Colleen's Reviews > Madame de Stäel

An absolute life changing book. I have, not joking, ordered an etching of Madame de Stael which is on its way, and then I plan to frame it and hang it up somewhere so I can daily give props to such a fantastic person.

I've also ordered some massive 900 page collection of her works, because while this book was excellent, I could have used more quotes. On that topic will get to the few complaints I have with this book and potentially Madame de Stael in particular:

1) Humongous things mentioned once, and then not come back to later whatsoever.

Example A: Incest?

I wish this author interjected herself into the biography more. It's brilliantly told, amazing job as a biographer, but at a crucial part in 1784, she just presents a diary entry that is blatantly incestuous towards her father. Drily noted as "startling" and moves on. Extreme and highly demonstrable actions between father and daughter until the end of her life since she dragged around a huge portrait of him, the books, and all the tomb stuff. But there was no real analysis about the author or her contemporaries about it? Those people were constantly writing back and forth to each other--SOMEONE had to comment on it. Was this normal or weird? It seems weird. But then this is someone who hung out with Byron.

This made it somewhat hard for me to stomach a lot of the intense father/daughter moments that make up the rest of the book--did anything happen? was the diary entry all wishful thinking? It's odd that her daughter burnt a vast amount of Madame de Stael's letters and papers but somehow this survived the purge. Maybe note on that? I don't know. I was very startled.

Example B: Syphilis?

Skip ahead to 1787. "Intellectual compatibility and opium ensured that her house in Colombier, near Neuchatel, where Benjamin was recovering from a bout of syphilis, he felt truly happy for the first time in his life." -- now this is NOT about de Stael but Madame de Charriere & Benjamin Constant, who was the Richard Burton to de Stael's Liz Taylor.

You'd think a lanky poor guy with syphilis would be a turn off, but not for Madame de Stael who embarked on a legendary on & off romance with him--and had one child with him. So did she get syphilis too? Is that how she died? The black spots, sudden decline? Was there something congenital going on with her last child beyond just "large head" and "slow"? What was up with her mother's illness? How did Benjamin Constant die? (I looked it up--odd symptoms, suspicious as hell). I mean if they didn't have death certificates or science back then, ask some forensic coroners their opinion. The author never says what she died from.

The incest and syphilis mentions contain probably three paragraphs together in a 522 page book and I don't know, deserve possibly closer attention.

However, I think partially it's because it's almost TOO much source material, which leads to my second minor issue:

2) Easily could have been two volumes or more. The end feels rushed anyways.

Pre-Revolution: Madame de Stael trying to prevent the Revolution. In and out of favor with Marie Antoinette and the royalists, finally falling out.

The Terror: Madame de Stael trying to save as many from The Terror as she can. Operates a Scarlet Pimpernel spy ring. Could have saved Marie Antoinette & family but the queen still holding a grudge. Flees from Robespierre.

Goes to England where I'm sorry, Fanny Burney was a total bitch. I really expected better of her. Disappointed. And she had many chances to redeem herself, but FAILED so hard each time. Thank goodness the cache of letters of de Stael's in her possession (because de Stael bankrolled and rescued Burney's husband and Narbonne--the recipient of those letters) did not get burnt by Burney like intended because mislaid.

Wanders around Europe, writes book defending Marie Antoinette, more works, cements her renown. Returns after Robespierre falls, becomes an enemy of Napoleon's.

The War with Napoleon--and this could be volumes in itself I think. Gripping historical drama. And the amazing thing as with all the people she made enemies with--justifiable each time, since she was one of the few that could openly defy very dangerous people. Indeed, she's perpetually out of favor, in exile, fleeing to 40 yards, suspected by secret agents, trailed by spies, and she gets away with it each time. When her book was banned by Napoleon, her son manages to get away with the copy over the back wall while mom stalled. And she seemed to be a master of making enormous scenes (writhing and screaming on floors) to slow down authorities while her friends escaped--I counted three separate times in this book of that.

Since de Stael did help everyone, saying "There is, in the short span of existence, no greater chance of happiness than to save the life of an innocent man." She saved that ungrateful Talleyrand after all and it was the fact she had so many diverse friends--Jacobins to Girondists to Royalists to Ultramontanes to British Prime Minister to the Tsar to Anti-Slavery Movement..and Napoleon's family. Her next door neighbor was his brother Joseph and she was buddies with Lucien too. So when Joseph was forced to tell her that Napoleon said "I will break her. I wish crush her but it's foolish of me to get heated. Tell her to be quiet." Her response back? "There is a kind of pleasure in resisting an iniquitous power. Genius too is a power."

Such a bad ass answer.

Her time in Germany. Winning over Goethe, helping spark Romanticism--and her time in Germany was hilarious. Really any time she inflicts her personality on an unwitting populace, no one really knows what to do. Her personality must have been out of the world. Everyone seemed to write to her, so many quotes are like "and as she recounted to Thomas Jefferson in a letter dated.." but we're not told how she knows Jefferson or other Americans she wrote to really. The author does note that de Stael wrote how Americans would be the future world power and planned a US tour to write a book on her impressions, but died before she could pull that scheme off.

Then her part in the coalition that brought down Napoleon. Now best friends with Wellington, she talks the English into withdrawing their troops.

Her friendship with Byron.

Feminism. I enjoyed the fact that her father (creepy love aside) was basically the Warren Buffet of his time. And the fact she was crafty enough with her money to actually have died leaving an even greater fortune than she inherited. The men in her life, each and every one, seemed to be crazed gambling syphilitic egoists who she was constantly giving enormous amounts of money to.

So it shocks me that there are so few books out on her. Only like two biographies in the past century? That's insane! There should be hundreds of books about her. She's like a Bernhardt, in that she was feted and loved by the entire world, and had a knack of being in the right place at the right time. Although de Stael wielded actual political influence and did change the course of history. She even was so magnanimous that she foiled an assassination attempt on Napoleon's life while he was in exile. I found it was interesting that in exile, one of Napoleon's obsessions was de Stael.

I really hope someone writes the book on the feud.

Her relationship with her children. That can be a deal breaker sometimes in dealing with people from the past. They were just so shitty to their kids. Look at Rousseau. Madame de Stael got lucky in that her father was a financial genius and her mom did physics for fun, hung out with Gibbon, had a ton of money and included her in their life. And she paid it forward. She was an excellent daughter (with hopefully nothing more than that) and seemed like a great mom that even with the lovers, the racing all over Europe, the intrigues, her kids and entourage were all devoted to each other. It’s not that often in reading history do you come across someone who seems to be so much a part of their era, while at the same time transcending it. For example, I do not think she would have that much culture shock if you magically transported her to modern day US. She’d be disappointed most likely we have not gotten further in two hundred years.

TL;dr: Fantastic biography on a legendary figure who shaped political thought, literature, and history.