Napoleon's Women: The Life of Madame de Stael
In her lifetime, it was said there were three great powers in Europe: Britain, Russia and Madame de Staël. She was a political and literary intellectual giant in an age when women weren't expected to be either. She was also crucial in putting together the coalition that brought down Napoleon, most of the important treaty negotiations between Russia and Sweden against Napoleon were conducted through Madame de Staël. After Napoleon's fall, her salon in Paris was where the attempts at constitutional monarchy were framed. She was also an accomplished writer of novels ( Delphine, Corrine or Italy ), travel writing (her three volume work ‘On Germany’ was heralded at the time), pamphleteer (she wrote a spirited defense of Marie Antoinette) and literary critic ( On Literature ) who pretty much invented comparative literature. During the reign of terror, Germaine used her status as a Swiss citizen to save the lives of at least a dozen people. Unlike her contem...