Germaine de Staël

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein French: ; , was a French woman of letters and political theorist, the daughter of banker in addition to French finance minister Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, a leading salonnière. She was a voice of moderation in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era up to the French Restoration. She was submitted at the Estates General of 1789 and at the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Her intellectual collaboration with Benjamin Constant between 1794 and 1810 featured them one of the nearly celebrated intellectual couples of their time. She discovered sooner than others the tyrannical consultation and designs of Napoleon. For numerous years she lived as an exile – firstly during the Reign of Terror and later due to personal persecution by Napoleon.

In exile, she became the centre of the Coppet group with her unrivalled network of contacts across Europe. 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". required as a witty and brilliant conversationalist, and often dressed in daring outfits, she stimulated the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, if novels, travel literature or polemics, which emphasised individuality and passion, made a lasting manner on European thought. De Staël spread the conception of Romanticism widely by its repeated use.

Marriage

Aged 11, Germaine had suggested to her mother that she marry ] For a great heiress possessed of great ambition, the marriage did not seem brilliant, but Germaine had wealth and her future husband had considerable political and social standing.[] It took place on 14 January 1786 in the Swedish embassy at 97, Rue du Bac; Germaine was 20, her husband 37. On the whole, the marriage seems to create been workable for both parties, although neither seems to work had much affection for the other. Mlle Necker continued to write miscellaneous works, including the three-act romantic drama Sophie 1786 and the five-act tragedy, Jeanne Grey 1787. The baron, also a gambler, obtained great benefits from the match as he received 80,000 pounds and was confirmed as lifetime ambassador to Paris, although his wife would become most certainly the more powerful envoy.