Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant - Dual Biography 2007940634, 9780300119251, 0300119259

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Renee Winegarten

Germaine I deStael ea

Constant

Germaine de Stael

& Benjamin Constant

A Dual Biography

RENEE WINEGARTEN

Yale University Press

New Haven and London

Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.

Copyright

© 2008 by Renee Winegarten. All rights reserved. This book may

not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form

(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright

Law and

except by reviewers for the public press),

without written permission from the publishers.

Designed by Mary Valencia. Set in Fournier type

by Keystone Typesetting,

Inc.

Printed in the United States of America by

R. R. Donnelley, Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007940634 ISBN-13: 978-0-300-11925-1

isbn-io: 0-300-11925-9

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper

in this

book meets

the guidelines for

Committee on Production Guidelines

for

permanence and durability of the

Book Longevity of the Council on

Library Resources.

10

987654321

Frontispiece: Benjamin Constant, pencil drawing

de Coppet [Suisse]);

Madame de

Stael,

from

by Firmin Massot

a pastel

(Coll, chateau

by Jean-Baptiste Isabey

(Musee du Louvre, Paris / Reunion des Musees Nationaux / Art Resource, NY)

,

To the memory of my husband, Asher IVinegarten

and my parents Sydney and Debbe Aarons ,

Thus piteously Love closed what he begat

The union of this

ever-diverse pair!

These two were rapid falcons

Condemned

to

do the

flitting

in a snare,

of the bat.

George Meredith, Modern Love

CONTENTS

Prologue

1

.

i

A Chance Encounter

2.

Prodigies

3.

A Bold Throw

67

4.

Enter the Hero

98

5.

A New

10. 6.

6

33

Order

125

Journey into the Unknown

and Adolphe

7.

Corinne

8.

The Flight

9.

Reunion

to

Freedom

in Paris

Epilogue

Notes

288

301

Bibliography

Index

327

180 218

— and After

The Death of Corinne

319

155

277

247

Prologue

On December

13, 1830, the

day

after

Benjamin Constant’s funeral, a

friend recalled the deceased’s extraordinary association with Ger-

maine de

Stael:

“You have not known

Mme

de Stael

at all,”

the historian Sismondi, “if you have not seen her with stant. all

to hers, he alone

her intelligence into play, to

their

that as

By means of a mind equal

make her grow more

at

Coppet.”

zling conversational jousts that took place Stael’s

all

those

home

close to Lake Geneva,

who were

most famous and

great through

spirit

and thought

in all their brilliance except opposite

he was never truly himself except

de

Benjamin Con-

had the power to put

combat, to awaken an eloquence, a depth of

were never manifest

1

The

and

at

Germaine

an indelible impression on

privileged to witness them. This

significant liaison

him, just

singular, daz-

between them,

left

declared

literary

was indeed the

and

political part-

nership before the union of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre in the twentieth century,

but

it

was more

fraught, fiery, and tem-

pestuous than theirs, and more closely and directly involved in positive action in the political arena.

The

relationship

ing, innovative,

between Germaine de

and notorious

Stael, the

woman writer of the

-H- 1 -«

most outstand-

age, and Benjamin

;

PROLOGUE

who would become known

Constant,

thinker and liberal politician, endured

from 1794

years,

as a highly important political

on and

with lingering repercussions up to her

until 1811,

death in 1817 and, indeed, after her demise. affair, a

close union of

minds and

of equals— an association of no their

own through

By

stormy love

was

sensibility

prized,

contrast,

Germaine was seen

activity,

as a lake

as a

sympathy, warmth of

whose waters were con-

Benjamin was regarded

as sharp-tongued,

even cold and withdrawn, yet beneath the surface he was

calculating,

often in turmoil, assailed

would

a

relevance to our era as well as

little

and enthusiasm; or perhaps

stantly ruffled.

embraced

and a formidable partnership

ideas,

whirlwind of boundless nervous energy, heart,

It

their devotion to the cause of liberty.

when

In an age

off for almost seventeen

by

lay claim to sensibility

a

when charged with

ambitious for fame, eager to live

winged chariot” hurrying diversions,

its

theaters

tryside and

its

pursuits,

mass of contradictory impulses. He

life

a lack of it.

to the fullest;

at their heels.

Both were

both heard “Time’s

She adored Paris and

its

and concerts, while he was fond of the counand liked to keep

a

dog by

his side; she

enjoyed

society and the variety of social intercourse, while he preferred soli-

tude and thought there was a barrier between people that prevented

them from ever

Added

really

to the

knowing each

other.

mixture of their interests, ambitions, and aspirations

were the dreams, obsessional needs, demands, and

instabilities

of “this

ever-di verse pair.” She, although disillusioned in her hopes for private

and public happiness, was ever she found

it

to

be with

in quest

la gloire

life

of ordinary domesticity.

would evoke

in her novel Corinne:

leading, he felt he

What

attracts

,

he, worldly yet indecisive,

between her exciting and demanding quiet

of le bonheur incompatible as

It

brilliance

and

his desire for a

was the dilemma

whichever

style

was torn

that

Germaine

of life Benjamin was

wanted the opposite. one person to another

is

often complicated, myste-

PROLOGUE and dependent on the moment:

rious to outsiders,

it

cannot be

tributed to a single element of passion or self-interest but

The

subtle melange.

at-

rather a

is

drama of Germaine and

strange and convoluted

Benjamin’s relationship was played out during a period of

momen-

tous upheavals and sudden changes.

They

were committed actors who had a role

in

what was taking place on the

into the challenging

world and new ideas of the

public stage.

Born

eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the

aspired to be and often

last

regime, they were both in their early twenties lution erupted in 1789.

and

their lives.

By

the Terror, they

when

the French Revo-

The Revolution would dominate

the time they

met

had each accumulated

a

their thoughts

long after the end of

in 1794, not

uncertain and unsafe their world was! lic

decades of the ancien

wealth of experience.

The

rise

of the First Repub-

and the precarious Directoire; the ascent of “the savior of the

Republic,” General Bonaparte; his transformation into the

Napoleon;

and

How

his

gle to

his

European wars;

Emperor

his increasingly authoritarian

regime

Corsican vendetta against Germaine; the long and bitter strug-

overthrow him,

in

which Germaine participated as eventually

did Benjamin before his volte-face; the double defeat of

Napoleon

and the double restoration of the Bourbon monarchy with the everencroaching forces of reaction— all

this

occurred within a mere twenty

years and inevitably affected the course of the relationship.

Unfortunately, sational encounters

it is

impossible to recover the tenor of the conver-

between Germaine, whose manner of talking was

regarded as exceptionally

brilliant,

and Benjamin,

whom some consid-

ered the greatest wit since Voltaire. Germaine’s father, the controversial

statesman Jacques Necker, was scarcely impartial, but his descrip-

tion of her as “a sort of phenomenon” nonetheless

of her

gift

conveys some idea

of improvisation as she passed rapidly from subtle ideas and

acute political reasoning to a tone of courtesy and gaiety. 2 All

knew

her, including

Benjamin, were agreed on

this point,

who

and many

PROLOGUE remarked on the kindly way she contrived present: she

was always eager

Her fascinating

talk

Benjamin when he

The numerous

met

letters

lost

or destroyed.

do not show the

many

letters

and

words— not always

to

is

would have

Of the very

told here.

number

in the best light.

feelings.

be taken

With

ments of members of

some

that survive,

Thus,

largely through their

it is

at face

value— that

which caused

comments, and judg-

the additional insights,

their intimate circle, the contours

a great stir

own

their intriguing

is

of their

rela-

Benjamin’s private

among leading writers when it was first

published toward the end of the nineteenth century, for this the

are

There remain, however,

tionship begin to emerge. Particularly invaluable diary,

many volumes,

filled

small

have

to

addressed to family and friends in which they con-

fided their thoughts

story

qualities that so captivated

Germaine and Benjamin are known

them

either of

many

her.

written to each other, which

mainly

the

who were

and encourage potential.

to recognize

was one of

first

to bring out those

most penetrating documents ever penned by

nated by himself and his innermost being, and

a

one of

is

man who was

who

noted

fasci-

down every

passing thought and feeling, no matter

how fleeting or contradictory it

might be. Some hints about the

may

liaison

also

be deduced from their

autobiographical writings and their fictional works, provided one prudently keeps in

same

as the

My

mind Proust’s dictum

everyday

debt to

Jasinski,

is

many

distinguished scholars

Germaine de

Stael

of course considerable.

whose monumental

not the

Benjamin edited by C.

P.

who have devoted themand Benjamin Constant,

Among them

is

edition of Germaine’s letters

nately cut short at the year 1809 with

at the

is

self.

selves to the study of respectively,

that the writing self

volume

Courtney, Dennis

6.

Beatrice

W

was unfortu-

The correspondence of

Wood, and

others remains,

time of this writing, incomplete. Otherwise the letters of both

writers are dispersed in various separate collections. Authorities

A

I

have

PROLOGUE consulted in the fields of literature, biography, history, politics, and the

acknowledged

history of ideas are gratefully

in the

Notes and the

Bibliography.

