Of Stefan Zweig's vast body of work, celebrated by generations of readers around the world, perhaps his biographies best demonstrate the writer's portraiture skills, psychological acuity, and profound understanding of the human soul. This volume brings them all together, not only those dedicated to famous figures in history—Erasmus of Rotterdam, Ferdinand Magellan, Marie Stuart, Marie Antoinette, Joseph Fouche, Honoré de Balzac, and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore—, but also those that portray some prominent contemporaries and friends of the author, such as Émile Verhaeren and Romain Rolland. The collection of these works offers the reader five centuries of history in the West through some of its conspicuous protagonists, as well as an incomparable key to understanding the unique perspective of one of the most astute and sensitive observers of the 20th century.
