Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael [Paperback]

J. Christopher Herold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2002 | Series: Grove Great Lives

J. Christopher Herold vigorously tells the story of the fierce Madame de Stael, revealing her courageous opposition to Napoleon, her whirlwind affairs with the great intellectuals of her day, and her idealistic rebellion against all that was cynical, tyrannical, and passionless. Germaine de Stael's father was Jacques Necker, the finance minister to Louis XVI, and her mother ran an influential literary-political salon in Paris. Always precocious, at nineteen Germaine married the Swedish ambassador to France, Eric Magnus Baron de Stael-Holstein, and in 1785 took over her mother's salon with great success. Germaine and de Stael lived most of their married life apart. She had many brilliant lovers. Talleyrand was the first, Narbonne, the minister of war, another; Benjamin Constant was her most significant and long-lasting one. She published several political and literary essays, including "A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations," which became one of the most important documents of European Romanticism. Her bold philosophical ideas, particularly those in "On Literature," caused feverish commotion in France and were quickly noticed by Napoleon, who saw her salon as a rallying point for the opposition. He eventually exiled her from France. This winner of the 1959 National Book Award is "excellent ... detailed, full of color, movement, great names, and lively incident" -- The New York Times "Mr. Herold's full-bodied biography is clear-eyed, intelligent, and written with abundant wit and zest." -- The Atlantic Monthly

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Grove expands its "Great Lives" series with these top-shelf biographies. Arvin's portrait of Melville snagged a National Book Award (NBA) in 1950 and is still a leading title on the sailor turned author. Germaine de Stael vigorously opposed Napoleon and had affairs with the leading intellectuals of her day, all of which are marvelously detailed in Herold's 1958 volume, which also won an NBA. Though not a prize winner, Turnbull's portrait of the short, unhappy life of Scott Fitzgerald was the leading biography of its time (1962) before being bested by Matthew Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur in 1981. All of these volumes are worthy editions to public and academic library collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Mr. Herold, as his fascinating pages abundantly testify, knows his subject exceedingly well: no simple feat.”–New York Herald Tribune --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (February 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802138373
• ISBN-13: 978-0802138378
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Female Unique, February 6, 2003

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael (Paperback)

I've always loved reading about European history, and several times over the years I've read about the famous salon of Madame de Stael. However, none of the books ever said anything except that it was a meeting place for the great intellects of the time and that Madame de Stael was a brilliant conversationalist. I wanted to know more about this woman, and was very happy to come across this biography by J. Christopher Herold. I just finished the book, and can say without hesitation that it's one of the best biographies I've ever read. It reads like a novel; indeed, Mr. Herold has the insight into character of a great novelist. Additionally, he writes well and is extremely witty. He is not blind to the faults of his subject. Actually, her faults probably outweighed her positive traits. She was remarkably selfish. Her needs were the only thing that mattered. Everyone had to be at her beck and call. She was also extremely manipulative. When one of her numerous lovers would threaten to break off with her she would threaten to kill herself or find some other way to make them so guilty that they would come back. She was fickle. She would write to one man and tell him that her life revolved around his love. Of course, at the same time she might be writing to two or three other men, telling them the same thing! Despite her reputation as a staunch foe of Napoleon, she could sometimes put her self-interest ahead of principle. She was willing to turn her head the other way and stop criticizing Napoleon when she thought that Bonaparte, as a quid pro quo, would be willing to repay some money that the government had owed her father. One of the difficulties in remaining open-minded concerning Madame de Stael's intellectual achievements is that her rather unruly and pathetic personal life tends to color one's judgement. At her home in Switzerland she surrounded herself with various intellectuals who were either past lovers, current lovers, or those hoping to be future lovers. The scenario played out like a Marx Brothers movie, with Madame de Stael as the Margaret Dumont character. Everyone lived in the same house, yet when it came to dealing with feelings rather than with intellectual topics everyone communicated by letter rather than by discussion. Everyone engaged in histrionics- there was much swooning and talk of suicide. One man, August Schlegel, in a letter which is reproduced in the book, promised to be Madame de Stael's willing slave. Some lovers, such as Benjamin Constant, would break free but when summoned by Germaine would crawl back like a whipped dog. The home of Madame de Stael was a bouillabaisse of the debased. One thing that Mr. Herold can never satisfactorily explain is how Germaine was able to exert this gravitational grip on the men in her orbit. Despite having flashing eyes and an ample bosom, she was not attractive. Mr. Herold tells us that she had superhuman energy and was a brilliant conversationalist. Perhaps that is where the problem lies......we can't be present at the conversations, and Madame de Stael lived in the days before radio and newsreels. But, somehow, she attracted the "best and the brightest" of her day, and that was enough to worry Napoleon and cause Germaine's exile from Paris. One amusing thing about Madame de Stael is that she was always tongue tied in Napoleon's presence. Mr. Herold relates a story concerning one time when Germaine was invited to attend a function where Napoleon would be present. She vowed she would be ready for the occasion and prepared answers for every possible question. Unfortunately, on the big night Napoleon took one look at her low-cut dress and merely remarked that is was obvious she must have "fed" her own children when they were babies. Alas, Germaine once again didn't know what to say. She did get her revenge years later when Napoleon's second wife gave birth to a male heir, the King of Rome. When asked to say something "nice", Germaine thought a moment and said, "I hope they find a good wetnurse!" Score one for Madame de Stael....

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Front Row Seats on the French Revolution, September 13, 2006

By 

Teresa Carpenter "cafe reader" (New York,NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael (Paperback)

Mistress to an Age is the lively and engrossing biography of Germaine de Stael, the French novelist and philosopher whose name is unfamiliar to most Americans. She was born, 1766, the only child of Jacque Necker, finance minister to Louis XVI. Author Christopher Herold gives a detailed a description of the Family Necker, whose ceaseless self-adulation made them their own best publicists. Necker and his wife were so obsessed with their own immortality that they arranged to be preserved in alcohol and laid to rest in a black marble basin in the family mausoleum. Germaine reputedly hated her mother and openly longed marry her widowed father. No morbid tension in this household.

Precociously intellectual and emotionally famished, the young Germaine agreed to marry a dull Swedish diplomat, Eric Magnus Stael von Holstein, and then proceeded to have affairs -- and periodically children -- with the intellectual elite of Europe. Her amours included Talleyrand and Benjamin Constant. In the process, she wrote Delphine and Corinne whose heroines revolted against the strictures of society. Above all, she exalted the "faculty of enthusiasm" in an age characterized by cynicism. Her most enduring work is De L'Allemagne which presaged the rise of modern Germany. Through Madame de Stael, Mistress to an Age tells the story of the The French Revolution (which she supported), the Great Terror (which she abhorred) and the rise of Napoleon, who was to become the chief antagonist of her later years. A National Book Award winner.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delight, August 30, 2008

By 

aproductofsociety - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael (Paperback)

Eminently readable and very entertaining. Herold tells the tale with great verve and truly brings to life the accomplishments, loves and travails of this extraordinary woman. One of my favorite books and a model of historical biography. Perhaps its delight stems from being more a psychological portrait of Germaine and Benjamin Constant. Whatever the cause, this book instructs and entertains with equal facility.