To venture

probe two major writers

to

genus

particular challenge because the literary

Many have discussed but hitherto, as far as as

an entity for

its

a

I

know,

own

about Germaine de

from the

the liaison

sake.

Stael,

it

is,

critic

a

of its nature, slippery.

side of one party or the other,

not at

who

all

unusual for some

favor her, to find

good word about Benjamin Constant— the

century

tandem presents

has not been extensively treated in depth

It is

and

in

Sainte-Beuve started

this trend.

it

who

write

difficult to utter

influential nineteenth-

Vice versa, some

who

are

impressed by Benjamin and his work take his side and cannot refrain

from blaming Germaine for

his

and misfortunes. Neither of them,

ills

whatever their genius, was a paragon of virtue, and their vagaries were all

the

more human

hand and

to treat

Through

for that.

Here

their

intellectual debt to

own words

it

to

dispassion.

should be possible to discover to

whom and in what way,

each other remains

many myths and

tion of their

an attempt, then, to keep an even

them both with equal

some degree who was indebted

years,

is

prejudices have

even

difficult to unravel.

become attached

if their

Over the

to the depic-

union and disunion. To try to remove some of the varnish

and over-painting from the double portrait of this extraordinary pair the

aim pursued

in the following pages.

is

CHAPTER ONE

A Chance Encounter

It

was “by chance,” Benjamin Constant was

met

for the

first

time a great celebrity. Filtering his

through that of the narrator of Cecile,

later to affirm, that

own

experience

his unfinished autobiographical novel

he described his encounter with “the most famous person of our

age through her writings and her conversation.

anything comparable.”

and Germaine de

1

I

had never seen

That encounter between Benjamin Constant daughter of Jacques Necker, the egregious

Stael,

former finance minister to Louis XVI, was to have an enduring ence on his life— as literary culture

make

the

stormy

first

on hers— and on

did

political thought. It

moves

relationship.

him even

it

and

advocates of “the

twined

he

in a strange,

The

new

tie

was Benjamin who would

mutually enriching, and ultimately

between these two

brilliant

and leaving

their

innovators and

names permanently en-

of posterity.

When they met for the first time, on September them was

European

ideas” lasted nearly seventeen years, marking

after her death

in the eyes

the course of

influ-

in the first flush

18, 1794, neither

of

of youth. She was born in Paris of Swiss

parentage on April 22, 1766; he was born in Lausanne of Swiss parent-

age on October 25, 1767.

They were both

in their late twenties, she

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

They were

being slightly the elder. attached. Both

neither inexperienced nor un-

were married.

excesses of the French Revolution could not be far from

The

anyone’s mind, for their

first

meeting took place about two months

of Robespierre and the end of the Terror in France.

after the fall

The occasion was

a social gathering at Montchoisi in Switzerland, the

pleasant country retreat of Benjamin’s cousin, Constance

d’Arlens, and her husband. Montchoisi outside Lausanne, overlooking gardens,

The autumn

air in that

Germaine had

pure.

full

on

a hillside just

meadows, and Lake Geneva.

region of the Canton of Vaud was balmy and

just

who had been

and had departed to

were

situated

come from

taking a sad farewell of her secret

handsome Swedish republican conspirator Count Adolph

lover, the

Ribbing,

was

Cazenove

involved in the plot to assassinate Gustavus

settle in

Denmark. At

that

moment

III

her thoughts

of Ribbing.

Germaine had been friendly with Constance Cazenove d’Arlens for

many

years and

never met their

why

first

the celebrated

among noted

knew

her cousin Rosalie de Constant, yet she had

cousin, Benjamin. Indeed, there

Germaine de

Stael,

was no reason

with her glittering connections

thinkers and writers of the Enlightenment as well as

among crowned heads

in

France and Sweden and the highest ranks

of the French aristocracy, should have been aware of Benjamin.

moved, living

as

it

were, on the fringes of her acquaintance and had been

abroad for several years

at the

Duke of Brunswick.

court of the

Mme

Benjamin, however, was certainly aware of before he met her, and he was not at after

hearing

was current

He

all

all

favorably inclined toward her

the malicious tittle-tattle about

in his family circle in

the 1780s, living ostensibly

de Stael even

Lausanne.

‘

7a

When

trop celebre ” that

he was in Paris in

under the guardianship of the eminent

writer and publisher Jean-Baptiste Suard,

who was

friend of the Neckers

he could easily have been

and

their daughter,

a long-standing

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER presented to her. Benjamin’s adventurous cousin, Charles de Constant,

known was

“Chinese Constant” because of

as

same time, and he took the opportunity

in Paris at the

new

in her

his travels to the Far East,

to visit her

salon on several occasions. But Charles had been bored

there, feeling that

nobody took much

among

notice of him

and he made adverse comments about

Mme

de

Stael,

the crowd,

although he

admitted that she had spoken kindly to him. Perhaps Charles’s disgruntled view of her as a pedantic parvenue dissuaded Benjamin from

attempting to meet her. In 1793, a year before the fateful encounter

with Germaine, Benjamin roundly declared that he was not interested in the lady: “I shall not

know what

to say to

be running

after

Mme

someone who does not

de Staehl

interest

[jzc]. I

me.” In a separate

statement, he reaffirmed his total indifference: “I have not seen

nor

Stael,

am

While

in Paris, early in 1787,

warm

Mme

Mme de

curious about her.” 2

I

Benjamin had met and had

under the influence of the embittered Dutch-born novelist Zuylen,

do not

de Charriere, familiarly

known

Isabelle

de

was

a

young man and

a

as Belle. Theirs

platonic relationship between an ambitious

fallen

distinguished female author twice his age. Belle, the author of Caliste, a novel that

Germaine deeply admired, did not care

When,

her writings. Belle’s

home,

work, Belle

a

in

August 1793, Germaine

manor house

at

her story “Zulma,” or her essay on the

Stael,

which she found

ill

Germaine or

called in person at

Colombier, and lavished praise on her

Benjamin know that she had

let

for

little

trial

esteem for

Mme

de

of Marie Antoinette,

written and inappropriate. Benjamin shared Belle’s

poor opinion of Germaine’s apology for the unfortunate queen, considering

it

at the

affected

when

it

should have been moving, and he said nothing

time to counter Belle’s snide remarks about Germaine.

aristocratic

Mme de

Charriere was impressed by Germaine’s powers of

speech, seduced and

charm did not

last.

The

charmed by her amiable manner,

According

to Belle, later

8

but, she said, the

remembering Germaine’s

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER visit,

on

there her caller was, “priding herself on her wit as if she had none,

titled friends as if

dressmaker’s, and

on

M. de

but

it

some

Paris society like

spent only six weeks there. to,

had picked her up yesterday

Stael

would be madness

.

She

.

.

is

want

to

woman who

a

to

provincial female is

at a

who had

pleasant to listen

have any closer connection with

her than with Mole [Jean-Fran^is Mole, a well-known actor at the

Comedie Fra^aise] when he role possible.

No

is

reality is to

playing brilliantly the most attractive

be found there.

We

3 ourselves recalling her together.” All the same, Belle

felt that it

high time Benjamin met her. Indeed, she urged him to see as “a curiosity.”

was

Mme de Stael

She had no idea of the tremendous impression that the

and breathing Germaine would make on him.

living

A

rude awakening was in store for Belle, however, as she was

about to see herself supplanted by another. after his first his

amuse

shall often

new

Geneva.

excitedly.

September 26, a week

meeting with Germaine, Benjamin decided to

acquaintance

“My

On

trip to

at

her family mansion

at

Coppet,

call

just outside

Coppet was pretty successful,” he informed

Not having found Germaine

at

on

home, he galloped

Belle

after her,

caught up with her carriage, and was invited to join her. “I settled

myself in her carriage, and traveled here with her from Nyon, supped, I

saw

that

you

breakfasted, dined, supped, breakfasted again with her, so that

her very closely and, above

all,

heard her.

It

seems to

me

judge her very severely,” he told Belle. “I believe her to be very energetic, very imprudent, very talkative, but also kind, trusting

confiding in others in talking

tance

machine

who

is

good

faith.

One proof

that she

is

and

not solely a

the lively interest she takes in those of her acquain-

are suffering.”

4

He

cited as

an example of Germaine’s hu-

manitarian instincts how, after three vain and costly attempts, she had

succeeded in rescuing a

woman who

the Revolution in France. This

was

detested her from the prisons of in all likelihood

Laval, erstwhile mistress of Germaine’s former lover,

vicomtesse de

comte Louis de

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER Narbonne. Benjamin did not yet

maneuvers

now

of Germaine’s secret

realize the extent

to rescue her friends

and acquaintances and support them

that they

were refugees.

He went

on, trying to convince Belle that Germaine’s positive

qualities

had been overlooked,

And

believe her to be

so

I

As

that she lacks reality.”

more than

quotes great aristocrats

and

a Mole,

like a

I

am

not convinced

however, he echoed

a concession to Belle,

“What you

part of her criticism:

energy “to do good.

that she used her

say of her absurdities

is

newly arrived parvenue, and,

she talks of Parisian society like a

woman from

true.

