The key ideas

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Stefan Zweig, 1922

On his forty-first birthday a famous writer receives a letter with no signature. A woman writes to him at night, beside the cot of her dead son, and tells him her whole life. From the age of thirteen she lived close to him: behind the door across the landing, under his windows, in his rooms. Not once did he recognise her. The letter begins with the words “To you, who never knew me”.

Who it is for

For anyone who has heard of “Letter from an Unknown Woman” and wants to know what is in it. For readers who are moved by stories of love that is never returned. For students who were set the novella for class.

Yes, people come back, but by then they have forgotten.

A letter with no signature

Early one morning the famous writer R. comes back to Vienna after three days in the mountains. At the station he buys a newspaper, notices the date and remembers that today is his birthday. His forty-first.

Among his post is a thick envelope addressed in a hand he does not know. R. opens it last, already holding a cigar. Inside are some twenty pages, filled in a hurry. No return address, no signature. At the top it says: “To you, who never knew me.”

“My child died yesterday,” the woman writes. For three days and three nights she fought for him while the influenza shook his small, hot body. On the third evening she fell asleep on a hard chair, and in those three or four hours the boy died. Now four candles burn at the corners of his cot. She has carried the fifth to the table where she is writing.

If she lives, she will tear the letter up. If it is in his hands, then a dead woman is telling him her life. All she asks is that he believe her: nobody lies in the hour their only child dies.

Books on the stairs

She is thirteen. She lives with her mother, the poor widow of a minor official, who always wears mourning. Their flat is on the same landing where he still lives, the door across from his. There is no name plate on their door, and nobody asks about them.

The previous tenant across the landing, a drunk who beat his wife, is thrown out. The whole building breathes a sigh of relief. The caretaker spreads the news: the flat has been taken by a writer, a quiet gentleman who lives alone.

First his servant Johann appears, small, serious and grey-haired. He bows to her mother as he would to a lady. Then the removal van arrives. The girl stands at the door and watches them carry in Indian idols and, last of all, books, more books than she ever thought possible.

She pictures their owner as an old man with glasses and a white beard. On the third day she sees him. In a light brown sports suit, hat in hand, he runs up the stairs two steps at a time. He is twenty-five.

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About the author

Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna in 1881, into a wealthy family. He wrote novellas, biographies and memoirs, and in the 1920s he was one of the most widely read writers in Europe. After the Nazis came to power he emigrated, lived in England and then in Brazil, where he died in 1942. The quotations in this book are translated from the German original.

All books by this author: Stefan Zweig

Terms from the book

  • Johann: The writer R.'s servant, a small, serious, grey-haired man. He has served R. ever since R. moved into the building, and speaks of his master with particular respect.
  • Fräulein: The German way of addressing an unmarried young woman, close to “miss”.
  • Innsbruck: A city in the Austrian Alps, the capital of Tyrol. The heroine's mother and stepfather take her there.
  • poste restante: A postal address with no street or house: the letter waits at the post office until the person it is for comes to collect it. It lets you receive letters without saying where you live.
  • Theresianum: The oldest elite boarding school in Vienna, founded by Empress Maria Theresa. Its pupils wore a uniform with a small sword.
  • Ringstrasse: The ring boulevard around Vienna's old centre, lined with theatres, palaces and expensive restaurants.
  • Brno: An industrial city in Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary, known for its cloth mills.
  • Tabarin: A Viennese night spot with dancing and champagne, where people went to enjoy themselves until morning.

All terms

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