Germaine de Staël

Germaine de Staël
Author: Biancamaria Fontana
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-05-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691169047

The first in-depth look at Staël's political life and writings Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) is perhaps best known today as a novelist, literary critic, and outspoken and independent thinker. Yet she was also a prominent figure in politics during the French Revolution. Biancamaria Fontana sheds new light on this often overlooked aspect of Staël's life and work, bringing vividly to life her unique experience as a political actor in a world where women had no place. The banker's daughter who became one of Europe's best-connected intellectuals, Staël was an exceptionally talented woman who achieved a degree of public influence to which not even her wealth and privilege would normally have entitled her. During the Revolution, when the lives of so many around her were destroyed, she succeeded in carving out a unique path for herself and making her views heard, first by the powerful men around her, later by the European public at large. Fontana provides the first in-depth look at her substantial output of writings on the theory and practice of the exercise of power, setting in sharp relief the dimension of Staël's life that she cared most about—politics. She was fascinated by the nature of public opinion, and believed that viable political regimes were founded on public trust and popular consensus. Fontana shows how Staël's ideas were shaped by the remarkable times in which she lived, and argues that it is only through a consideration of her political insights that we can fully understand Staël's legacy and its enduring relevance for us today.

Madame de Stael

Madame de Stael
Author: Francine du Plessix Gray
Publisher: Atlas and Company
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2009-11-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781934633212

A profile of the Revolution and Napoleonic era's celebrated woman of letters discusses her upbringing in political and intellectual circles as the daughter of Louis XVI's minister of finances, her controversial affairs with some of the most influential men of her time, and her progressive ideals that prompted repeated exiles. 20,000 first printing.

Mistress to an Age

Mistress to an Age
Author: J. Christopher Herold
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802138378

J. Christopher Herold vigorously tells the story of the fierce Madame de Stael, revealing her courageous opposition to Napoleon, her whirlwind affairs with the great intellectuals of her day, and her idealistic rebellion against all that was cynical, tyrannical, and passionless. Germaine de Stael's father was Jacques Necker, the finance minister to Louis XVI, and her mother ran an influential literary-political salon in Paris. Always precocious, at nineteen Germaine married the Swedish ambassador to France, Eric Magnus Baron de Stael-Holstein, and in 1785 took over her mother's salon with great success. Germaine and de Stael lived most of their married life apart. She had many brilliant lovers. Talleyrand was the first, Narbonne, the minister of war, another; Benjamin Constant was her most significant and long-lasting one. She published several political and literary essays, including "A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations," which became one of the most important documents of European Romanticism. Her bold philosophical ideas, particularly those in "On Literature," caused feverish commotion in France and were quickly noticed by Napoleon, who saw her salon as a rallying point for the opposition. He eventually exiled her from France. This winner of the 1959 National Book Award is "excellent ... detailed, full of color, movement, great names, and lively incident" -- The New York Times "Mr. Herold's full-bodied biography is clear-eyed, intelligent, and written with abundant wit and zest." -- The Atlantic Monthly

Selected Correspondence

Selected Correspondence
Author: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9401142831

In her letters Mme de Staël provides a panoramic historical outlook of the European literary, cultural and political scene between 1789 and 1817, i.e. the Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the Restoration. This edition, as its French original, includes rare contemporary illustrations never published before in this connection. For this book there is no specific level of readership.

Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant

Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant
Author: Renee Winegarten
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300119259

When they first met in 1794, shortly after the Reign of Terror, Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant were both in their twenties, both married, and both outsiders. She was already celebrated and a published writer, whereas he, though ambitious, was unknown. This compelling dual biography tells the extraordinary story of their union and disunion, set against a European background of momentous events and dramatic social and cultural change. Renee Winegarten offers new perspectives on each of the protagonists, revealing their rare qualities and their all-too-human failings as well as the complex nature of their debt to one another. Their passionate and productive relationship endured on and off for seventeen years. Winegarten traces their story largely through their own words--letters and autobiographical writings--and illuminates the deep intellectual and visceral bond they shared despite disparate personalities and gifts. Exploring their relationships with Napoleon and the Bourbons, their different responses to the momentous upheavals of postrevolutionary France, their support of individual liberty with order, and more, the book concludes with an appreciation of de Staël's and Constant's singular contributions to a new literature and to the history of liberty.

Ten Years' Exile

Ten Years' Exile
Author: Madame De Stael
Publisher: Open Gate Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2005-04
Genre: Authors, French
ISBN: 9780900001505

In 1802 Napoleon decided that there was no room in France for both himself and Madame de Stael, and he therefore sent into exile the woman whose intelligent liberal views were potentially dangerous for him. At first she was banished from Paris, and later, after the suppression of her book on Germany, from France. She began to write her memoirs, and was so carefully watched by Napoleon's agents that she even had to change the names of many people she mentioned, substituting English for French names in the manuscript. She stayed in Switzerland, travelled through Germany and Austria, and later through Poland into Russia. After she had stayed in Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Napoleon began his ill-fated expedition to Russia. She left the country in haste for Sweden, and it was there that much of this book was written.

An Extraordinary Woman

An Extraordinary Woman
Author: Germaine de Staël
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 438
Release: 1987-08-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780231513180

An Extraordinary Woman

Germany

Germany
Author: Madame de Staël (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1861
Genre: German literature
ISBN: