Staël, Romanticism and Revolution
The Life and Times of the First European

Combating two centuries of sexism, this radical overview of Staël in context reveals a major player in Revolution and Romanticism.

John Claiborne Isbell (Author)

9781009362726, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2023

299 pages
28 x 19 x 2.3 cm, 0.662 kg

Two centuries of sexism have hidden Staël's place in international history. Straddling the divides of the French Revolution, Napoleonic Europe, emergent nationalism, and European Romanticism, and playing pivotal roles in those movements, she was also a friend of Byron, Jefferson, and Tsar Alexander. Extensive archival research, and a complete contextual overview of Staël's writings, here restore Staël's canonical status as political philosopher, historian, European Romantic theorist, and Revolutionary. While the term stateswoman is not commonly used, it describes Staël aptly, acting as she necessarily did through men around her. The brilliant game of masks and proxies imposed on her by patriarchy is detailed here, alongside her unending fight for the oppressed, from the nations of Napoleon's subjugated Europe to the victims of the Atlantic slave trade. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

1. The Painful Birth of the Romantic Heroine: Staël as Political Animal, 1786–1821
2. Revolution and the Private Sphere: Lettres sur Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Zulma, Recueil de morceaux détachés, 1786–1795
3. Mme de Staël, Minister for War? Narbonne's 'English' Program under the Assemblée législative
4. The Social Contract for Staël and Constant, or Does Liberty Have a Sex?
5. When the Light of Reason Fails: De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations, 1796
6. Imaginary Europe: De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales
7. Suicide, Meaning, and Power in the 'Querelle de Delphine'
8. My Father, Myself: Staël and the Manuscrits de M. Necker
9. Italy, or Corinne
10. Interlude: In Search of Romantic Theater
11. Napoleon Pulps His Enemies: Censors, Police, and De l'Allemagne's Lost 1810 Edition
12. The Napoleon Apocalypse
13. Romantic Spain and National Resistance: Staël, Rocca, and the Mémoires sur la guerre des Français en Espagne
14. A. W. Schlegel, Staël, and Sismondi in 1814: The Groupe de Coppet and the Confédération romantique
15. The Italian Romantics and Mme de Staël: Art, Society, and Nationhood
16. Inventing the French Revolution: Staël Considers National Credit, 1789–1818
17. Voices Lost? Staël and Slavery, 1786–1830
La Vie dans l'œuvre.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]