Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine) Staël

Born Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker in Paris in 1766, Madame de Staël grew up in a world of politics and ideas. Her mother ran a famous salon, and her father, Jacques Necker, served as finance minister to Louis XVI. She became known not only as a writer but also as a powerful conversationalist whose circle drew major thinkers and public figures.

Her best-known books include the novels Delphine and Corinne, or Italy, along with De l’Allemagne, a major study of German literature and culture. She was an outspoken liberal voice during the upheavals of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, and her clashes with Napoleon led to periods of exile from Paris. From her base at Coppet in Switzerland, she helped shape a wide European network of writers and political thinkers.

What makes her memorable today is the way she joined feeling and intellect. Her work helped open the way to Romanticism, while her political writing defended liberty, constitutional government, and the moral value of independent thought. She died in 1817, but her influence continued well beyond her own time.