The Secret Letters of Madame de Sta�l: Fiction from History - Letters in the Voice of Germaine de Sta�l

These letters are in the voice of Madame Germaine de Staël, famous 18th century woman of letters. Germaine Necker de Staël was daughter of France’s Finance Minister to King Louis XVl.

Mme. de Staël’s love life is the background for her “letters,” a portal to the political tumult in France, fiction inspired by history. She wrote more than 30 books of fiction, theater, essays, texts of political theory, treatises, and more. Her salons were the hub of intellectual and artistic debate in her Paris home and the family chateau at Coppet, Switzerland. She was often a guest in Marie Antoinette’s court, and moved frequently throughout Europe during the tempestuous French Revolution and political upheavals.

While Mme.’s personal mannerisms were abrupt and forceful (they said, “too masculine,”) her compassion and kindness for the less fortunate were renowned.

She was Napoléon’s nemesis because of her powerful political writings, and Madame de Staël was an obsession he could not destroy—nor could he undermine her influence—although he spent his reign in this pursuit. Napoléon hated her more than any living person for her political writings, exiling her from Paris and tormenting her writing life.

Perhaps the reader may wish to be introduced to her life, via these secret letters.