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Joseph Fiévée

Paris 1767-04-09 – 1839-05-07 Paris French Main: Paris Other: Nièvre civil servant journalist novelist playwright publisher spy writer Fiévée, Joseph, 1767-1839 (viaf) Fiévée, Joseph (cerl) Joseph Fiévée (wikidata)

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  1. Relation véritable et remarquable du grand voyage du pape en paradis. has translation author publisher
  2. Voyage du pape aux enfers has translation author publisher

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The son of a caterer, Fiévée entered the publishing trade as an apprentice to the publisher-bookseller Jacques-François Valade thanks to the patronage of A.-T. Hue de Miromesnil, Keeper of the Seals. He then became secretary to the economist, abbé Nicolas Baudeau.

Following the dramatic events of the 1789 'October Days', he acquired the printshop of Jean-Baptiste Garnéry (rue Serpente) and published several of his plays, including the comic opera, 'Les Rigueurs du cloître' (Aug 1790). He also became the publisher of, and occasional contributor to, the influential La Chronique de Paris, co-edited by Condorcet and owned by Aubin-Louis Millin and François-Jean Noël.

In March 1793, his workshop, which now had seven presses and employed over 20 printworkers, was ransacked, along with other Girondin-linked printers, and he ceased operations soon after. Arrested and released in October, he became president of his local district (the radical section du Théâtre-Français) and played an active role in Robespierre's downfall on 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794).

From August 1795, he was editor of the Gazette française and supported the failed October 1795 Vendémaiaire (royalist) insurrection. Sentenced to deportation, following the Directory's coup against the Convention on 18 Fructidor (4 Sept 1797), he fled to the countryside, where he wrote 'La Dot de Suzette' (1798), which enjoyed a great literary success. In Jan 1799, he was arrested and imprisoned for ten months, before being freed on Napoléon's orders in November, following his coup of 18 Brumaire.

Fiévée now became a Bonapartist cheerleader, publishing, amongst others, 'Du Dix-Huit Brumaire opposé au système de la Terreur' (1802), before being sent on a secret mission to England as one of Napoléon's secret correspondents. From 1804-07, he was made editor of the Journal des débats, now renamed Journal de l'Empire. In 1810, Napoléon appointed him to the Conseil d'Etat and then Préfet de la Nièvre from 1813-15. Initially rallying to the royal restoration of Louis XVIII, he soon veered back towards a more moderate liberalism.collaborated on several papers, including the restored Journal des débats as well as co-founding another, Le Temps.