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
