1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456357803321

Autore

Winegarten Renee

Titolo

Germaine de Staël & Benjamin Constant [[electronic resource] ] : a dual biography / / Renee Winegarten

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2008

ISBN

0-300-17624-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (352 p.)

Disciplina

944.04092

Soggetti

Authors, French - 19th century

Intellectuals - France

Novelists, Swiss - 19th century

Women authors, French - 19th century

Women intellectuals - France

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (319-326) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1. A Chance Encounter -- 2. Prodigies -- 3. A Bold Throw -- 4. Enter the Hero -- 5. A New Order -- 6. Journey into the Unknown -- 7. Corinne and Adolphe -- 8. The Flight to Freedom -- 9. Reunion in Paris-and After -- 10. The Death of Corinne -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

When they first met in 1794, shortly after the Reign of Terror, Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant were both in their twenties, both married, and both outsiders. She was already celebrated and a published writer, whereas he, though ambitious, was unknown. This compelling dual biography tells the extraordinary story of their union and disunion, set against a European background of momentous events and dramatic social and cultural change. Renee Winegarten offers new perspectives on each of the protagonists, revealing their rare qualities and their all-too-human failings as well as the complex nature of their debt to one another. Their passionate and productive relationship endured on and off for seventeen years. Winegarten traces their story largely through their own words-letters and autobiographical writings-and illuminates the deep intellectual and visceral bond they shared



despite disparate personalities and gifts. Exploring their relationships with Napoleon and the Bourbons, their different responses to the momentous upheavals of postrevolutionary France, their support of individual liberty with order, and more, the book concludes with an appreciation of de Staël's and Constant's singular contributions to a new literature and to the history of liberty.