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MADAME DE STAËL

(ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE NECKER, BARONNE DE STAËL-HOLSTEIN)

(1766-1817)

HE celebrated Necker, Minister of Finance under Louis XVI., did his best and most enduring work in the education of the daughter, who as "Madame de Staël » surpassed him in celebrity and in brilliancy. Born in Paris, April 22d, 1766, she passed her girlhood in her father's house at a time when it was frequented by some of the greatest men of the age. Buffon, Grimm, and Gibbon were among the early acquaintances who stimulated her intellect and encouraged her to effort. In 1788, two years after her marriage to the Swedish embassador, Baron de Staël-Holstein, she published her first notable essays under the title of "Letters on the Character and Writings of J. J. Rousseau." Her husband died in 1802, and for several years after his death she resided in Germany and Italy. Her celebrated novel, «Corinne,» appeared in 1807 and established for her the high place in French literature she is never likely to lose. The philosophical purpose of the book is too plainly apparent to allow it to become popular with lovers of the romantic in fiction. It illustrates the fact that Madame de Staël is in all her literary instincts the essayist rather than the novelist. She has as much difficulty in expressing herself through direct narration as such writers as Irving and Hawthorne have in refraining from constructing a plot for their essays. The tendency to philosophical reflection and speculation which shows in her novels showed in her conversation also. It was one of the causes no doubt which made Napoleon detest her. He lost no opportunity of making her uncomfortable, and in 1812 his enmity drove her from France. She visited Austria, Russia, Sweden, and England, during her exile, returning to France after the fall of Napoleon, and dying at Paris, July 14th, 1817. Among her best-known works are Germany," ‚» «Literature Considered in Its Relation to Social Institutions," "Considerations on the French Revolution,» «Dramatic Essays," and "Ten Years of Exile."

MADAME DE STAËL.

After the Portrait by Gérard.

ARON FRANÇOIS PASCAL GÉRARD, a noted French historical and portrait painter, was born in 1770; died January 11th, 1837. His portraits of Napoleon are highly valued.