#mme de stael

[microcosme11]

An elusive sphinx

Madame de Staël, who dined at his side one evening in the company of Sieyès, depicts an elusive sphinx, above all anxious to protect himself: “I carefully examined the face of Bonaparte; but each time he discovered my observant glance, he had the art of depriving his eyes of all expression, as if they had turned to marble. His face was motionless then, except for a vague smile which he placed on his lips at random, to confuse anyone who would observe the outward signs of his thoughts.”

La chute de Napoléon by Dominique Villepin, 2015

[lafcadiosadventures]

So, there's this scene in Cousin Bette, which has a pretty striking line:

– On a marché, dit le vieillard en se retirant, et les morts vont vite à Paris !

(Honoré de Balzac, La cousine Bette, 1846)

“The world moves on,” said the old man, as he withdrew, “and the dead move quickly in Paris!”

(tr. James Waring) (given the implications, I would translate the first half of Vautrin's reply as “We have made our move”)

and I was like, critique of capitalism, etc etc. My friend @madmerchant said she was pretty sure she'd read something very similar in Dracula. Was Stoker referencing Vautrin? Was it a coincidence? There's a persistent shroud of the Fantastic surrounding Vautrin, it would not be surprising if someone would have thought of him as a vampire, or an immortal creature of some kind... however:

“You are early to-night, my friend.” The man stammered in reply:—“The English Herr was in a hurry,” to which the stranger replied:—“That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend; I know too much, and my horses are swift.” As he spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory. One of my companions whispered to another the line from Burger’s “Lenore”:— “Denn die Todten reiten schnell”— (“For the dead travel fast.”)

oooh. this lead to discovering that Lenore, is one of the cornerstones of Romanticism. So it wasn't that Stoker was referencing Vautrin's last incarnation, but rather, the same originary poem Balzac hismelf was referencing. The influence of the poem was huge, and epsecially the french went crazy over it. The first translation was published in the Journal des Débats in 1811, translated from English. The newspaper published it, not without adding the poem put in display "the most odious vices of the German School".

It was not until Mme de Saël (she of the North vs South temperaments fame) wrote an article trully valuing the work as the poetic masterpiece it was, that the fever for Lenore started to root on the young minds of a Certain Group of Artists-and their readers- in 1820. Madame de Saël had thrown the gauntlet:

"No french translation, be it prose or verse, could express all the nuances and detaild of the German original."

and one Gérard de Nerval picked it up, offering FIVE translations of his own throuout the years...

The poem collects a German folk story, and as soon as you read the summery you *know* why the more edgy Romantics were crazy about it. Like other German folk tales (as Der Erlkönig) it features a frenzied ride through the forests, and a lover that is not what he seems to be (he is DEATH. The RIde is A TRAP) Embroildled in the poem are some anti nobility aspects:

"(in Lenore, we hear) The powrful and pained voice of a Titan, tormented until death by the aristocracy. (...) In German language, 'Bürger' (the poet's name) is synonimous to citoyen"

(Heinrich Heine)

and a desire to revindicate the autochthonous, popular poetry from the lower classes -the Lenore poem is recolected from a popular song Bürger heard a young peasant singing- as the true voice of a nation:

It will remain eternally true that if we have no Volk, we shall have no public, no nationality, no literature of our own which shall live and work in us. Unless our literature is founded on our Volk, we shall write eternally for closet sages and disgusting critics out of whose mouths and stomachs we shall get back what we have given.

(Johann Gottfried Herder)

So, what I'm saying is, I must read Lenore, and also, it is very likely that that Vautrin line is a direct reference to that icon of the dawn of French Romanticism, something the then elders (cousin bette was published in 1846) would have remembered and understood...

[enlitment]

Okay why does this low-key reads like a list of my favourite historical figures and authors?

Also love the bi representation here! (nothing but respect for Keynes - a certified bicon ✨)

Gay Men and Women Who Enriched the World (1988)

[nigrit]

Sum up your favourite (or not) people in one strapline.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘not good at parties’

‘Infamy infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!’ (With apologies to Carry on Cleo)

Camille Desmoulins: ‘Ch-ch-changes, there’s gonna have to be a different man’

Jean-Paul Marat: ‘Who will watch the watchmen?’

‘Thrill me, chill me, fulfil me, creature of the night!’

Madam Roland: ‘O, Liberty!’