She

you

say,

as

the provinces. But

I

do

not think that she prides herself on her wit. She feels that she has a

good

deal of

it,

she has a great need to talk, to confide in others,

recognizing neither limit nor prudence. That

is

perhaps the source of

what you hold against

is

founded. She praises

people too in

much because

retraces her steps. significantly, “I is

It

am

your reproach

she wants to please them in order to confide

When

them unreservedly.

she

her, if

they are no longer there she naturally

cannot really be called a betrayal.”

far

from thinking about

surrounded by too much company, she

occupied; but this

is

a relationship is

added,

because

too active, too pre-

most interesting acquaintance

the

He

I

have made

in a

long time .” 5 The idea of a relationship, then, had already crossed his

mind only

a

few days

after

meeting

What Germaine and Benjamin

her.

discussed during their succession

of breakfasts, dinners, and suppers telling item: the

freedom of the

Germaine expressed surprise derniere quinqaine,

is

not known, apart from one

press. In Benjamin’s account to Belle,

that a certain paper,

Le Tableau de

la

had not been closed down. She and her beloved

father, Jacques Necker,

had been badly treated

in her eyes, this journal

in its pages.

Worse

still

favored her bete noire, Robespierre, and the

Jacobin Terror, which she excoriated. Nonetheless, Benjamin spoke up for the unrestricted

freedom of the press— it was indeed one of his

I

O *** 1 2-M™

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

And what

Mme de

did

of Benjamin Constant,

Stael think

who had were

so rapidly fitted into her brilliant intimate circle? For her, looks

man who had

important. She saw a

tall,

damaged

through too much reading by candlelight and

his eyesight

willowy, slightly stooping

whose appearance struck her

as distinctly unprepossessing.

Some even

thought him downright ugly, as did Belle after they had grown distant.

from the

All the same,

start,

Germaine considered

his intellect so

remarkable that she fully expected him to be a great liberal philosopher, a second Montesquieu, a talent capable of producing a to

work

akin

The Spirit of the Laws.

found here

“I

this

evening,” she wrote to her distant beloved

Count Adolph Ribbing from Montchoisi on September her fateful meeting with Benjamin, “a

jamin Constant ligent.”

9

.

.

.

In short, in

she wanted to

man

18, the

day of

of great wit called Ben-

not very good looking, but exceptionally intel-

modern

make

parlance, Benjamin

clear. Besides,

was not her

type, as

Germaine was not unattached;

Benjamin had joined a sort of imbroglio that involved the recent arrival in Switzerland

of her former

idol,

Louis de Narbonne, and the

departure of her present idol, Adolph Ribbing. Germaine always fa-

vored good looks, preferably associated with high birth and physical courage, such as she had found in the comte de Narbonne, a dazzling figure in pre-Revolutionary society, or in the dashing

By October must

tell

8,

you

Count Ribbing.

she was informing Ribbing that she had a that

new

suitor: “I

M. Benjamin Constant, gentleman attached

court of His Highness the

Duke of Brunswick,

to the

twenty-six years old

and outstandingly ugly, has fallen in love with your Minette [Germaine’s pet

keep his to

my

name among her

letters for

family and intimate friends].

you and hide

his face,

which would add

We

little

shall

merit

sublime indifference.” 10 So Germaine, unlike Benjamin, was not

launching into raptures. She wanted Ribbing, an infrequent correspondent, to

know

that

someone

else

valued her love, but that he had no

I

^

-< A*

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER and that she was utterly indifferent to Benjamin’s attempts to pay

rival

court to her. Although the letters from Benjamin to which she refers are lost,

some

idea of their tenor can be gleaned from the wild and

Anna Lindsay and

desperate tone of those he later addressed to

Juliette

Recamier.

During the months

grew

in intensity.

that followed, Benjamin’s frustrated passion

Germaine had only

bing’s portrait for Benjamin to

was renting

at

found straightening Rib-

to be

From

a faint.

fall in

the mansion she

Mezery, she wrote to Ribbing with a touch of coquetry:

M. Constant, of

whom

ceived a passion for

me

door and overwhelms

have already spoken,

I

that

me

is

beyond

with so

think, has con-

I

description, he

much misery

that

him of his one charm— a very superior mind— and kind of compassion that both wearies

me and

Adolph perhaps never, never loved me so

is at it

deprives

me a me that my

inflicts

reminds

death’s

on

deeply. If you hear that

M. Constant, gentleman attached to the court of His Highness the

Duke of Brunswick, aged twenty-seven,

as red haired as

members

of the royal house of Hanover, has killed himself at Bois de Cery,

which he has in

my

just rented in

order to spend his

courtyard, do not believe that

praised

him

draft of the

for his

work

entitled

immense study

that

The

it is

my

Spirit

was not

to

life in

my garden or

fault.

I

have truly

of Religions [an early

be published until

many

years later] which really reveals a talent comparable to that of

Montesquieu; and forgetting entirely that his appearance

is

an

invincible obstacle even for a heart not already yours, he has

completely

At

lost his senses.

that time

11

many enjoyed and were thoroughly

famous scenes and characters

in

dramas

that

familiar with the

were performed not only

in theaters but also in the great

houses of the nobility or the private

homes of the well-to-do

Germaine loved the

literati.

theater:

from the

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER age of twelve she had written plays and acted in them.

A famous actress,

Mile Clairon, had taught her diction and declamation. Indeed, although

he could not

know

it,

these desperate scenes of Benjamin’s echoed the

impassioned pleas of Germaine’s

letters to

threatened to take poison for death beloved. Benjamin

was pursuing

Narbonne,

was preferable

in

which she

to life without her

a dramatic strategy frequently

ployed in French classical tragedy where the hero

persuade the

tries to

heroine to yield by arousing her pity with his readiness to die. imitating heroic Rodrigue in Corneille’s Le Cid, whereas

imitated

abandoned Hermione

in Racine’s

em-

He was

Germaine had

Andromaque.

Benjamin’s scenes, moreover, were being played out while nu-

merous

guests, refugees

from the Terror, sheltered under Germaine’s

by

protection at Mezery, a large, isolated estate surrounded

comprised two country houses or mansions, one with a

trees that

fine terrace

and

views over the mountains of the Jura. Germaine had settled there with her friends, aristocrats

who

included representatives of reform, moderate French

who had

resigned their privileges at the beginning of the

Revolution, and supporters of constitutional monarchy.

were now her former lover Narbonne,

who was

public eye; his past and future mistress,

Mme

still

Among them

her lover in the

de Laval; and her son,

Germaine’s faithful friend, Mathieu de Montmorency. In addition there

were many distinguished

who came

visitors, notabilities, savants,

am

to dinner or to stay. “I

and neighbors

living with the surviving ruins of

France,” said one of these visitors, the liberal magistrate CharlesVictor de Bonstetten, as he hastened to enjoy their society before, so he

presumed, It

friend

it

disappeared forever

was not

until late

12 .

October that Germaine

finally told

her dear

Mathieu de Montmorency about her secret preference for Rib-

bing, doubtless without confessing that she had been his mistress.

Once again she tered

related to the absent Ribbing

how

she had been shat-

by the manifest despair of Benjamin, “who wanted

•»->— 15-

to

move me

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

by some that

reminding

tragic scene or other, while

me

of what

is

obvious,

M. de Narbonne’s moodiness wearies and annoys me.” She

ported

how

she had told Benjamin roundly that she loved the best of

men and hoped

to

devote her

him

talk

of love.

.

.

.

to him.

life

outbursts that this remark elicited. sick to hear

re-

.

.

.

Maybe

Today

“I shall spare I

acted wrongly but

do not even want

I

you the

by another.” 15 She remained obsessed with Ribbing and

to

I

felt

be loved

fully intended

to stay loyal to him.

And

so

it

went on throughout the winter of 1794—1795 and

the spring of 1795. Ribbing, letters,

who

into

replied rarely to her long, loving

was informed, “M. Constant, from

whom

distance myself,

I

writes five letters a day to me.” 14 Kept at a distance or not, Benjamin

was accepted

as a trusted

member of her

1794 he accompanied her on a short

who

liked him.

By December,

entourage, for in

visit to

pity.

was

ill

a

very ready wit but

especially since this unfortunate love

Benjamin sought

to oblige her in

to his protector in

is

it

is

me moves me to

painful to look at him,

killing

him.” 15 Meanwhile,

any way he could; for example, he

Brunswick

to try to obtain a post there for

of her learned proteges. In January 1795 he was

Benjamin Constant,” always

who

health and nervous de-

“falling into a consumption. His passion for

... He has

wrote

to see her father,

she was reporting that Benjamin,

had indeed long suffered from periods of bility,

Coppet

November

still

one

“that unfortunate

in attendance, staying in

her house

at

Mezery, being admitted to her room, and being shown the door whenever his frenzy was

deemed

excessive.

