Most Popular Books by Lion Feuchtwanger

Gustav Oppermann, who runs a chain of furniture stores, and the other members of his Jewish family face the terrifying rise of Nazism in Germany.

This notorious Nazi propaganda historical costume melodrama is based on the Nazi version of the novel of the same title by Lion Feuchtwanger, which is based on the real historical character of Josef Süss Oppenheimer who was a Jewish tax advisor to Karl Alexander during the early 1700''s and was publicly executed in Stuttgart for manipulation of state funds.

This is an intimate story of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the exalted, visionary, often ridiculous, little man whose heights of philosophical grandeur were equaled only by the degrading absurdity of his private life. It is also the story of his effortlessly adulterous wife; of the frivolous nobles in France who made it fashionable to read him; and of the heroes, villains and fools who built the French Revolution and its resulting in the days of the Terror largely on his words. This is the story of Jean-Jacques Rousseau''s life as he lived it and as he described it in his celebrated "Confessions." It tells of the good and evil that came to the world largely because a cuckolded husband, who happened to be a greatly misunderstood philosopher, was murdered by his wife''s paramour.

First part of a trilogy based on the life of the Jewish historian.

First English translation of a work by the German novelist analyzing and defining the historical novel.

Court life of Wurtemberg in the period 1730-40.

Historical romance based on the life of Margaretha, Countess of Tyrol in the 14th century.

Der Schlüsselroman über das Leben deutscher Emigranten. Schauplatz dieses Romans ist Paris, die Stadt, die für Tausende deutscher Flüchtlinge zum Exilort wurde. Im Frühjahr 1935 wird Friedrich Benjamin, ein bekannter Publizist und Redakteur einer deutschen Emigrantenzeitung, von den Nazis verschleppt. Sepp Trautwein, der von seinem Münchner Lehrstuhr vertriebene Musikprofessor und Komponist, gibt die Musik auf, um Benjamins Sache zu seiner eigenen zu machen. Er kämpft einen fast hoffnungslosen Kampf, der sich schließlich als Ansporn und Bestätigung in seiner Kunst niederschlägt. Er komponiert die Sinfonie "Der Wartesaal", eine Metapher für die Zeit des Exils. Feuchtwanger wählte einen authentischen Fall als Ausgangspunkt für eine differenzierte Darstellung der Situation deutscher Exilanten, ihrer Existenznöte, ihrer politischen Zerrissenheit und ihres "ohnmächtigen und ein bißchen lächerlichen" Kampfes gegen einen riesigen Staat und seinen übermächtigen Apparat.

The Paris of 1935, interlaced with German refugees and Nazi officials.

"In thinly fictionized form this is a segment of the biography of Goya, court painter to Spain of the troubled Napoleonic era --a superb piece of historical recreation rather than a definitive life of Goya. Already accepted as Spain''s leading portrait painter, successor to the mantle of Velasquez, Goya, at the time of the story''s opening, is at a turning point in his career. He is about to meet the dominant woman in his life, (a life checkered with amorous adventure), the beautiful and wicked Duchess of Alba. He is under consideration as official Court Painter, and a moot question for pressure politics in a sordid double-deal involving controversial figures of church and state. The story of a romance that was shattering in its implications- the story of an art that grew from portrait painting to interpretative realism, dangerous to the artist, and to savage satire that almost cost his life (and-outside the bounds of this novel, ended in exile) is understandingly traced by his biographer. And the turbulent period in Spain''s history, the social, political, international ramifications, in which Goya was a controversial factor, comes alive. The market will be that of the student of the arts and history rather than the average reader of historical fiction, for Feuchtwanger has not overdramatized material for the sake of story. As in he has catered to a serious rather than a popular market....There has been relatively small use made of Goya''s story since the publication in 1938 of two fictional biographies, Charles G. Poore''s (Scribner) and Marion Chapman''s (Egmont Press). A book for the long haul."--Kirkus