Born: 22 April 1766, France
Died: 14 July 1817
Country most active: France
Also known as: Madame de Staël, Anne-Louise-Germaine Neckar, Baronne de Staël-Holstein
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Anne-Louise-Germaine Neckar, Baronne de Staël-Holstein, a French novelist and miscellaneous writer, born in Paris. She was the daughter of Neckar, a minister of finance to Louis XVI, while her mother was mistress of one of the most popular salons of Paris.
Germaine was an extraordinarily precocious child, figured at receptions at eleven, and grew up in an atmosphere of admiration. Already in her girlhood she wrote romantic comedies, tragedies, novels and essays.
In 1786 she married Baron of Staël-Holstein, ambassador from Sweden. On the outbreak of the French Revolution she had to flee, but returning later published a noble defense of Marie Antoinette. Her historic quarrel with Napoleon seems to have begun in 1804, and for about ten years she was banished from Paris. After the fall of Napoleon her brilliant salon in the metropolis was reopened, and she spent the last few years of her life, surrounded by a happy domestic circle, esteemed and courted by the most eminent men of the capital.
She had three children by her first husband who was seventeen years her senior, and who died in 1802. In 1811 she was privately married to M. de Rocca, a young officer of hussars, who was twenty-three years her junior.
Thomas Davidson says:
“The deepest feeling of her heart was a woman craving for love, and hardly less deep was the desire to shine and please, and this she gratified to the full as a society-queen in the brilliant world of the Paris of her day. She lacked the special charm of beauty, she was careless of dress, impulsive and abrupt in manners, but her vast capacity for enthusiasm and the passionate intensity of her affections gave force and color to her rich and versatile character and combined to form a personality whose influence was irresistible. Society and conversation were a necessity of her nature, and called forth from the depths of her heart that flowing impromptu eloquence that subdued all hearers in admiration. Words and ideas flowed from her lips in a kind of glorified improvisation that suggested at once the exalted inspiration of the prophet, the refined sensibility of the woman, and the clear understanding of the thinker.”
In judging her as a writer, George Saintsbury says:
“Mme. de Staël occupies a singular position in French literature. Her faults are great; her style is of an age, not for all time; her ideas are mostly second-hand and frequently superficial. But nothing save a very great talent could have shown itself so receptive. To have caught from all sides the floating notions of society and of individuals, to reflect them with such vigor and clearness, is not anybody’s task. Her best two books are Corinne, a striking exposition of a certain kind of aestheticism, and De I’Allemagne, perhaps the most remarkable account of one country, by a native and inhabitant of another, which exists in literature.”
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
A very precocious child, she astonished the greatest scholars by her alertness and the acuteness of her judgment. Religion, love of political fame and a passion for literature were the three basic principles of her education. At the time of her marriage, France was greatly agitated for the cause of liberty. She devoted herself to the triumph of the idea. Her political activities made her famous; her pen conquered the admiration of the world. Banished from Paris by Napoleon, she visited Germany and Italy, and, while there, wrote two of her most famous books, Corinne and Germany, the publication of the latter causing her exile from France. She suffered greatly from this injustice and embodied the narration of her sufferings in her famous Ten Years of Exile, She came back to Paris after the Restoration but she was disappointed at the tendencies of the restored monarchy.
She received from the government two millions of francs, the sum which her father had left in the royal treasury; and, surrounded by a happy circle of congenial minds, she remained in the capital until her death in July, 1817. In 1811 she had secretly married Albert de Rocca, an officer but twenty-three years old, to whom she bore a son. Though her conspicuous influence upon her contemporaries was wielded largely by personal contact, and the brilliancy of her improvisation in the excitement of conversation, yet her books are the most important of the post-revolutionary period, and furnished a great stimulus to the new currents of French literature that were preparing romanticism.
