Midnight In Paris

Woddy Allen's latest masterpiece made me think of the book I'm reading these days, "Die Welt von Gestern" (The World Of Yesterday) by Stefan Zweig. Like the movie Midnight in Paris, this book also, for some time, introduces us to the Paris of the 1920s, and to famous artists, writers, and musicians, as if you'd really be there ... in a time that looks like a Golden Age today.



The tragic difference however is that while Woody Allen's movie concludes that the present is just as fascinating as a past Golden Age may have been, Zweig's book does the very contrary and shows how those times really were a Golden Age, and really stopped when the fascist regimes rolled over Europe to end them up in blood and hatred.

If there's anyone out there planning to travel back to 1942, I suggest you take a copy of Midnight in Paris, and show it to the Zweigs to ease their despair. They could almost be still alive today.

My drawing shows the shadow of the book on my night table.