Struggle with the Demon

For many readers, Zweig is primarily associated with love novellas. However, he was one of the authors who stood at the origins of the genre of artistic biography, transforming dry historical names and facts into a narrative about real, living people. «Struggle with the Demon» — is one of Zweig's most vivid books, in which the author paints portraits of three «outsiders of their century», three great geniuses-madmen — Hölderlin, Kleist, and Nietzsche. With his characteristic subtle psychological insight, Zweig describes in detail the life paths of each of them, revealing much in common in their fates and giving the reader a chance to better understand the phenomenon of these remarkable personalities.