At the same time, Germaine

herself was close to despair. For a very long while she

went on harbor-

ing delusions: that Ribbing would soon return to Switzerland; that

they would find a secluded country retreat there; that he would accom-

pany her

to

France where, since divorce was

now

permitted under the

revolutionary law of 1792, they could rid themselves of their respective

spouses and finally marry.

They would

live

happily ever

after,

and she

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

would be Countess Ribbing instead of baronne de mained deaf to her wild schemes and

Ribbing

Stael.

fantasies.

Benjamin’s “scenes” continued to wear Germaine

down with their

where— as he had discovered— she was

appeal to her compassion,

most vulnerable. She recognized the element of manipulation conduct, but she was

re-

moved

all

the same. In one sense she

felt

in his

sorry for

him; in another she doubted his sincerity. In March she wrote to

Ribbing that he “smashes his head against

beg him

to leave

my

my

chimney-piece when

I

room.” 16 This procedure of Benjamin’s was not

new: he had employed similar “acts of theatrical frenzy,” as he would call

them,

when he was

eighteen and courting the wife of an English

diplomat, Mrs. Harriet Trevor, a coquette in her thirties.

It

was how he

thought a lover ought to behave. Such was his display of violent despair with Mrs. Trevor that

it

reduced him to “a sort of fever that

more or

less

resembled the passion

There

I

was

rolling

wall.”

And

all

By deemed

had only wished

on the ground and

he gained was “a

remembered with

I

kiss

striking

ultimately settled for

.

.

lips,”

he

1

what with her struggles with Benjamin,

intelligent but

.

head against the

on somewhat faded

characteristic self-mockery.

the spring,

my

to pretend.

whom

she

“mad,” and her quarrels with Narbonne, who

Mme de Laval,

Germaine was yearning to escape.

But Benjamin’s banging his head on the fireplace was the least of the

drama.

One night at Mezery in March

1795 loud cries and groans could

who

be heard coming from Benjamin’s room: the servants

were sure that he was lying critic

at death’s door.

entered

He had consumed what the

Sainte-Beuve would qualify as “the Coppet dose” of opium. His

one wish was to take

a

fond farewell of his beloved before passing to a

better world.

This was by no means Benjamin’s

first

attempt

unsuccessful lover. At the age of nineteen he had tried

at suicide as it

extravagant court to sixteen-year-old Jenny Pourrat, to

an

when paying

whom

he had

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER written to propose an elopement although she was contentedly be-

trothed to another. to her in

He was

so shy that he had barely addressed a

person about the passion he thought he

me

had with

a little bottle

of opium,” he

least

urge to do

enough of

believing

so. ... I

to

it

at

it,

swallowed

it

I

wanted

my opium.

do me much harm.” The

I

to kill

down

although deep

happened,

I

expounding

later recalled,

with typical irony. “I endlessly repeated that

and almost arrived

“As

felt.

word

I

myself

had not the

do not think there was astonished mother,

girl’s

deeply worried, plied him with antidotes, and he soon recovered. Then sensible Mile Pourrat appeared, dressed for the Opera:

1787, the to join affair,

first

my poisoning concluded with

The scene enacted also

at

Mezery

was June

should be tragicomic in

all

8,

Mme Pourrat invited him

night of Beaumarchais’s Tarare.

them, he accepted, “and so that

it

an evening

at the

this

Opera.” 18

when he was twenty-seven

in 1795

belonged to the realm of tragicomedy. Unfortunately, Benjamin

himself omitted to leave an account of this particular attempted suicide in his

customary self-mocking style.

of the Coppet

conveyed with

who

Norvins, published

circle, the

relish

agronomist Frederic Lullin de Chateauvieux,

what he saw and heard

consigned

many

An eyewitness who was an habitue

years

it

later.

to the

diplomat Jacques de

with equal amusement to his Memorial

,

Having awakened most of the household

with his groans, the moribund Benjamin managed to speak to Germaine’s girlhood friend, Catherine Huber,

who

arrived with Chateauvieux:

her sake. ... In the

hear

my

there

her once more.” Roused by to exclaim, “It

is

“Oh! Madame,

name of one who

last farewell, if

is

is

let

and death,

who were

when

she arrived there. “Wretched man!

cried,

and called for

I

staying at Mezery were by

a doctor.

me

Rilliet-Huber,

those

tell

8

I

am dying

for

come and

die after having seen

Germaine was moved

am coming with you.” now

in

Benjamin’s

it

was time

to

All

room

What have you done?”

Benjamin sensed that

]

her

Rilliet-Huber,

dying, beg her to

time, and

Mme

a matter of life

now Mme

she

come

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER back to life

life.

“Oh!

It is

you,

it is

you,” he whispered. “You recall

for an instant.” “Live, live, dear

Monsieur Constant,

urged Germaine. “Since you

command

mured Benjamin,

hand and implanting on

seizing her

The following day

Mme

it,

I

nothing can overcome.” 19 In the end the two

The houseguests, gathered amused or

ironic.

does nothing but disturb

scene,

after-

women

this

man

that

could not help

life.

to witness Benjamin’s demise,

were

Her increasingly devout friend Mathieu de Mont-

morency could not conceal

suicide should be

how

in scented water, con-

have a physical antipathy to

Benjamin’s rapid return to

mur-

a long kiss.

Rilliet-Huber told Chateauvieux

fessing to her friend, “I feel

at

it

to

beg you,”

shall try to live,”

I

ward Germaine washed her hand thoroughly

laughing

I

me

his aristocratic disgust:

this

household and

who

“This fellow

dishonors

it

who

with a

thrown out of the window.” 20 Details of the bizarre

which conforms to the pattern of Benjamin’s previous attempt

to kill himself for unrequited love, spread outside the intimate circle.

“When you

play jokes of that sort, you should die of it, for the honor

of the lady,” an acquaintance of Germaine’s, General de Montesquiou,

remarked acidly to the novelist In spite of his efforts,

Mme de Montolieu.

21

Benjamin did not yet win the day. But

“services” to Germaine, his willingness to run her errands and

bidding, earned

him

a place as a

most cherished friend and

Thus, he simply continued in his patient pursuit.

What

his

do her escort.

ultimately

allowed him to succeed— apart from his dogged persistence— was not so

much

his utter

his oft-displayed suffering

and

his

melodramatic excesses but

devotion in obliging her in every possible way.

He was

also

helped by some news that came in January or February 1796: that Ribbing, on arriving in Paris armed with Germaine’s letters of intro-

duction to the

all

her associates in

le

grand monde , had attached himself to

famous beauty Pulcherie de Valence, who, Germaine claimed

dignantly,

was nothing but

a

woman

of easy virtue. This was the

>>-19-^

in-

final

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

blow

to

Germaine’s hopes for perfect

with her idealized but

bliss

recalcitrant lover.

In the spring of the previous year, well aware that she

hold of Ribbing

elusive Swede, “It

me, those

is

do love

I

had

just as she

lost

a spell cast

cast

me

on

was losing

hold of Narbonne, she had told the

my life:

aside. ...

I

those

I

do not love cling

to

have had troubles enough with

the dreadful scenes of death and illness that Benjamin Constant has

performed for

when one

is

my benefit.

It is

cruel to

oneself so unhappy.” 22

make someone

The “oneself”

else also suffer,

in this instance

Germaine, and these words indicate her growing reluctance

is

remain

to

the source of Benjamin’s misery, even though she patently did not feel for to

him what she

felt

for Ribbing.

be loved, and without

this

For her, the main charm

warmth everything seemed

in life

was

hateful. After

Ribbing’s betrayal she was on the rebound. Her infatuation with the studious journalist Francis de Pange, a friend of the lyric poet

Chenier (who perished

when still

in the last

days of the Terror), came to nothing

she learned that he was about to be married. But Benjamin was

there,

still

in attendance, to console her.

Finally, after a pursuit that lasted

some eighteen months, Benjamin

triumphed over Germaine’s physical antipathy. Everyone

them

Andre

who knew

from Germaine’s perceptive cousin Albertine Necker de

well,

Saussure to their mutual friend, the ravishing beauty Juliette Recamier,

agreed that

Love

takes

it

was

a

meeting of minds. But was

many forms.

it

love?

Certainly, their sensibilities

Who

can say?

were attuned; they

both shared the same morbid dread of death, the same delectation inclination to melancholy. Benjamin

suffering, the

same

his triumph,

which presumably occurred sometime

was

in

ecstatic at

in the spring

of

1796 and which far exceeded any of his previous— or later— triumphs.

The woman he was

to call “the

most famous person of our age through

her conversation and her writings” was his secret of their affair. Benjamin’s

name was

20

at last.

They made no

constantly on her

lips.

He

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER touched her neck affectionately and called her his

enough

to raise

eyebrows

kitten.

little

was

It

in straightlaced Swiss society.

