{"product_id":"9781590176047","title":"Beware of Pity","description":"\u003cb\u003eWes Anderson on Stefan Zweig:\u003c\/b\u003e  \"I had never heard of Zweig...when    I just more or less by chance bought a copy of \u003ci\u003eBeware of Pity\u003c\/i\u003e. I loved this    first book.  I also read    the \u003ci\u003eThe Post-Office\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGirl\u003c\/i\u003e.  \u003ci\u003eThe Grand Budapest Hotel\u003c\/i\u003e has elements that were sort of stolen    from both these books. Two  characters in our story are vaguely meant to    represent Zweig himself —  our “Author” character, played by Tom Wilkinson,    and the  theoretically fictionalised version of himself, played by Jude Law.     But, in fact, M. Gustave, the main character who is played by Ralph Fiennes,    is modelled significantly on Zweig as well.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was a master anatomist of the deceitful heart, and \u003ci\u003eBeware of Pity\u003c\/i\u003e, the only novel he published during his lifetime, uncovers the seed of selfishness within even the finest of feelings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHofmiller, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed at the edge of the empire, is invited to a party at the home of a rich local landowner, a world away from the dreary routine of the barracks. The surroundings are glamorous, wine flows freely, and the exhilarated young Hofmiller asks his host—s lovely daughter for a dance, only to discover that sickness has left her painfully crippled. It is a minor blunder that will destroy his life, as pity and guilt gradually implicate him in a well-meaning but tragically wrongheaded plot to restore the unhappy invalid to health.","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47137971667184,"sku":"9781590176047","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781590176047_p0.jpg?v=1763809668","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781590176047","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}