Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Claiborne Isbell (University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009362733

ISBN 10:   1009362739
Pages:   313
Publication Date:   27 March 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

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.

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Author Information

John Claiborne Isbell is a scholar, educator, and poet. He has published in French and English on Staël and on European Romanticism, starting in 1994 with The Birth of European Romanticism: Truth and Propaganda in Staël's De l'Allemagne (Cambridge University Press). His most recent monograph is An Outline of Romanticism in the West (2022).

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