/lit/ - Literature

As a complementary tangent, Stefan Zweig's biography of Joseph Fouche captures the subterranean danger and personalities of the Napoleonic era that may be underappreciated in the heroic hagiographies of Napoleon himself through a biography of the next most interesting person of the time. Fouche was a creature of the revolution, a true political animal who begins as proto-Chekist revolutionary butcher of Lyon, then conspirator against Robespierre, before establishing himself as police minister for Napoleon and managing the Empire's internal security and peace. He arranges Napoleon's surrender after the 100 days and serves as police minister for the Bourbons.