Napoleon: ‘Death is nothing’

Talleyrand: ‘a shit in silk stockings!’ (Sorry, too good to resist)

Mme de Stael: ‘Oedipus sex’

Max Robespierre: ‘an orange a day keeps the headaches away’

‘Cast not pearls before swine’

Georges Danton: ‘Who dares wins’

‘Carpe diem’

Antoine Saint-Just: ‘I see a little silhouetto of a man… thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening’

‘The king must die!’

Mirabeau: Live fast and die having fun’

Fouché or Bertrand Barere: ‘Last man standing’

Marie-Antoinette: ‘Little Bo Peep, bleep, bleep, bleep’

[macrolit]

Literary history that happened on 28 September

[designatedloveinterest]

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël

In 1814 one of her contemporaries observed that "there are three great powers struggling against Napoleon for the soul of Europe: England, Russia, and Madame de Staël"

[bretongirlwrites]

lunette in a fancy dress..

[dangermousie]

Somewhere in the afterlife, Charles Reade and Mme de Stael are having joint crying sessions out of envy that they did not write this first.

[microcosme11]

Madame de Stael

I’ve always avoided her because Napoleon didn’t like her and I thought he was right about her being a pain in the ass. But I had no other evidence. Now I’m reading her book, Considerations on the French Revolution (only starting with Napoleon). Although Napoleon tried to destroy her life just because he disliked her, she talks about him objectively. He was egotistical, self-interested, manipulative, calculating, hypocritical, arrogant, dishonest, etc. She doesn’t exaggerate these traits, she proves them. She also talks about his charming qualities and potential to be a nice person, although even the nice qualities were for manipulation. She wrote another book, 10 Years of Exile, where she might be meaner toward Napoleon (I don’t know yet). In sum, she seems like a reasonable person.

I am going out on a limb here — I think on St. Helena he didn’t hate her anymore. Can’t totally remember, but I think he had books by her in his library.

Anyone want to share their opinion on Mme. de Stael?

[amarguerite]

I'm now very curious what, in your universe , Mrs. Arbuthnot thought of Duchess Lizzy!

Haha well, they were very similar, despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum, so they get along! Plus I think Mrs. Arbuthnot kind of viewed Lizzy with an, “Ah yes, she’s One of Us” kind of mentality. Like, here’s another smart, honest, politically intelligent woman, who knows how to dress and how to wield soft power, and how to properly run a household and plan a ball. If they fight it’s not over like, “You said something I misconstrued,” it’s about the likeliest effect of the Corn Laws. They’re on the same playing field and observe the same rules of the game, even if they’re on different sides. Kitty got lost on the way over to the field. 

I actually just mocked up a little diary entry in response to a comment on Ao3 so I’ll include it here too (ignore the fact that Harriet Arbuthnot was not keeping a diary in 1817 please): 

August 1817.

The Duke told me today, as the Duchess was at Mme de Stael’s, that he has at last realized why Mr. Darcy behaved so very oddly when the Duke was first trying to make the Duchess love him.

Offended propriety was my guess, for I know the Duke had interested himself in the Duchess well before her mourning was over, and Mr. D is a high stickler.

“Yes and no.”

I confessed to some curiosity, then, for the Duchess and Mr. D seemed on very excellent terms after the Duchess’s first husband died, and the Duchess does not talk of their falling out– I daresay the Duchess only ever told the whole of it to the Viscountess Stornoway– but as Mr. D had not come to the Duke and Duchess’s wedding it was clear the Duchess saw it as a reproach to her and was too angry to keep up the friendship until he apologized.  

I still recall how ridiculous everyone thought Mr. D and Lady C de B were being at the time. EVERYONE knew that the Viscountess Stornoway had been plotting the marriage since the Duke shewed his interest and the Duchess– or the Widow Fitz, as she was then– held him off so persistently. (She is a very GOOD sort of woman, with all that implies.) Heavens, Lord Matlock was so keen on the match even Caro Lamb picked up on it! If the Fitzwilliam notion of one true matches was not so strictly upheld in the major brach of the family, the auxiliary branches should not have complained, especially when they stood to gain so much by such a match.

The Duke said that was not quite the case, and did not think the Duchess would mind his saying that she and Mr. D had a “grand breeze” the day before the wedding, where Mr. D accused the Duke of being the worst kind of rake, and wishing to marry the Duchess because it was the only way to gain admittance to her bed. The Duchess obviously flew into the bows at this and attributed this accusation both to the Duke’s old reputation and to a childhood friend of Mr. D’s who had become a rake and ended up in Australia for debt.