What of their spouses? The union of Germaine Necker with

Eric

Magnus de

Holstein,

which took place when Germaine’s father was

for her in

some

proved a great

respects a last resort and a marriage of convenience.

if

anticipated disappointment. She

said that she married Paris

and he married her

Neckers were faithful Protestants, and in Catholic France,

it

was not

in love

year-old Germaine

by seventeen

much

teen to

was married years.

Most

girls

citizens

On January

to her

it

Swedish

It

with

has been

father’s millions.

was not easy

where Protestant

toward the end of the previous century.

elder

was

in office,

him, nor he with her. She did not want to leave France, and

match

Stael-

The

to find a suitable

had been expelled 14, 1786,

nineteen-

who was

suitor,

of her day were married

her

at six-

older men, marriage being largely a matter of status,

money, and property. In her

case,

however, there had been not only the

long search for an acceptable Protestant spouse of some standing but also protracted negotiations

crown concerning

a

ceremony took place du Bac. Louis

It

all

so

in the chapel

at court,

accounts Stael was neither a brilliant intellect nor a

that he

A

young Hanoverian

utterly

is all

where

Stael’s secretary at the

the

more

devoted to him.

telling

He

because

man

of

doctor, Erich Bollmann, had

“would not be capable of inventing

The testimony of Jacobsson,

The

of the Swedish embassy in the rue

cruel fun at his expense: he claimed that Germaine’s

dim

Stael.

Marie Antoinette received her graciously.

exceptional talent.

some

and the Paris embassy for M. de

was followed by Germaine’s presentation

XVI and

By

title

between Jacques Necker and the Swedish

it

husband was

a dish of potatoes.”

23

Swedish embassy, Nils von

comes from

a

man who was

painted an unvarnished picture of Ger-

maine’s husband. Stael, he wrote candidly in his private diary, was not

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER of high birth, was not well educated, and had no money. figure,

though, and he had a

Swedish court career.

felt that

way with

the ladies. True,

He

cut a fine

many

at the

he lacked the essential qualities for a diplomatic

For instance, he could not write with ease and elegance. But he

spoke persuasively and inspired

trust.

In society at Versailles, said

Jacobsson, he acquired “a certain tact” that concealed his ignorance

and

manner

a pleasing

that imitated the tone of the salons

and passed

for intelligence. It

was another matter

entirely

when he found himself

in

Ger-

maine’s circle of wits, intellectuals, and savants. There, observed his secretary,

my

he was thoroughly out of place. “In

opinion,” noted

Jacobsson, “this marriage caused his misfortune, because of the utter disparity in intellect and feeling

tinued,

“Here

a

is

man who,

command

between husband and wife.” He conprobably aspired to nothing

at twenty,

more than

the

thirty-five,

he marries the wealthiest heiress

man

of an infantry regiment.

of the age, so to speak,

who

moment

it is

.

Ambassador

.

at

daughter of the

in France,

inspired such popular enthusiasm that

he was placed above the greatest ministers of the her and from that

.

downhill

all

the

past. ...

way.” 24

It is

He

marries

a devastat-

ing picture of plausible mediocrity.

As control.

for his finances, Stael

According

was never

to Jacobsson,

able to keep

he had very large debts when he

married, which his father-in-law Necker promised to

were

financial affairs

like a

sack with a hole in

purse the whole of Necker’s fortune

from ending

in ruin .”

but he did not

like

25

them under

it

it,

and

settle.

“if

he had in

His wife became his only resource and support,

having to appeal to her generosity any more than

time Benjamin Constant encountered

Mme

living virtually separate lives.

his mistress, the

his

would not have prevented him

she was pleased to have to deal with his constant indebtedness.

band were

But his

famous

de

Stael, she

M. de

Stael

By

the

and her hus-

was attached

to

actress Mile Clairon, considerably his senior,

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

who had very a kind

of

from love

expensive

Mme de

tastes.

flirtatious friendship that

(as the

French

call

it

Stael

pursued her fondness for

was often barely distinguishable

so succinctly, amide amoureuse) with a

succession of attractive men. Being financially independent meant that she could live

more or

engagement

had been obvious both

Stael

was

it

less as

cold, lacking in

she wished.

From

to her father

and to herself that

temperament, unlikely to inspire the enthusi-

asm and passionate love she sought— and found she found, in

the beginning of her

for a while, or thought

Narbonne and Ribbing. Benjamin’s

insistence

which had long

the part of the poet or sensitive soul dying of love,

been a feature of the

literature

on playing

and music that delighted her, surely

contributed in part to arouse her imaginative sympathy for him.

Whereas Germaine’s marriage had been

a matter of

pean diplomacy over several years, Benjamin’s union the age of twenty-one, reflection.

in

slow Euro-

May

1789, at

was undertaken on impulse, without deep

He saw marriage

as a panacea, a solution to his problems,

such as his intense boredom

at the petty court.

His bride was Wil-

helmina von

Cramm,

and

his elder

by nine

the

match between her protegee and the duke’s young chamberlain.

The couple gave often spoke of

lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Brunswick

years.

The duchess appears

the impression of being quite

“my Minna,” and

duce her to his family. To his

to

happy

have encouraged

at first.

Benjamin

he brought her to Lausanne to intro-

relief she

met with

their approval.

marriage was soon on the rocks. Minna was thoroughly

at

But the

home

in

court ceremonial and intrigue, whereas Benjamin, rebellious and full

of contempt for such

trivialities,

was

not.

She had no interest what-

soever in his learned pursuits, and she was doubtless as shocked as other

members of

the conservative

behavior, his boldness in speaking his

ill

German

court by his eccentric

of a number of its dignitaries, and

unconcealed sympathy for the French Revolution.

By February 1794 Benjamin and Minna were

separated.

He

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER discovered that Minna had taken a lover, a Russian prince, and that she

was expecting behaving

a child he

in a chivalrous

knew was

not

manner by taking

He sued

his. all

for divorce,

the blame and, in conse-

quence, further blackening his reputation with the duke and duchess

and most of

their courtiers.

But Benjamin did not lack consolation.

Apart from the prostitutes he knew from his youth, there was a young actress

named Caroline and

also the unhappily married Charlotte

von

Marenholz (nee von Hardenberg).

When choisi, tress.

ber

Benjamin Constant encountered

however, he forgot everyone

else,

Mme

de Stael

Benjamin was

Mont-

including Charlotte, his mis-

His divorce would not become legal until a year

18, 1795; after that,

at

on Novem-

later,

and able

to

and subject

to

in effect a free agent

remarry. Germaine, on the other hand, was

still

endless gossip. She largely behaved in private as

if

tied,

she were free, while

being seen in public as the notorious wife of the Swedish ambassador, a

some protection

position that had afforded her

in difficult political

circumstances during the Revolution. This status as sadrice was, perhaps, the

madame Uambas-

main advantage of her union with

She had given Stael a daughter, Gustavine,

who

Stael.

unfortunately

died in infancy in April 1789. Her two sons, Auguste and Albert, bore

her husband’s name, but they were in fact the offspring of Narbonne,

With

as she declared in her letters to him.

ciance, he appears to have taken

little

his

customary lordly insou-

interest in their welfare.

Hand-

some, elegant, cultivated, quick-witted, seductive Narbonne was a

grand seigneur with a distinguished military

career, widely believed to

be one of the numerous illegitimate descendants of Louis XV, and a

godson of Louis XVI. Germaine’s element in her

life

and her outlook.

liaison with It

which she fed with her impassioned years before

its

embers expired

him was

a formative

probably began in 1788.

letters to

finally in 1794.

Its fire,

him, lasted for several

There may have been

previous amorous episodes in her life— with the gallant military tac-

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER tician,

comte Hippolyte de Guibert, for instance, or with Charles-

Maurice de Talleyrand, the future power broker serious and deeply passionate love affair.

It

— but this was her

caused a

rift

first

with her

disapproving parents, especially her mother, the daughter of a Swiss pastor,

who

The

uttered constant reproaches and never forgave her.

affair

with Narbonne was also partly the source and inspira-

Germaine’s

tion for

first

major work,

De

discourse on the influence of the passions viduals and nations, written at a time suit

I’influence des passions,

upon

when

the happiness of indi-

the very idea of the pur-

of happiness was new, following the revolutions in America and

France.

The book

is

obliquely autobiographical, and a

contemporaries perceived stance,

who had

its

number of her

personal character. Henri Beyle, for in-

not yet become Stendhal the novelist, thought

I’influence des passions

was her

best

book and,

a passionate spirit describing

barked on writing

it

in 1792,

what she has

though

it

26

it

in

was taking

Some of the book’s

until 1796

and

response to a double

confessional passages, while referring to

point of view, “your fate it

suits

them

is

decided in

to bind theirs to

than they thought ... at the exact

men

and conduct of Narbonne. “At

twenty-five,” she declared in the foreword, elaborating

to distance

is

into the Jacobin Terror.

in general, clearly allude to the attitude

if

“She

not only with Narbonne but also with the fearful course

that the Revolution

consider

it:

Germaine had em-

was not published

even then remained incomplete. She wrote disillusion,

felt.”

