The imbalance between man and fate shapes the story. For Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette, "an essentially ordinary woman, neither particularly wise nor particularly foolish, neither fire nor ice, without any special strength for good and without the slightest will for evil," becomes the symbol of the simple person who must fulfill their role determined by historical coincidences. Her tragic greatness and her eventful life story at the center of the French Revolution provide only the captivating framework for a psychologically nuanced study of a woman who must rise above herself. With data on her life and work, exclusively written by the editorial team of the literary journal TEXT + KRITIK.