The Duke said it was jealousy- he had known Mr. D to be jealous of him, and his success with the Duchess since January of ‘16. I could not hide my surprise at this. If Mr. D really had been in love with the Duchess he did a very good job of hiding it. The Duke then asked if I had seen the Times announcement that Fitzwilliam Darcy was to be married to Lady ELIZABETH Villiers. 

I was v. v. shocked– cried that everyone know Colonel and Mrs. Fitzwilliam had been a true match!

The Duke said that they were, he knew this to be true, for he had obviously seen the Duchess’s mark, and he had called on her not an hour after her first husband died, and called on her frequently during her year of mourning. All that she felt and thought of, during that year of mourning, was what he had felt and thought following the loss of his soulmate. Mr. D had convinced himself into a misunderstanding.

I asked if he would he tell the Duchess of his suspicions, but the Duke thought not. She and Mr. D were only just now on good terms again, and Mr. D had clearly met his true match and gotten over such foolishness. Then the Duke laughed and said the Duchess probably would not believe him if he DID tell her of his theory. She had never picked up on the fact that Mr. D had liked her in '16. I teased the Duke that that had been because she had been to dazzled by HIS attentions and the Duke looked very smug about it and said again how fortunate he was to have secured the love of such a woman as the Duchess. He confessed to me that no one had ever loved him the way the Duchess does, and I think it clear that the Duke has never loved anyone as he does the Duchess. It is nice to see the Duke properly partnered at last. I only wish she could be brought to the Tories. With HER on our side, why, we should have control of the Commons within the year. 

[christophe76460]

19-690 Mme de Staël, vous avez tout ! https://soundcloud.com/jlgaillard/mme-de-stael-vous-avez-tout Madame de Staël est considérée comme une des importatrices du mouvement romantique en France, avec son défenseur et ami François René de Chateaubriand. Fille de Necker, la jeune femme reçut une excellente éducation et grandit au contact des grands noms de la vie intellectuelle française, ce qui fit d'elle une femme curieuse, libre et ambitieuse, animée par l'esprit des Lumières. Femme de lettres et écrivain, vivement opposé à Napoléon Ier, germain de Staël passèrent une grande partie de sa vie en exil, en Suisse notamment, où elle fonda le Groupe Decoppet. Une jeune fille de famille chrétienne, habitant à la campagne, eut l’occasion de lire les livres « Delphine » et « Corinne » écrits par Mme de Staël. À la suite de sa lecture, sa vie tranquille lui sembla insipide et vide. Elle trouva l’adresse de la romancière et lui écrivit pour lui proposer de devenir sa secrétaire. Son désir était de pouvoir suivre l’écrivain et de voyager avec elle. Un rendez-vous fut pris. Au cours de la rencontre, la jeune fille se jeta aux pieds de Mme de Staël en la suppliant de la prendre avec elle. Avec gentillesse et calme, la femme de lettres lui répondit : « Vous pensez que ma vie est enviable parce que je voyage dans l’Europe entière et que je visite les plus beaux salons, mais rien de tout cela ne peut remplacer un vrai foyer, une vraie famille. Vous avez une vraie famille, moi je voyage parce que je n’en ai pas. Vous avez un bon père, moi je n’en ai plus. Vous avez le calme, la tranquillité, je n’en ai pas du tout. N’enviez pas mon sort, retournez chez vous, appréciez tout votre bonheur à sa juste valeur, il est inestimable. » La jeune fille repartit chez elle, et les illusions qu’elle s’était faites à la lecture de ces livres disparurent. Dieu s’était servi de l’écrivain pour lui ouvrir les yeux. Aujourd’hui même, louons Dieu pour les nombreuses bénédictions inestimables qu’il nous a accordées et qu’il nous prodigue encore : pardon, paix, provision, famille, frères et sœurs. Ne cherchons pas auprès du monde notre bonheur, la Parole de Dieu nous dit dans Colossiens, 2 :10. « https://www.instagram.com/p/CiZ6uC-MrLp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dream-and-delirium]

Judy Chicago

Reincarnation Triptych: Mme. De Stael

1974

[macrolit]

