Germaine de Staël

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GS is remembered primarily for her political activism and the salons she established following the French Revolution; history, politics, and culture were certainly among her frequent literary subjects. The same interests inform her highly successful and influential novels, some short stories and, less significantly, plays. Other writings include literary criticism and personal letters.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
81
Her anglophilia and her attention to English literature and culture gave her particular importance for British women writers.

Milestones

22 April 1766

Germaine Necker (later GS ) was born in Paris, her parents' only child.
Staël, Germaine de. Dix années d’exil. Treuttel and Würtz.
xv
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
117

1778

At the age of twelve, Germaine Necker, later GS , wrote a comedy, The Inconveniences of Parisian Life.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
117

January or February 1800

GS published her influential study De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales, which is credited with helping writers to move away from reliance on Greco-Latin models.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
54-5
Lonchamp, Frédéric-Charles. L’Œuvre Imprimé de Madame Germaine de Staël. Suisse.
25

October 1810

GS was set to publish De l'Allemagne (Germany) in Paris when Napoleon suppressed it because of its sympathy with nascent nationalist feeling in Germany; it waited three years for publication.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
69-70
Lessenich, Rolf. “Literary Views of English Rhine Romanticism 1760-1860”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
10
, No. 4, pp. 480-18.
490
Lonchamp, Frédéric-Charles. L’Œuvre Imprimé de Madame Germaine de Staël. Suisse.
55-61

October 1813

GS 's De l'Allemagne (Germany), a work on German culture and politics suppressed by Napoleon , was finally published by John Murray at London, from a copy of proofs which she had hidden.
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
69-70, 75
Lessenich, Rolf. “Literary Views of English Rhine Romanticism 1760-1860”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
10
, No. 4, pp. 480-18.
490
Campbell, Mary. Lady Morgan: The Life and Times of Sydney Owenson. Pandora.
138

14 July 1817

GS died in Paris at the age of fifty one; dozens of articles appeared about her in the British press that summer.
Staël, Germaine de. Dix années d’exil. Treuttel and Würtz.
xviii
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
80, 126
Gardiner, Ann T. “Germaine de Staël in the <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘j’>Times</span>, July 1817”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
11
, No. 2, pp. 223-34.
223ff

Biography

Birth and Family

22 April 1766

Germaine Necker (later GS ) was born in Paris, her parents' only child.
Staël, Germaine de. Dix années d’exil. Treuttel and Würtz.
xv
Winegarten, Renee. Mme de Staël. Berg.
117