Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, 1st Comte Fouché (17591820) was a French statesman, revolutionary, and Minister of Police under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, notable for the ferocity with which he suppressed the Lyon insurrection during the Revolution in 1793 and for being a highly competent minister of police under the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire. In 1815, he served as President of the Executive Commission, the provisional government of France installed after the abdication of Napoleon. In his introduction, Zweig explains why he has chosen to write about such an amoral, anheroic and controversial figure - in essence, to counteract the more usual hagiographic works on which history is based. Stefan Zweig (/zwa, swa/;[1] German: [t.fan tsvak]; 28 November 188122 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world.[ Our book is un