Editing Letter from an Unknown Woman

{{short description|1922 novella by Stefan Zweig}}
{{for-multi|the 1948 film|Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948 film)|the 2004 film|Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004 film)}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Cropped imaged of page 31 of the 1 January 1922 issue of the Neuen Freien Presse.jpg|thumb|right|The first publication of ''Der Brief einer Unbekannten'' in the ''Neuen Freien Presse'']]
'''''Letter from an Unknown Woman''''' ({{langx|de|Der Brief einer Unbekannten}}, sometimes appearing without the [[Article (grammar)|definite article]] ''"der''") is a [[novella]] by [[Austria|Austrian]] writer [[Stefan Zweig]]. The work first appeared in the 1 January 1922 issue of the [[Vienna|Viennese]] ''Neuen Freien Presse'',<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Larcati |first=Arturo |title=Stefan-Zweig-Handbuch |last2=Renoldner |first2=Klemens |last3=Wörgötter |first3=Martina |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2018 |isbn=9783110303889 |location=Berlin & Boston |pages=xii, 198–200 |language=de}}</ref> before being published in book form as part of the collection ''Amok: Novellen einer Leidenschaft'' ([[Insel Verlag]], 1922).<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Klawiter |first=Randolph J. |url=https://archive.org/details/stefanzweigbibli0000klaw |title=Stefan Zweig: A Bibliography |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |year=1965 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=6,14}}</ref> The novella tells the story of an author who, while reading a letter written by a woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life story.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zweig |first=Stefan |title=Letter from an Unknown Woman and Other Stories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ytj3AwAAQBAJ&q=%22Letter+from+an+Unknown+Woman%22+-wikipedia |publisher=Steerforth Press |date=2013-01-29 |isbn=978-1-78227-009-6}}</ref> It is generally considered to be Zweig's most famous work of fiction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Peter |title=The World of Yesterday |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IyguAQAAIAAJ |journal=The Jewish Quarterly |publication-date=1982 |volume=30 |issue=1-2 |pages=59}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury17denn/ |title=Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Excerpts of Criticism of the Works of Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short Story Writers, and Other Creative Writers Who Died Between 1900 and 1960 |publisher=[[Gale Research]] |year=1985 |isbn=0810302314 |editor-last=Poupard |editor-first=Dennis |location=Detroit, Michigan |publication-date=1985 |pages=429, 454}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Seinfelt |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fz1OkksniDAC |title=Final Drafts: Suicides of World-Famous Authors |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1999 |isbn=9781615926640 |publication-date=1999 |pages=165}}</ref>

==Plot==
A rich and well-known writer (R.), returning home to [[Vienna]] from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman (Fräulein). As a teenager the woman had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself. Her passion for the writer was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him, nor when she had to leave Vienna and moved to [[Innsbruck]] when her mother remarried. At age 18 she returned to Vienna, took a job and tried to meet the writer again. He did not recognise her and, without revealing her name, she succeeded in spending three nights with him before he disappeared on a long holiday. Pregnant, she lost her job and had to give birth in a refuge for the indigent. Resolved that their child should have a good life, she spent nights with or became mistress of various rich men but would never marry because her heart belonged always to the writer. Out one night with a current lover, she saw the writer in a night club and went home with him instead. To him, she was just an agreeable companion for that night, as he again did not recognise her. In the [[1918 flu pandemic]], the child died and she, ill herself, wrote the letter to be posted after her death.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Aciman |first=Alexander |title=Lovesick: Stefan Zweig’s ‘Letter From an Unknown Woman’ |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/lovesick-stefan-zweig |publication-date=July 9, 2018}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Love and exile in “Letter from an Unknown Woman” |work=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/04/21/love-and-exile-in-letter-from-an-unknown-woman |access-date=2024-01-03 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

==English translations==
''Brief einer Unbekannten'' has been translated into English three times: by [[Eden Paul|Eden]] and [[Cedar Paul]], as part of a collection entitled ''Passion and Pain'', for [[Chapman & Hall|Chapman and Hall]] in 1924;<ref name=":1" /> by Jill Sutcliffe, as part of a collection entitled ''The Royal Game and Other Stories'', for [[Harmony Books]] in 1981;<ref>{{Cite web |title=The royal game & other stories {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/7574494 |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zweig |first=Stefan |url=http://archive.org/details/royalgame00stef |title=The royal game & other stories |last2=Fowles |first2=John |last3=Sutcliffe |first3=Jill |date=1983 |publisher=New York : E.P. Dutton |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-525-48069-3}}</ref> and by [[Anthea Bell]] for [[Pushkin Press]]. 

