Joseph Fiévée was a French journalist, novelist, essayist, playwright, civil servant and secret agent. He also lived in an openly gay relationship with the writer Théodore Leclercq, with whom he was buried after his death.
Career
Fiévée was born and died in Paris. The son of a restaurant owner, he became a publisher during the French Revolution, most notably editing La Chronique de Paris, a newspaper; it was here that he started his career as journalist, but unfortunately incurred the suspicion of authorities who had him imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. He was a member of the royalist network around the Abbey de Montesquiou, and was forced to go into hiding during the Directoire. While in hiding, he wrote his novel on changing times and mores, La Dot de Suzette, which was a great literary success. From 1800 to 1803, he wrote a column for the Gazette de France. He was again imprisoned in the Temple by order of Joseph Fouché, but he was freed at the request of Bonaparte. He became a kind of secret agent for Napoleon, informing him of political affairs in France and England. From 1804 to 1807, he was editor in chief of the Journal des débats, which became Journal de l'Empire. He was ennobled by the Emperor; was named "maître des requêtes" to the Conseil d'État in 1810; then "Préfet" of the Nièvre départment from 1813 to 1815. A supporter of Louis XVIII of France during the initial Restoration, he was banished during the Hundred Days. Having become one of the intellectuals of the "ultra" party and writer for the papers La Quotidienne and the Conservateur, he eventually became more politically liberal after 1818. A strong supporter of the freedom of the press, he was sentenced to three months of prison in the Conciergerie where Casimir Perier visited him. He became a contributor to the journals Temps in 1829 and National in 1831.
Private life
Joseph Fiévée married in 1790, but his wife died giving birth, leaving him one child. At the end of the 1790s, he met the writer Théodore Leclercq who became his life companion, and the two would live and raise Fiévée's son together. When becoming Préfet, Fiévée and Leclercq moved to the Nièvre department, and their open relationship greatly shocked some locals. The two men were received together in the salons of the Restoration. Both men are buried in the same tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Works
Novels :
La Dot de Suzette
Frédéric
Letters :
Lettres sur l'Angleterre
Correspondance politique et administrative, Ed. Le Normant
Lettres sur le projet d'organisation municipale, Le Normant
Correspondances et relations de J. Fiévée avec Bonaparte de 1802 à 1813, en 3 volumes, Ed. Desrez et Beauvais
Correspondance de J. Fiévée et de François Ferrier, de 1803 à 1837
Essays :
De la religion considérée dans ses rapports avec le but de toute législation
Du dix-huit brumaire opposé au système de la Terreur
Réflexions sur la philosophie du XVIIIe siècle, Ed. Perlet-Desenne
Conseils à Napoléon 1802-1803
Des opinions et des intérêts pendant la Révolution
Histoire de la session de 1815, Ed. L'Huillier-Delaunay
Histoire de la session de 1816, Le Normant
Histoire de la session de 1817, Le Normant
Examen des discussions relatives à la loi des élections pendant la session de 1819, Le Normant
Histoire de la session de 1820, Le Normant
Ce que tout le monde pense, ce que personne ne dit, Le Normant
De l'Espagne et des conséquences de l'intervention armée
Causes et conséquences du mois de juillet 1830
Short Stories:
Le divorce, le faux révolutionnaire et l'héroïsme des femmes, Ed. A. Duleau
