About
Germaine de Staël, born Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker in Paris in 1766, was the daughter of Jacques Necker, finance minister to Louis XVI, and Suzanne Curchod, whose salon welcomed Enlightenment philosophers. Married to the Swedish ambassador Baron de Staël-Holstein, she held an influential salon in Paris. Her first literary success, Letters on the Works and Character of J.J. Rousseau (1788), distinguished her. Her novels Delphine (1802) and Corinne (1807) explore the condition of women. In On Literature (1800), she founded a sociological criticism of literature. Her major work, On Germany (1810), introduced German Romanticism to the French; Napoleon ordered the edition destroyed and exiled her.
* 1766-04-22 — † 1817-07-14
Major works
- Lettres sur le caractère et les ouvrages de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1788)essay
- De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800)essay
- Delphine (1802)novel
- Corinne, ou l'Italie (1807)novel
- De l'Allemagne (1813)essay
Key milestones
- 1803Banished from Paris by Napoleon for her political opposition.
- 1810Napoleon orders the destruction of the edition of On Germany.
- 1818Posthumous publication of Considerations on the French Revolution.
Themes
Political liberalismWomen's conditionRomanticismComparative literatureFreedom of expression
Sources: data.bnf.fr · britannica.com · europeana.eu