Literary history that happened on 6 December

[morwensteelsheen]

lmao holy shit how did i not know that mme de stael’s father was jacques necker

[bretongirlwrites]

no idea if anyone here has read or cares about stendhal but:

fabrice is named after a stendhal character, and essentially takes after his namesake in that he is naive and spontaneous. he also takes a little after julien sorel in that respect, as i wrote into an empire fallen, which is essentially a lore-friendly le rouge et le noir. if you read it and think an idea in it is good, then that idea was probably stolen from stendhal. like the scene where elisif surreptitiously takes the dragonborn’s hand

and i’ve lately noticed that lunette is so remarkably similar to julien sorel that i’m astounded i never noticed it before. seducing someone who has power over her; then seducing the daughter of her patron; hating society but hypocritically wishing for power within it; and finding freedom in nature and simplicity but constantly rejecting it... HOW did i not notice

so much of my work lately has been influenced by stendhal that i said ‘smeg it’ and decided he straight up exists in my tes universe

[karlafrn412]

project finale

Germaine de Staël est née le 16 Avril 1766, à Paris. Pendant sa jeunesse, elle était proche de sa mère car son père travaillait comme ministre financier sous Louis XVI pendant l'Ancien régime. Dans ses écrits, c’est clair que Staël a beaucoup admiré son père et que ses idées politiques pour le peuple ont eu une grande influence pour elle. Comme ses parents étaient intellectuels, sa mère tenait un salon à Paris où Staël fréquentait souvent. Là, ils ont eu tant des “grands hommes” et les plus importants intellectuels de l'époque qui ont tous influencé est éduqué Staël depuis sa jeunesse. A vingt-ans elle s'est dû marrier le nouvel ambassadeur de la Suisse, le Baron de Staël Holstein. Enfin, elle n’a pas trop vécu avec lui, et a poursuivi les autres pendant son mariage.

Au début de la Révolution Française, elle voudrait avoir une monarchie constitutionelle, inspirée par celle qu’elle a vue en Angleterre. Même si elle était d’accord avec les républicains pour commencer, dès qu'il y avait de la violence, Staël a commencé a détesté la révolution. Née dans la décision de tuer Louis XVI et gravement Marie Antoinette, Staël a trouvé les atrocities avec ce mouvement. En grandissant dans la présence de la monarchie, Staël est devenu ami avec les royales. Selon elle, le roi et la reine n'étaient pas des personnes mauvaises et ils n’ont pas mérité une exécution. Après, elle a compris qu’il y aura une république en France alors qu’il n’y avait plus un roi. Pendant la terreur, Staël était une opposante de ce qu’elle a nommé “l’esprit du parti”. Selon Staël, les partis comme les jacobins et les autres chefs de la révolution, ils n'étaient pas les vrais républicains. Pendant la terreur, ils ont eu un contrôle sur la société si grave qu’elle a dû fuir au Suisse. La terreur de 1793 à 1794 crée une exhibition de l’esprit de parti que Staël décrit comme manquant la capacité de raisonner avec les autres qui n’ont pas les mêmes idées que vous. Les trois valeurs marquées par des lumières, “la liberté, la justice et l'égalité devant la loi” sont devenues les valeurs principales pour Stael. Avec l’esprit de parti et la terreur, l'opportunité de partager les opinions, discuter avec l’un a l’autre et d’apprendre n’existe plus, que la liberté d’expression et de la pensée n’existe plus. En utilisant la peur et l’ignorance, notre liberté est en danger. Après la terreur de la France, Napoléon obtient le pouvoir en France. Napoléon qui croyait que les hommes était plus intelligent que les femmes, et Staël qui voudrait l'égalité devant la loi n'avaient pas trop en commun. C’est à cause de Napoléon que Staël est passé un an, un ou Staël a manqué son pays, ses amis et sa famille pendant qu’elle pouvait seulement regarder la France et surtout son peuple soufre.

C’est incroyable et un peu effrayant la façon dont l’histoire se répète. L’une aspect qui partent vraiment a aujourd'hui c’est l'idée de l’esprit de parti. La même fanatisme et croyance qu’il n’y a rien sauf ce que vous croyez existe partout. Particulièrement ici aux Etats Unis, notre système de deux partis créer une compétition entre les deux, et promote les mensonges d’autres pour qu'ils puissent justifier leurs valeurs. Par exemple, le débat des masques est similaire au l'époque de Staël. Le fait qu’il y a un débat sur quelque chose si simple qui pouvait sauver les autres, mais on ne le veut pas le porter est un exemple de fanatisme. Parmi chaque écrit de Staël, il y a au moins un lien aux affaires modernes. Même si je n’ai jamais rencontré Mme. de Staël dans mes études avant ce semestre, elle sera toujours avec moi. La littérature et l'éducation du peuple sont importantes et je crois que Staël aimerait qu’elle puisse aider à enseigner les autres pour les années qui viennent.