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
STAEL, ANNE LOUISE GERMAIN, MADAME DE, Was born, April 22nd., 1766, at Paris. She was the daughter of the well-known French financier, Necker. Her parents being protestants, instead of receiving her education, like most young ladles of the period, in the seclusion of a convent, she was reared at home, and allowed to mingle freely with the talented guests who assembled in her mother’s drawing-room. Already a precocious child, this produced in her a premature development of intellect. Some of the gravest men who visited Madame Necker, when her daughter had scarcely emerged from childhood, discerned her intellectual power, and found pleasure in conversing with her; the acuteness of her judgment already revealing what she would one day become. From her mother she imbibed a strong religious feeling, which never abandoned her; Necker imparted to her his ambitious love of political popularity; and the society in which she was brought up strengthened her passion for literature, and fed the burning flame of her genius. Her life and writings bear deep traces of these three powerful principles. As a talker she has never perhaps been surpassed. Clear, comprehensive, and vigorous, like that of man, her language was also full of womanly passion and tenderness. Her affection for her father was enthusiastic, and her respect for him bordered upon veneration. The closest and most unreserved friendship marked their intercourse through life. Mademoiselle Necker was heir to immense wealth; and at the age of twenty, through the interposition of Marie Antoinette, a marriage was brought about between her and the Baron de Staël Holstein, then Swedish ambassador at the court of France. M. de Staël was young, handsome, and cultivated; he had no fortune, but he was a Lutheran; and as M. Necker had no inclination to see his fortune pass into the hands of a catholic, his consent was easily obtained.
Neither the disposition or situation of Madame de Staël would allow her to remain indifferent to the general agitation which prevailed in France. Enthusiastic in her love of liberty, she gave all the weight of her influence to the cause. Her other’s banishment in 1787, and his triumphant return in 1788, deeply affected her; and when he was obliged to retire from public life, it was a source of deep grief and disappointment to her. During Robespierre’s ascendency, she exerted herself, at the hazard of her life, to save his victims, and she published a powerful and eloquent defence of the queen. On the 2nd. of September, when the tocsin called the populace to riot and murder, she fled from Paris, with great difficulty, and took refuge with her father, at Coppet. When Sweden recognised the French republic, she returned to Paris with her husband, who was again appointed Swedish ambassador. Her influence, social, literary, and political, was widely extended. On Talleyrand’s return from America, in 1796, she obtained, through Barras, his appointment to the ministry of foreign affairs. To this period also belongs two political pamphlets, containing her views respecting the situation of France in 1795, which express the remarkable opinion that France could arrive at limited monarchy only through military despotism.
In 1798, M. de Staël died; her connexion with her husband had not been a happy one. When she became desirous of saving her children’s property from the effect of his lavish expenditure, a separation took place; but when his infirmities required the kind offices of friends, she returned to him, and was with him when he died.
Madame de Staël first saw Napoleon in 1797. His brilliant reputation excited her admiration, but this sentiment soon gave way to fear and aversion; her opposition offended Napoleon, and she was banished from Paris. She resided with her father at Coppet, where she devoted herself to literature. After the death of her father, in 1803, she visited Italy and Germany; which visits produced her two most remarkable works, “Corinne,” and “Germany.” The latter, when printed in Paris, was seized and destroyed by the minister of police; and her exile from Paris was extended to banishment from France. During her residence on her father’s estate, Madame de Staël contracted a marriage with a young officer, in delicate health, by the name of de Rocca, which continued a secret till her death. Notwithstanding she was twice the age of her husband, this marriage was very happy. M. de Rocca loved her with romantic enthusiasm; and she realized, in his affection, some of the dreams of her youth. He survived her only six months. Banished from France, Madame de Staël wandered over Europe; her sufferings she has embodied in her “Ten Years of Exile.” In 1814 she returned to Paris, and was treated with great distinction by the allied princes. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, she retired to Coppet. It is said that he invited her to return to Paris, and that she refused to do so. After the restoration, she received from the government two millions of francs; the sum which her father had left in the royal treasury. Surrounded by a happy domestic circle, esteemed and courted by the most eminent men in the capital, Madame de Staël resided in Paris till her death, which took place in July, 1817. Madame de Staël has been called the greatest female writer of all ages and countries. She was certainly the most distinguished for talents among the women of her age. Since Rousseau and Voltaire, no French writer has displayed equal power. Her works are numerous—”Corinne,” “Delphine,” “Germany,” “Ten Tears of Exiles” and “Considerations on the French Revolution,” are the most noted.