De l'Allemagne, tome 1

by Madame de Staël

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: France, French Literature

384 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. She was one of Napoleon's principal opponents. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Just a few notes, the plan is to review the entire work once I have read the second part.

On to De l'Allemagne, tome 2, after a break.

This is a work that has been on my mind to read since I was about seventeen or eighteen, and thirty plus years later it came into my hands. I tried to reconstruct the rabbit hole that led me to de Stael. Was the entrance through one of my A-level English Literature books? I reviewed them mentally in a line-up of the unusual suspects, but none of them seemed at all likely. As I read de Stael, her project started to remind me of Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, and since I read that round about the age of seventeen perhaps, to mix metaphors, Madame West planted the seed of reading Madame de Stael.

The ideology of the two strikes me as similar, they both, at least implicitly, feel that their own familiar cultures are sterile and see in another country a lively, and in West's case, a virile, culture. West seeks to explore Yugoslavia geographically from north to south with reflections on the history of its peoples - with particular admiration for the Serbs - I think this is maybe the standard or classic form of a travel narrative now, the author moves the armchair traveller through time and space, implicitly leading them to have a different perspective on their own country; de Stael has a subtler approach. She leads her reader through the contemporary literary culture of the other country. Yes, politics, geography, and history are all mentioned, but only as footnotes to the important stuff: theatre, poetry, & prose writing.

I am not sure quite what strikes me as odder: that de Stael considered that this could have an explosive effect in France and lead to transformational cultural, social, and possibly political change; or that the Napoleonic regime agreed with her and therefore banned the book so that after fleeing France with a copy of the manuscript de Stael had it published in London. Anyway, apparently, books about other cultures can have a rapid corrosive effect on Imperial power structures, so handle with care, and always pay attention to the author's dosage and usage advise.

The first volume after an introduction about manners and morals discusses German theatre: Lessing, Schiller, Goethe. Her taste tends towards historical dramas, plays that deal with resistance to political oppression win her praise. Se discusses Goethe's Faust, but she is only aware of the first part, and only I think the first part of the first part, but then it was a work that was still under construction in de Stael's lifetime. I was never sure if she was engaging with the writing that she discusses in German, in French translations, possibly in fact it was a mixture of the too.

Still this was a remarkable book, a real fan's eye perspective.

[Sylvie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Madame de Staël would have married Germany if she could.