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Germaine de Stael?
1766-1817
A woman of exceptional gifts and talents, Germaine de Stael was one of the most remarkable women of letters in her own or any time. She wrote novels, plays, poetry, history, literary criticism, moral and political essays, and autobiographical memoirs. Her literary importance, however, is far exceeded by her importance in the history of ideas. Her precocious appetite for ideas on several subjects and her intellectual intensity represent her most outstanding qualities. Her unbounded enthusiasm and the intensity of her affections gave force and color to her rich and versatile character. Madame de Stael had a clear vision of wider issues and of the achievements of civilization and its cultures. Her involvement in the events of her time put her in a position from which to view and react to the events of the French Revolution and to affect the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. At the time of her death, she was the most important woman in Europe. |