The Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig was undoubtedly one of the great intellectuals of the 20th century. His novels, novellas, and historical biographies were best sellers, and were translated into more than fifty languages. He was extremely popular in Europe as well as in the United States and South America, and remains so today in Continental Europe. As a pacifist and a humanist who conceived of the idea of a united Europe, an idea which was completely surreal at the time, Zweig was ahead of his time.