachnovelle Stefan Zweig.jpg
Elke Rehder: Woodcut to the chess story The Royal Game
AuthorStefan Zweig
Original titleSchachnovelle
Working titleThe Royal Game
LanguageGerman
GenreNovella
Publication date
1943

The Royal Game (also known as Chess Story; in the original German Schachnovelle, "Chess Novella") is a novella by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig written in 1941, the year before the author's death by suicide.[1] In some editions, the title is used for a collection that also includes "Amok", "Burning Secret", "Fear", and "Letter From an Unknown Woman".[2]

Plot summary[edit]

The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires.

Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis, Dr B, a securities expert hiding valuable assets of the nobility from the new regime, maintains his sanity only through the theft of a book of past masters' chess games which he plays endlessly, voraciously learning each one until they overwhelm his imagination to such an extent that he becomes consumed by chess.

After absorbing every single move of any variation in the book, and having nothing more to explore, Dr B begins to play the game against himself, developing the ability to separate his psyche into two personas: I (White) and I (Black). This psychological conflict causes him to ultimately suffer a breakdown, after which he eventually awakens in a sanatorium. Being saved by a sympathetic physician, who attests his insanity to keep him from being imprisoned again by the Nazis, he is finally set free.

After happening to be on the same cruise liner as a group of chess enthusiasts and the world chess champion Czentovic, he incidentally stumbles across their game against the champion. Mirko Czentovic is a nearly illiterate and moronic peasant prodigy possessing no obvious redeeming qualities besides his gift for chess. Dr B helps the chess enthusiasts in managing to draw their game in an almost hopeless position. After this effort, they persuade him to play alone against Czentovic. In a stunning demonstration of his imaginative and combinational powers, Dr B sensationally beats the world champion.

Czentovic immediately suggests a return game to restore his honour. But this time, having sensed that Dr B played quite fast and hardly took time to think, he tries to irritate his opponent by taking several minutes before making a move, thereby putting psychological pressure on Dr B, who gets more and more impatient as the game proceeds. His greatest power turns out to be his greatest weakness: he devolves into rehearsing imagined matches against himself repeatedly and manically. Czentovic's deliberation and placidness drive Dr B to distraction and ultimately to insanity, culminating in an incorrect statement about a check by his bishop, and then him conceding the game, after which Dr B awakens from his frenzy.

Historical background[edit]

The first edition of The Royal Game

Following the occupation and annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, the country's monarchists (i.e. supporters of Otto von Habsburg as the rightful Emperor-Archduke and the rule of the House of Habsburg), conservatives as well as supporters of Engelbert Dollfuss' Austrofascist regime, were severely persecuted by the Nazis, as they were seen as opponents of the Nazi regime. Thousands of monarchists were executed or sent to concentration camps, and the pretender to the throne, Otto von Habsburg, fled to the United States, being sentenced to death in absentia by the Nazis.[3]

Adaptations[edit]

This novella was the inspiration for the 1960 Gerd Oswald film Brainwashed, originally titled Die Schachnovelle, as well as for the 1980 Czechoslovakian film Královská hra (The Royal Game).[4], and Czechoslovakian film Šach mat 1963

An opera based on the novel premiered at the Kiel Opera House on 18 May 2013. The music was by Cristóbal Halffter, and the libretto by Wolfgang Haendeler.[5]

The story was the basis of the production 64 Squares from the Rhum and Clay Theatre Company presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2015. In this production the character "B" is played by three actors, both separately and together, assisted by a percussionist.[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "A classic rediscovered: Grandmaster". The Economist. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  2. ^ Zweig, Stefan (1981). The Royal Game and Other Stories. New York: EP Dutton.
  3. ^ "Fall of Austria". University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Survivors. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Brainwashed (1960)". IMDB. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  5. ^ EvS Music Foundation, retrieved 26 June 2012
  6. ^ Wicker, Tom (30 September 2014). "″Review: 64 Squares; a Game of Chess″". Exeunt Magazine.

External links[edit]

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