Stefan Zweig
(born Nov. 28, 1881, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire — died Feb. 22, 1942, Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) Austrian writer. He was deeply influenced by
Sigmund Freud, whose theories on psychology informed Zweig's analyses of historical figures and his subtle portrayal of fictional characters. His essays include studies of
Honoré de Balzac,
Charles Dickens, and
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in
Three Masters (1920); and
Friedrich Hölderlin,
Heinrich Kleist, and
Friedrich Nietzsche, in
Master Builders (1925). He achieved popularity with
The Tide of Fortune (1928), five historical portraits in miniature. He also wrote biographies, poetry, short stories, dramas, and a novel. Driven into exile by the Nazis in 1934, Zweig and his second wife went to England and then Brazil, where, lonely and disillusioned, they committed suicide.
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