STAËL Anne-Louise Germaine Necker Lettres sur les ouvrages et le caractère de J.J. Rousseau.

Clouzot, 254; En français dans le texte, 222, note; Quérard, IX, 253. 

Born on 22 April 1766 in Paris, where she died on 14 July 1817. Germaine Necker grew up in an exceptional environment. Her father, a bourgeois Protestant from Geneva, built up a considerable fortune thanks to his brilliant business acumen. He rose to power in 1776 when Necker was appointed Director of Finance for France. His wife created a salon that quickly became one of the most popular in Paris. It was here that the latest Encyclopaedists, Diderot, d’Alembert, Buffon, Grimm and Meister, Mably, Raynal, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and others met. At the age of ten, Germaine was admitted to the salon, where she encountered the world of politics, the aristocracy and the ruling courts. She received a very careful education, learning English and Latin. Very different from the type of woman traditionally accepted by society at the time, she read and wrote a great deal, a point on which her father was soon surpassed by her daughter. The Neckers did not want a Catholic for a son-in-law and in 1786 Germaine Necker married Baron de Staël, ambassador of the King of Sweden to the French court.

A political liberal like her father, the Baroness in turn opened a salon where she welcomed young people who had fought in the American War of Independence and brought back new and generous ideas, which she enthusiastically embraced.

She then began to write a few texts that were never published: portraits of her parents and friends, short tragedies, etc. In 1788, a friend, unbeknownst to her, had around twenty copies of her first book printed, and her Lettres sur le caractère et les ouvrages de J.-J. Rousseau (Letters on the character and works of J.-J. Rousseau), a vibrant eulogy of the philosopher, was almost immediately republished, establishing her literary and intellectual reputation. Favourable to the Revolution and the ideals of 1789, Madame de Stael defended the idea of a constitutional monarchy, which, in 1791, led to her being considered a troublesome opponent. Despite her husband’s status as a diplomat, she was banned from entering France by Napoleon and had to take refuge several times in the family castle in Coppet, Switzerland.

One of three editions published under the date 1788, “fort rares toutes trois, sans qu’on ait pu déceler laquelle est la première”. (Clouzot).

Quérard, who was unaware of the existence of several editions with the same date, indicated that the volume “n’est tirée qu’à 20 exemplaires environ”.

A fine copy, as issued, entirely untrimmed.