读王先霈先生所著《文学美》一书 ,书中所援引的一个材料给我留下了极深的印象 :奥地利著名作家斯蒂芬·茨威格的小说《旧书商门德尔》的主人公门德尔 ,是一个犹太血统的旧书商 ,他嗜书成癖 ,几十年如一日 ,每天从早到晚坐在同一家咖啡馆的同一张肮脏的石桌旁 ,身子前后摇晃着 ,低声吟诵一本书或是一本杂志。就在他的身边 ,打弹子的人吵吵嚷嚷 ,电话铃阵阵作响 ,侍者奔来跑去 ,他一概毫无感觉。甚至 ,有一次 ,一块烧着的煤从火炉里掉在离他只有两步远的地板上 ,把地板烧焦了 ,冒起的烟熏到他身上 ,他也依然没有发觉 ,直到远处的顾客嗅到焦臭...

　　Stefan Zweig's Buchmendel (1929) tells the tragic story of an eccentric but brilliant book peddler Jacob Mendel (also Jakob Mendel) who spends his days trading in one of Vienna's many coffeehouses. With his encyclopaedic mind and devotion to literature, the Poland-born Russian-Jewish immigrant is not only tolerated but liked and admired by both the owner of his local Café Gluck and the cultured Viennese clients with whom he interacts in the pre-war period. In 1915, however, he is falsely accused of collaborating with Austria's enemies and is dispatched to a concentration camp. On his return, towards the end of the war, everything has changed. His mind no longer remembers, his eyes can no longer read, the café undergoes new, brittle ownership, and his clientele have disappeared. Jacob Mendel finally dies, destitute, incapacitated and forgotten.
　　
　　What initially reads as another of the many modest human dramas that Zweig made his speciality, this small tale actually has a far more panoramic sub-plot, for it is a metaphor of the Great War's impact on Viennese life and culture. It is also particularly interesting to the historian for understanding the strategies by which post-war writers re-imagined pre-war Vienna, how they conceptualised the war itself, and how memory and myth deeply influenced their conception of history.