“Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman,” the 1927 classic by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, is a book that reveals how vulnerable a woman can be when an unexpected passion opens its doors to her.
Infidelity, a word that causes grief, is the opening approach of the book “Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life” by Stefan Zweig.
But more than infidelity, the book explores the vulnerability that a woman experiences when an intense love passion shakes her. She can forget about herself then; no social and moral rules can stop her.
The Austrian author enters the female psychology and reveals to the pacified society full of moral rules of the early twentieth century that everything cracks when a woman falls dominated by the erotic and sentimental energy of the moment.
No woman resists an outburst of lust. Yet, even those with very rigid codes of conduct also fall and bow before the undeniable loving power towards another person, the burning sexual desire, and the subjugating carnal surrender.
These are the forces of life, and it is natural to yield to them. The artificial are the rules established to contain them. But society has an order, and rules are needed because otherwise, everything would be chaotic and perennial.
Cheating with closed eyes
The book begins with the scandal created when Madame Henriette, a woman of about 33 years, “fine and delicate,” abandons her old and plump husband and their two daughters for a “beautiful and elegant Adonis,” – says the book.
Everything occurs in the luxurious Palace Hotel on the French Riviera, creating an uproar among the guests.
The central discussion occurs in an annex belonging to the hotel, a secluded, cheaper villa accessed through the garden. There live two couples, one German and the other Italian, a Danish man, an English lady –Mrs. C– and the man who narrates the story.
At the unusual news, guests, especially the two couples, criticize Madame Henriette with ferocity. Men silently fear their wives will follow suit and abandon them, but they do not confess it. And the two women do not justify that a “decent” woman should give up everything for a passionate outburst and abandon her daughters.
Madame Henriette left with a young Frenchman who arrived the day before at the hotel, and in twenty-four hours, she escaped leaving her family.
The most surprising is that the lovers were seen together on two occasions: Two hours walking on the beach terrace the first day, and an hour drinking coffee in the garden the next day.
In the analysis made by the guests, there were scathing criticisms against the wife of the merchant of Lyon, pointing out her as “a discreet Madame Bovary of the third order,” cataloging the fact as a “perfidious deception,” and assuring that it was “impossible for a decent woman, to elope after a short-lived encounter…”
But a man who narrates the story and whose name is not mentioned defends Madame Henriette at all costs. Naturally, this creates intense discomfort, verbal violence, and even fists in the after-dinner that the seven guests always share.
“I find it more worthy for a woman to yield to her instinct, freely and passionately, than not, as is usually the case, to deceive her husband in his arms and with closed eyes.” (1)
“At certain times and despite her will and the consciousness of her duty, a woman is helpless before the power of mysterious forces…”
He added:
“… that a lady, disappointed, jaded after several years of marriage, felt intimately predisposed to an adventure of that kind.”
The silent Mrs. C
At the table, a 67-year-old English lady was also reserved and had aristocratic manners. It was Mrs. C who barely spoke but whom everyone respected.
And when she decided to participate, she did it as a “devil’s witness” with the following questions:
Mrs. C: “If you believe that crime pasionel, as the French say, is not a crime, then why does justice exist?”
“And if you were married, would you introduce such a woman to your wife as if nothing had happened?”
To which the man replied,
“Naturally.”
The defender considered Madame Henriette, a woman like any other. “I have her as an ordinary, weak woman who deserves my respect because she had the courage to act according to her will…”
But she soon admits, “a wretched woman” because now she would have to endure criticism and contempt from everyone.
“Perhaps she acted stupidly, madly, but never in a vile and vulgar manner, and the same now than before, I will argue with all the right to belittle this poor wretch,” said the man.
Confession: “The half-truth has no value.”
For so many years, Mrs. C lived haunted by an event she lived shortly after the death of her husband when she was 42 years old.
The novel takes place in a time when men kissed a woman’s hand to express respect and gallantry, and depending on who did it, it could also mean passion and desire. And a kiss on the edge of the long dress could convey respect and admiration.
The central part of the book is Mrs. C’s confession to a man who also shares the table with the other guests. This character, who has no name, is also the story’s narrator.
It is about what she lived 20 years ago, which, by coincidence, also unfolds in twenty-four hours. Mrs. C is widowed and doesn’t know what to do with her life. She feels empty, sad, and aimless in her life.
Then, she decides to travel and arrives at the famous Casino of Monte Carlo, where she will have an encounter with a young man of about 24 years that she will never forget.
“At 42, I ended up in Monte Carlo, fleeing from an aimless existence that I could not overcome…”
And what began as an act of help and humanity revealed the fiery and passionate woman that Mrs. C had inside and that she never discovered in her traditional marriage of 23 years.
Mrs. C was captivated by the young player.
“I had never seen a face in which passion, instinct was reflected so openly, so impudently; I remained motionless, attracted by the madness of his expression… From that moment on, I saw nothing else in the room.”
And as soon as she realized that the young man had lost everything and was heading for death, she intervened and wanted to save him.
What happened between them forever changed the attitude of a strict and tense woman whose education “forbade her to speak on the street with a stranger” to turn her into a woman who gave in to her impetuous feminine nature.
– Player:
“Come”
– Mrs. C:
“And as if they were made of steel, his twitching fingers imprisoned my hand. It scared me… I shuddered all over; I was paralyzed as if wounded by lightning; I lost consciousness of myself. I wanted to get away…, to get rid of…, but I didn’t have the will…”
“… And suddenly I found myself alone with that stranger in a strange hotel room whose name I still don’t know.”
“That night was so full of struggle and words, passion and anger, hatred and tears, promises and drunkenness, that it seemed to have lasted a thousand years.”
From mourning to vivid colors
Mrs. C changed forever!
She immediately transformed her mourning dress into a colorful one. And she felt that the nature around her was luminous and the sky was more transparent and beautiful. For the first time, she was full of life.
The things that could cause her discomfort no longer mattered, so she overlooked the dirty and smelly inn where she indulged in passion.
She expressed it like this:
“The goalkeeper’s look of astonishment slipped down my body; Not the slightest shadow of shame or disgust at what had happened oppressed my heart.”
“I experienced a sense of well-being and exuberance that made the blood circulate ardently through my veins as if the will to live resurfaced in me. I suddenly discovered the raison of my existence…”
Act of gratitude and the outcome
Mrs. C tried to save the young player from a terrible addiction to gambling. He came from a wealthy Austrian family and was a student of diplomacy.
After the night of passion that both lived, the young man promised Mrs. C to leave Monte Carlo that same day on the 7:30 pm train.
“He knelt and kissed the edge of my dress. It was an indescribable gesture. I was shaking violently.”
– assured Mrs. C.
Mrs. C suddenly decides to leave with the young man and does so, prey to a love outburst.
“I would have lent myself to begging, and there is probably no baseness in the world that I would not have committed for him. We call it modesty or respectability. I would have thrown them away from me if he, with just a word, a gesture, had tried to take me…” – she admits.
What followed filled Mrs. C with shame and humiliation, something she could not overcome for over 20 years. He had broken all the social rules of the time.
There was no trip nor other night of passion. Instead, the young player was forever lost in a vice that killed him.
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