She clearly delivered harangues and monologues more often than indulging in dialogue, but as Goodden notes, this was very much a fashion of the time. As a star turn at a society hostess's dinner table, she was supposed to perform to expectations. A contemporary wrote "Her subjects... were invectives against Napoleon, praise of Bernadotte, the state of Europe, and above all the happiness of Englishmen."
In the allied occupation of Paris after Waterloo, Goodden says that her influence was crucial in reducing the number of troops occupying Paris. And the hero of Waterloo, although often infuriated by her political efforts, was one of her most faithful visitors during her final illness in 1817.
She's quite a woman, and Goodden in The Dangerous Exile has focused on what for me are some of the most interesting elements of her life - the political ones. There's also quite a lot about her influential writings, both fiction and non-fiction, and mercifully no more than necessary about her men. So as an account, this suited me nicely, although it may well be that others would prefer another of the recent texts on de Staël: Goodden certainly assumes a fair knowledge of the period and the outline of her subject's life, making few concessions to the lay reader, although her text is mercifully short on jargon and analysis wrapped in fancy theoretical robes.
Article comments