The Viennese author Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) belonged to a paradoxical class of writers peculiar to continental Europe between the two world wars: high-culture intellectuals whose major works seemed geared for middlebrow bestsellerdom. Zweig began his career as a neo-Romantic poet in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's circle. A disciple of Freud, he allied himself after World War I with the French novelist Romain Rolland's advocacy of an anti-nationalist, united Europe. He wrote deep, rarefied essays examining pivotal figures of European... More >>>