Stael

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

stal, Madame de (1766-1817), a French author and one of the most celebrated women in all literature. She was the only child of Jacques Necker, Swiss minister of finance to Louis XVI . Her full name was Anne Louise Germaine Necker. At the age of twenty she married Baron de Stael-Holstein, the Swedish ambassador at the French court. He was much older than she and the marriage did not prove a happy one. After a few years the couple separated. As a child Madame de Stael showed a remarkably powerful intellect, which was stimulated and encouraged by the eminent scholars of the day, who gathered weekly in the Salon of Madame Necker. Her first work was Sophia, a comedy published in 1786. She attracted attention for the first time by the publication of a eulogy upon Rousseau. The Revolution aroused at first the profound sympathy of Madame de Stael, but a reaction of horror set in at its later enormities. She attempted to aid in a secret scheme for securing the royal family an opportunity to flee to England, wrote a powerful Defense of the Queen, and set forth her views concerning the Revolution in other writings. Madame de Stael continued to write and to take a constant interest in public affairs. In some way she incurred the enmity of Napoleon, perhaps because from the first she distrusted his designs. Napoleon appreciated evidently the force of her influence, for she was forbidden to live in Paris, and in 1802 was banished from France. About this time she published a work which added largely to her literary reputation, Literature Considered in Its Relation to Social Institutions. She traveled widely during the period of her banishment, and in 1813 published a work on Germany thought by many to be her greatest production. At the time of the Restoration she returned to Paris. Madame de Stael was the author of several novels. Among them Corinne and Delphine are perhaps the best known although they are now little read.