==Adaptations==
===Film===
''Narkose'' (1929), the first adaptation, is a German [[expressionist]] [[silent film]] that was directed by [[Alfred Abel]] and written by [[Béla Balázs]]. Here the story of the female protagonist is told through a [[dream sequence]] while she is under [[anesthesia]] in a maternity ward. The film survives only in fragmentary form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Naremore |first=James |title=Letter from an Unknown Woman (BFI Film Classics) |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |year=2021 |isbn=9781839022340 |location=London |pages=5–6}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Abel |first=Alfred |title=Narkose |date=1930-03-31 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020206/ |type=Drama |access-date=2024-01-14 |others=Renée Héribel, Jack Trevor, Alfred Abel |publisher=G.P. Film GmbH}}</ref>

''[[Only Yesterday (1933 film)|Only Yesterday]]'', a 1933 American movie directed by [[John M. Stahl]], was heavily inspired by Zweig's story, while not giving it the credits.<ref>{{cite web |title=Only Yesterday {{!}} Metrograph |url=https://nyc.metrograph.com/film/film/2818/only-yesterday |access-date=2022-03-08 |website=nyc.metrograph.com}}</ref>

Another unofficial adaptation came out in 1943, the Finnish ''Valkoiset ruusut'' (''White Roses''), starring [[Helena Kara]] and [[Tauno Palo]] and directed by [[Hannu Leminen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Iverson |first1=Gunnar |last2=Soderbergh Widding |first2=Astrid |last3=Soila |first3=Tytti |title=Nordic National Cinemas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7zKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |publisher=Routledge |date=2005-07-19 |pages=55 |isbn=978-1-134-89177-1}}</ref>

In 1948, the first official [[Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948 film)|film version]] was produced, with a screenplay adaptation by [[Howard Koch (screenwriter)|Howard Koch]]. Starring [[Joan Fontaine]], [[Louis Jourdan]], [[Mady Christians]] and [[Marcel Journet]], it was directed by [[Max Ophüls]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Hoberman |first=J. |date=2017-12-13 |title=Obsession, Unspoken and Unacknowledged: 'Letter From an Unknown Woman' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/movies/letter-from-an-unknown-woman-max-ophuls.html |access-date=2022-05-01 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Dennis |first=Charles |title=Letter from an Unknown Woman |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/835-letter-from-an-unknown-woman |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=The Criterion Collection}}</ref> In 1992, ''Letter from an Unknown Woman'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Complete National Film Registry Listing {{!}} Film Registry {{!}} National Film Preservation Board {{!}} Programs {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>

In 1957, a Mexican version called ''Feliz Año, Amor Mío'', starring [[Marga López]] and [[Arturo de Córdova]], was released.

In 1962, an Egyptian adaptation, ''[[Letter from an Unknown Woman (1962 film)|Ressalah min emraa maghoula]],'' was released. It was directed by [[Salah Abu Seif]] and starred [[Farid al-Atrash]] and [[Lobna Abdel Aziz]].

In 2001, the TV film ''[[Lettre d'une inconnue]]'' by French director [[Jacques Deray]] became the last production of this artist.

In 2004, a [[Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004 film)|Chinese adaptation]] of the novella was made. It was directed by [[Xu Jinglei]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig |url=http://www.harvardreview.org/book-review/the-collected-stories-of-stefan-zweig/ |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=Harvard Review |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2011, [[Mongolia]]n film director [[Naranbaatar]] made a film adaptation of the novella.

===Opera===

In 1975, the [[Monodrama|mono-opera]] [[Письмо незнакомки]] (''Letter from an Unknown Woman'') was composed by [[Antonio Spadavecchia]] ([[Антонио Спадавеккиа]]), and staged in the Soviet Union (and later in Russia) in Russian.


===Theatre===

In June 2024 a new English language play, adapted by [[Christopher Hampton]] and entitled "Visit From An Unknown Woman," premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London.

===Music===
In December 2017, Canadian/Russian composer [[Airat Ichmouratov]] composed [[Octet (Ichmouratov)|Octet in G minor]], [[Opus number|Op.]] 56, which was inspired by [[Stefan Zweig]]'s [[novella]] "Letter from an Unknown Woman". It was commissioned and premiered by Saguenay and Lafayette String Quartets on 13 January 2018 at Fanny Bay Hall, [[Fanny Bay]], [[British Columbia]], Canada.<ref>[https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/two-renowned-quartets-to-share-stage-at-fanny-bay-hall/ Comox Valley Record, Two renowned quartets to share the stage at Fanny Bay Hall]. Retrieved 9 May 2020</ref> In November 2018, the composer made an arrangement of the Octet for String Orchestra; this was recorded by the Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra, with Evgeny Bushkov as conductor, and was released by Chandos Records.<ref>[https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020141/ chandos.net - catalogue]. Retrieved 9 May 2020</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=nfp&datum=19220101&seite=31 ''Der Brief einer Unbekannten'' as it first appeared in the ''Neuen Freien Presse''] at the [[Austrian National Library]]
*[https://archive.org/details/letterfromunknow0000zwei''Letter from an Unknown Woman and Other Stories''] at the [[Internet Archive]]

{{Stefan Zweig}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1922 German-language novels]]
[[Category:Austrian novels]]
[[Category:Austrian novellas]]
[[Category:Novels about writers]]
[[Category:Novels adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Austrian novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Novellas by Stefan Zweig]]
[[Category:Austrian novels adapted into films]]