De

despite his enduring

reservations about her style, urged his sister Pauline to read

this

a

it;

on the woman’s

many ways, and men if

then

they see less advantage in

moment when they have decided

themselves from you they want to justify themselves for the

wrong they are doing you; they look for faults to absolve themselves of the greatest of them; those

who

are guilty of ingratitude

deny your

devotion, they pretend you are demanding.” 27 She complained in the section

“On

Love,” “Nature and society have disinherited half of

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

humankind: strength, courage, genius, independence, everything belongs to men.

of morality

and

.

.

According

.

itself

women

seem

culine friends, if

be suspended

to

between men

in the relations

In fine, they [men] can have received

benefits, the tokens

of them

to the opinion of an unjust society the laws

from

a

woman the

of devotion which would bind together two mas-

two companions

in arms,

and which would dishonor one

he were to prove capable of forgetting these;

they can

[yet]

have received such tokens from a woman, and extricate themselves

from everything.” 28 These words would prove applicable not solely

to

Narbonne.

Germaine had good reason

for her bitterness at her lover’s in-

creasing reserve and ultimate desertion.

Narbonne

the monarchist

It

was she who had converted

and propelled him

to liberalism

be ap-

to

pointed minister of war in 1792. She supported him, rescued him great risk to herself the revolutionaries

years

later.

when

were

During the upheavals

in Paris

outbreak of the massacres on September the Swedish embassy.

life

when

he acknowledged

many

she was pregnant, and saved his after his blood, as

One morning

at

between August 10 and the

2,

1792, she hid

Narbonne

in

she learned that a notice denounc-

ing him had been affixed at the corners of the rue du Bac.

A

search

party duly arrived. “M. de Narbonne, as an outlaw, died that very day if he

was discovered,” she

knew

recalled, “and,

perfectly well that if the search

could not avoid capture. At gathered

my

strength and

I

all

costs

was I

felt at that

govern one’s emotion, however violent that

it

had

to

places the

convince the

whole nation in

life

my heart

I

in

of another person

men

took,

I

carried out thoroughly he

had

to prevent this search;

moment it

I

may

at risk.”

that

be,

I

one can always

when one knows

She realized that she

of the search party that they were putting the

danger by entering the Swedish embassy. “With death

had the courage

suspicions. ...

whatever precaution

I

to

make

accompanied them

26

jokes about the injustice of their

to the door.

And

I

gave thanks to

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

God

for the extraordinary strength

He had

the same, the situation could not have

chance sufficed to condemn an outlaw

lent

me

at that

been prolonged, and the

who was

who

risked his

own

life,

offices

all

least

known

so well

29 having recently been a minister.” Through the good

Dr. Erich Bollmann,

moment;

for

of young

-Narbonne escaped to

England, where Germaine eventually joined him. She provided him with funds throughout their liaison, found shelter for him and their friends in a colony she set

up

at

Juniper Hall in Surrey, and, in short,

gave him every token of a single-minded devotion so great that exceeded her feelings for her father

and did not find

it.

at the time.

from

her. Nonetheless,

protection at Mezery

The and

affair

Narbonne was

when

met him

the spring of 1794 until It

He was

slipping

in

away

under her

with Narbonne’s successor, Ribbing, was more brief,

republican ideas. She

Denmark.

moral blackmail

she met Benjamin.

was not on the same

it

at

living in exile

still

even

She expected gratitude

Her reproaches and attempts

her letters did not produce the desired result.

it

lingered

although she was marked by his

in July 1793,

and the

liaison lasted

from

September of that year when he departed for

on

through her passionate

level,

for

two years during

his absence, chiefly

letters, until early in 1796,

when

his betrayal

contributed to Benjamin’s victory.

What

did Germaine de Stael see in Benjamin Constant? For a long

while

it

was primarily

the agile conversational give-and-take and the

intellectual pursuits they shared, in addition to his tion.

Her distinguished

morency,

who had

aristocratic friends,

fought in the American

such as Mathieu de Mont-

War

Lafayette, could not understand or appreciate

“He

is

a

man

of very superior

exemplary devo-

intellect,” she

of Independence with

what she saw

in him.

reminded Ribbing

as late

as

January 23, 1796, assuring him yet again that love did not come into

it,

while adding, “There are few who, as regards social intercourse,

">>-27^'

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

my tastes

accord so well with ture.

So much for

me

devoted to

impose on him. He

is

physical charm, and

I

...

attributes.

As

his personal attractions.

no man on earth would

as

in litera-

all,

for his virtues, he

is

be, given the conditions

I

and

entirely lacking in strength of character

cannot conceive of love without one of these

think strength of character

I

above

in conversation and,

the ideal quality.

is

.

.

.

does not make a marriage, happiness in love, any more

Intellect alone

than does great talent on the fortepiano.” 30

Even

clearer

a letter to

is

where she becomes more

Ribbing written on March

specific while

using the euphemisms of the

was not her

day. Speaking again of Benjamin to claim that he

declared,

“He has

in those literary

woman’s

life,

and despite

my

occupations with which

and

my

a great taste for

finally, I

think

distaste for

I

the

I fill

told you,

such a subject,

seems

to

me

shares

empty hours of

under the

how

lover, she

He

best talent, wit.

seal

a

of secrecy,

during the divorce

proceedings his wife gave as a reason the wretched It

io, 1796,

state

of his health.

that he lies outside the course of love, at least love that

one inspires.” 31 Generously, Benjamin had told

his wife to charge

him

with every shortcoming and misdemeanor, provided they did not stain his reputation,

and presumably impotence due

them. Germaine

still

seemed keen

a lover in Ribbing’s eyes,

to

ill

health

was among

to diminish Benjamin’s likelihood as

and perhaps she protested too much about

possible limitations in that area. Yet she

was

his

perfectly and repeatedly

clear about being unable to conceive of love with a

man who

lacked a

strong, courageous, virile personality and a fine appearance.

What Germaine

did perceive in Benjamin from the start

potential: here, she felt sure,

was another important

was

his

thinker, a second

Montesquieu. His father, Juste de Constant, and other members of his family recognized his precocious talents— but for what?

Was he

des-

tined for a literary career as a writer, scholar, historian, or philosopher,

or for a significant role in the administration of

28

some German court?

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

They were

waiting for him to

still

always looking to share her

life

Germaine was

his promise.

fulfill

with some great

man whose

could promote, since that was the only role open to a

keen interest in

who admired Necker

politics.

To be

the wife or

career she

woman

companion of a

with a

gifted

man

her father— for there could not exist another Jacques

— was her fondest dream.

Although he was

a Swiss Protestant, her father

had risen from

banker and financier to the lofty and powerful position of virtual prime minister in Catholic France, time. Dismissed

where he was idolized

by Louis XVI and

Necker was recalled a few days

sent into exile

women

on July n, 1789,

later after the fall

Germaine returned with him and her mother from peasant

as a savior for a

of the

Bale,

Bastille.

and she saw

kneel in the fields as his carriage passed by. She would

never forget the scene or the

she

thrill

seemed

to her as if the entire population

streets:

“Men and women shouted ‘Long

dows and rooftops.” When, from spoke of peace for

French

all

On

felt.

arriving in Paris

it

of the city crowded into the

M. Necker!’ from win-

live

the balcony of the Hotel de Ville, he

citizens

whatever their party, he was

greeted with wild popular acclamation. “I saw nothing

more

moment,” Germaine

joy.”

recalled, “for

I

fainted

from pure

32

at that

From

then on, she sought to experience once again the gloire that had shed

its

golden light upon Necker, the gloire in whose rays she had basked.

It

was obvious from the beginning fulfill

that her

husband was never going

such a role. With Narbonne there were

place she procured for

culmination of her

Ribbing

that, if

part in the

him

efforts.

as (short-lived) minister

it

of war was the

it,

he could play a

vital

Republic. Ribbing, however, was disillusioned

with politics and disinclined to

With Benjamin

and the

Often she tried to convince the republican

only he would put his mind to

new French

possibilities,

to

was

fall in

different:

with her ideas for him.

he was very ambitious, he loved

books and reading, he ardently desired literary fame, and he spent

29

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

many hours

it.

Germaine turned

head with her praises and her encouragement. Belle de Charriere,

his

by

with a view to obtaining

at his studies

contrast,

had

in his opinion,

the

shadowy

moderate the heady

tried to

had

flight

of his ambition and,

tried to kill his desire for la gloire litteraire:

trace of literary

fame

you made every

that

“Even

effort to kill

within me,” he told Belle on September 26, 1794, “has returned, and renders the future

more

attractive.”

that he felt the habit of

enthusiasm and the

Where

showed

spirit

33

work was

So

it

was

restored,

of emulation

after

he met Germaine

and with

came

it

the

that, in turn, inspired her.

humankind, Germaine was

a firm

believer in the worth of human striving and the possibilities for

human

Belle

progress. At

first

little

faith in

Benjamin was

just

one of the many friends Germaine

loved to stimulate, encourage, and draw out to their best advantage.

When

Benjamin met Germaine, she was already a great

celebrity,

whereas he was as yet unknown to the general public. Although he had previously scorned such notoriety, he was dazzled

when he

finally

met

M.

Necker,” a famous statesman

who might be

regarded as either a charlatan

her.

She was, moreover, “la fille de

now

living in retirement

or a demigod but was so wealthy that he had been able to lend millions to the royal exchequer.

Germaine might be bourgeois

in origin

and

hence regarded as a parvenue by some members of the Swiss upper class,

but her present status as the wife of the Swedish ambassador to

France, and as a

woman who had witnessed or been concerned in great

revolutionary events there, contrasted with Benjamin’s political experience as a

positions of power

member of the Vaudois

by the ruling

more

limited

gentry, excluded

from

class in Berne.

She had been actively engaged in matters he had only read or heard about. She

knew

personally a

number of the leading

the revolutionary scene, partly because they had at

figures

on

one time sought or

enjoyed Necker’s patronage and partly because she entertained a wide circle in

her salon as

madame

Uambassadrice. In addition, she had

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER proved herself courageous, resourceful, and energetic ple

peo-

from the Terror, while Benjamin had merely pondered the situation

from Germany. Her

was indeed

status

dazzling, and to cap

was wealthy. The thorny question of finance would in their future relationship. Since his bler,

it all,

she

figure prominently

youth Benjamin had been a gam-

and by the time he met Germaine he had already accumulated

He was always

sizable debts.

tance,

what he

members of

be much concerned about his inheri-

to

called “rna fortune, ” in his letters to his father

his family, as well as in his diary.

charisma, fame, position, and standing— no she

in rescuing

was “a superior Being” and

There was no one

like her.

that he

Given

all

and other this— her

wonder he thought

had never met anyone

That was part of the

attraction,

that

like her.

and

it

would

develop into part of the problem.

By September

known

author.

1794, moreover,

Germaine was already

At twenty-two she had written a study of the writings

and character of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that had caused a in

France but also in England where, in

Woman,

the revolutionary feminist

her reluctance to

women and

condemn

A

modern French,

Mary Wollstonecraft had

came

to hand,

from the

ferior to hers. If in the

and prospects until later,

to

in

literature

in manuscript, often

many ways,

yet published

then, his position looked in-

beginning he saw only the pleasures, advanbeing closely associated with

Mme

de

Stael,

it

and under the pressure of dire public events, that he

have second thoughts.

His eventual debt to her would be considerable.

who

of antiq-

and German philosophy, but what he

The new Montesquieu had not

anything of importance. In

would begin

criticized

the philosopher’s condescension toward

British,

unfinished and put aside.

was not

not only

Vindication of the Rights of

had written on moral or religious topics remained

tages,

stir

her failure to promote equality for her sex. Benjamin had

read voraciously whatever uity to

a well-

It

focused and channeled his diverse and dispersed

was Germaine gifts.

Before a

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER political career

was on

his agenda, she

political affairs for the public

writings. She took

known

encouraged him to write on

and guided and promoted him and

him with her

to Paris,

where he would

for the pamphlets he published

Directoire. She introduced political life

him not only

first

his

become

under her aegis during the to the intricacies of

French

but also to the immense network of her contacts, including

important notabilities

like

prove so useful to him

abbe Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes,

in his later career.

With

aid

who would

from her father she

gave him considerable financial assistance, providing him with funds to help

buy an

estate outside Paris,

ownership of property

being an essential prerequisite for any

What man to

in the eighteenth

France

political aspirant.

century— or later— would be happy

owed

his

advancement

woman? No doubt Benjamin would have made

his

way without

admit to himself,

to a

in

let

alone to others, that he

her somehow, in some area of endeavor, but

more

difficult for

him

to

do

so,

it

would have been much

and he would have advanced

at a

much

slower pace. Without Germaine de Stael, what prospect would there

have been for the Benjamin Constant of 1795, a modest Swiss-born chamberlain

at the

court of Brunswick, to gain a political foothold in

France, where he was unknown, amid the often-corrupt intriguers and the bitter factional upheavals of the Directoire?

The

seeds of future complexities and confrontations were already

being sown even before those two great icons of French liberalism

became

intimate.

CHAPTER TWO

Prodigies

Jrz^.

What emotional and Stael

and Benjamin Constant bring to the journey of their partnership?

What tion,

intellectual baggage did Germaine de

family background and situation, what upbringing and educa-

molded

their sensibility, individuality,

Benjamin,

like

and outlook on

Germaine, was an only

Germaine Necker was the

child.

Anne-Louise-

sole issue of the marriage of

Curchod and Jacques Necker; Benjamin Constant was the the marriage of Henriette de

que.

The

essential

life?

Suzanne

sole issue of

Chandieu and Juste Constant de Rebec-

and dominating

fact

of Benjamin’s early

life

was

the

death of his mother, a fortnight after his birth. Consequently, he was left to

the tender mercies of his father, who, as a Swiss officer in the

army of

the Prince of Orange,

service in the

Low

young

much about

military

Countries. Benjamin’s paternal grandmother, Rose-

Suzanne de Constant, looked his father’s

was frequently absent on

mistress,

after

him

in the beginning, followed

Marianne Magnin. Constant,

himself, says remarkably

little

who wrote

by so

about his feelings for the

mother he never knew, either because those feelings were too painful to

be expressed or because her death and absence had become so re-

mote.

The consequences of her

loss

were nonetheless grave: although

PRODIGIES he was not neglected, as a small child he did not experience any truly

By

close maternal tenderness and care. ished.

contrast,

Germaine was cher-

Mme Necker had only two major emotional concerns apart from

the Deity: her husband and her daughter.

Benjamin’s early

wanted it,

do the best

to

relying on the

life

was ruled by

for his son but

had

a

domineering father who idea of how to go about

little

odd advice of various colleagues and

friends.

Ger-

maine, however, was in the hands of a loving but controlling mother.

Her

father

was

busy with

far too

financial

himself with his daughter’s upbringing

Mme

Necker had

and

when

she was small.

a plan: to turn her child into

someone worthy of

her husband and herself, someone extraordinary. She was a considerable talent, keen to literary ambitions

similar ambitions,

commit her thoughts

woman his

own

As Suzanne Curchod— beautiful,

fulfilled.

cultivated— she was admired and courted in Lausanne, not future historian of the decline and

of

to paper, but her

were frustrated by her husband despite which he

concern

state affairs to

fall

of the

Roman

least

by

the

Empire, Edward

Gibbon, whose father resolutely refused to countenance “this strange alliance.” “After a painful struggle

absence and time were cently in his left

to

memoirs

the jilted Mile

1

.

at

Curchod with very to a lady

There, she encountered

from

my fate:

the remedies of

length effectual,” Gibbon wrote compla-

The death of her

becoming companion

rising

yielded to

I

father, a

modest clergyman,

limited means: she

was reduced

and traveled with her to

among

the friends of her benefactress a

Genevan banker, Jacques Necker. Their marriage a subordinate position to

Her love and admiration

one of prominence

for her

Paris.

husband and

carried her

in Parisian society.

his talents

knew no

bounds. Her salon, the chief purpose of which was to promote her

husband’s career, was frequented by letters, political thinkers,

ment.

It

was

many of

the prominent

men of

reformers, and philosophes of the Enlighten-

said that she herself never acquired the ease in repartee

34

PRODIGIES and the vivacity and polish

Some

daughter.

felt that

in conversation that

was always something rather

there

reserved, and repressed about her.

was

endowed with

also

a

would distinguish her

Prone

stilted,

to strict self-examination, she

morbid imagination. In

was

particular, she

obsessed with the notion of premature burial after learning— on her charitable visits to hospitals— the fate of unfortunates

who were buried

before they were clinically dead.

This was the tion, for

Mme

herself, at

woman who was

in sole

charge of Germaine’s educa-

Necker had decided to undertake the child’s education

home. In the second half of the eighteenth century

unusual for mothers to teach their

own

it

was not

children, especially after

Rous-

seau laid such stress on the importance of a caring mother in a child ’s early development.

It

was customary

in France,

however, to send a

girl

about the age of six to a convent, where she would remain until

at

leaving at sixteen to be married.

Mme

A convent was out of the question for

Necker, a devout Calvinist. Besides, she

felt

herself to be well

equipped for the role of teacher. Pastor Curchod had given her lessons in Latin

and even taught her a

geometry and physics. girl

It

little

Greek, and her studies included

was considered an exceptional education

of her day.

Mme

Necker’s plan of education was to follow that of Rousseau’s

controversial Emile ou

Ueducation,

called Louise or Minette

or so she said. Germaine,

by her parents, was

who was

to follow the role of Emile

himself, not that of Sophie, trained to be his helpmeet. In fact,

Necker subverted Rousseau:

were air

to begin,

until

Emile was to enjoy a natural

of playmates and the open

the intellectual faculties .” 2

Mme

he was twelve, when his studies life

with Sophie in the open

and to be kept away from religion and books.

in favor

air

Mme Necker was not

but of “a sort of gymnastics of

Reading books and commenting upon them

from an early age provided a

for a

flexibility in thinking,

sound education. Benjamin,

too,

which was the key

became an avid reader

to

as a boy.

PRODIGIES

Books were Germaine’s

a refuge, a solace, later

view— a

and studying a pleasure, even— in

source of self-esteem.

Germaine was only two years old when her mother introduced her to the Old and

New Testaments and to works of piety. Mme Necker

taught her daughter Latin and English, history, geography, mathematics,

As

physics, and theology.

a girl she studied the great

works of

seventeenth-century French literature as well as more modern authors,

and she was familiar with English poetry and

Gray

to Fielding

fiction,

from Milton and

and Richardson. In 1776, when she was ten years

old,

her parents, accompanied by their friend Jean-Baptiste Suard, an authority

on

England.

It

served to confirm the passion for

was then highly fashionable her father and

in

mother— and,

met among other bon,

and thought, took her on

British literature

all

a

journey to

things English that

French society and that she shared with indeed, with Benjamin also. There she

former

notabilities her mother’s

now a friend; saw with delight the

great

Edward Gib-

suitor,

David Garrick

in

Hamlet;

and was duly impressed on visiting the Houses of Parliament.

Mme

Necker was keen on the knowledge of languages, and Germaine was said to be fluent in English

answer questions

like,

types of European cratic,

by the time she was twelve. She

“What

is

government— monarchical,

many is less

last

risky than the rule of one

had

to

government?” Of the four

the best

and mixed— she chose the

also

aristocratic,

demo-

because a government led by

man alone. A bad monarch could

ruin his country, while in the past there had been independence under a

mixed government.

It is

tempting to imagine that

shadows her future opposition

to the rule

answer fore-

this

of a dictator and her urge to

independence.

The

effect

of this peculiar hothouse education was indeed to pro-

duce a prodigy, though one with satisfied.

whom Mme

She was an extremely passionate

Necker was never quite

woman who

spent her

trying to suppress her passionate nature, aiming to keep

it

life

within the

PRODIGIES

bounds of cool reason. She recognized the same impassioned emotionalism in

Germaine and did her utmost

her parents were briefly absent and she was the girl wrote a despairing letter to her

to control

left

it.

Once, when

alone with the servants,

mother

which she betrayed

in

the perennial terror of an only child at the thought of being left

“My

permanently alone by the death of her parents: need to write

My

to you.

heart feels tight,

I

house, which only a short while ago enclosed

my

entire

panse can

world and

my

for

sad,

all I

hold dear, and where I

and

in this large

realize that this ex-

my little room

so that

my eyes

surrounding emptiness. Your brief absence has

at least take in the

made me tremble

run into

I

I

am

future were confined,

too large for me, and

is

Mamma,

dear

my fate .”

3

She was writing sometime between the

ages of ten and twelve, but this dread of the void, of isolation and absence,

would endure throughout her

life. It

would make her

And

desperately to those she loved as she clung to her mother.

would

try to

fill

cling

she

the black hole that her imagination conceived so

vividly with endless discussions with her friends and ceaseless activity.

Yet the sadness and melancholy, the ennui and anguish of existence, lurked beneath the effervescent gaiety she displayed in society, ready to

pounce

As

at

any moment.

the letter continued, she confessed to her

and shortcomings:

“Oh mamma, do

begged her mother for permission to

subdue

That

my whims

mother

correct me,” she cried, as she

to kiss her. “I shall take

and please you

her faults

all

(if

I

every care

possibly can) in every

telling proviso in parenthesis points to her struggle to

and her consciousness of

failure,

of never being able to

way.” 4

conform

fulfill

her

mother’s demands and attain her high standards of conduct. She kissed her mother’s letters and anticipated the boundless joy and ecstasy she

would

feel

when they were

not be annoyed

at this

was consecrated

reunited, then she

hoped her mother would

expression of feeling. Every

to her

mamma,

moment

she declared, and she

of her

vowed

life

that her

PRODIGIES affection

would increase and

last to the

end of her days.

Mme

Necker’s

response to her daughter’s outpourings was deliberately cool: “Tell that

you love me and prove

ever

more

perfect,

it

by always

me

by making your heart and your reason

sacrificing

your soul through religion.” 5 Try

your character, and elevating

as hard as she might,

Mme

Necker

never succeeded as she hoped in forming a replica of herself, in curbing Germaine’s natural warmth, impulsiveness, and vivacity. In

Mme Necker’s strict regime

no companions of her own age

much

hesitation,

Mme

Catherine Huber,

Mme

until she

who was two

lest

in the

to the Bois

after

person of

years older than Germaine.

Huber suggested an excursion

Mme

was about eleven. Then,

Necker found a suitable friend

maine trembled with fear tance

Germaine took no exercise and had

When

de Boulogne, Ger-

her mother might say no. With reluc-

Necker acquiesced, but she

fretted

about the safety of the

carriage and gave instructions about

how

Germaine was so excited

prospect of an outing without her

mother

that she kissed

at the rare

Mme

descend carefully from

to

it.

Huber’s hands and threw her arms about

her neck. She did not see the woods, the other carriages, or the promenaders; “she saw only her

own happiness and was concerned only with

that,” recorded Catherine

emotion that

Mme

Huber. 6 Here

is

the torrent of excessive

Necker called “the exaggeration of feeling” and

strove in vain to subdue.

The hothouse regime ried parents consulted the

try air

finally affected

Germaine’s health. Her wor-

famous Dr. Tronchin. He prescribed coun-

and forbade books and reading. Germaine, accompanied by a

governess and a maid, traveled to the chateau that her father had

purchased in 1770

at

Saint-Ouen outside

Paris.

According

to

Mme

Necker’s friend, the now-forgotten poet Antoine-Leonard Thomas, the

house boasted a handsome terrace overlooking the Seine; he found the place very restful.

Germaine thought

it

was

existence. She ran about in the great park

the prettiest house in

and played games with

,

PRODIGIES

who came

Catherine Huber

Germaine broke father

began

to visit

each week.

of her mother’s control,

free

more

to take

It

was not long before

just at the

time

when her

interest in her, finding in his effervescent

daughter a relief from the burden of matters of state. “Let’s go and see Minette,” he

would

say.

Mme

Once,

Necker was shocked

to find

wound

chasing each other around the dining table with napkins

around filial

their

heads

like turbans.

love to her father. “I love

later in

Gradually Germaine transferred her

my father excessively,”

she was to write

her portrait of him. 7

The second er’s salon.

part of Germaine’s education took place in her

Mme

This was

armchair was a straight, as she

was

instructed, just as she does in the

speak. Catherine

drew near

to

is

up

famous drawing

powdered

heavily beribboned, and she looks as

if about to

hair

is

Huber recounted how four or

Germaine: one of them, wearing a

five

gentlemen once

little

round wig, took

her hands in his and kept them there, conversing with her as twenty-five. This

sat

piled high, resembling a

by Carmontelle. There, her wig, her tight bodice

Mme Necker’s

where thirteen-year-old Germaine

stool

little

moth-

Necker’s sphere: her husband put in a rare

appearance but took no part in the conversation. Next to

old,

them

was abbe Guillaume Raynal, then about

if she

were

sixty years

one of the most distinguished thinkers of the day and author of the

important Histoire philosophique merce des Europeens dans earlier in 1774. It

was

a

les

et politique des etablissements et

deux Indes which had appeared

work

,

that attacked tyranny

a

du com-

few years

and superstition:

it

would be placed on the Index, then

later

Raynal would have to

An assembly of equally celebrated

flee into exile.

condemned

and farseeing writers and philosophers frequented lon, including Jean-Frangois

to

be burnt, and

Mme

Necker’s sa-

Marmontel, the novelist and playwright;

abbe Andre Morellet, the economist; Friedrich Melchior, Baron von

Grimm, German by

birth but French in taste

tigious Correspondance litteraire

and editor of the pres-

which circulated among the crowned

39

PRODIGIES heads of Europe, not

least

Catherine the Great; comte de Buffon, the

Rond d’Alembert,

distinguished naturalist; and Jean Le

the eminent

mathematician, and Denis Diderot, the multitalented and highly origi-

and

nal essayist, storyteller,

who

art critic,

Encyclopedie, an attempt to embrace the guests were

many

all

Among

existing knowledge.

freethinkers and atheists, but the pious

Necker did not bar her door to anyone

who

Mme

could engage in “gymnas-

who might prove

of the intellectual faculties” or

tics

together founded the great

useful to her

husband.

During dinner, Catherine Huber

recalled, she

and Germaine did

not say anything, just listened.

But you should have seen

how

Mile Necker listened! Her gaze

followed the movements of those

seemed

to

apprehend

who were

speaking and she

their ideas before they uttered them.

She did

not open her mouth and yet she appeared to speak, so expressive

were her animated

features.

She was aware of everything, grasped

and understood everything, even

political subjects,

which

at that

time provided one of the main topics of conversation. After dinner,

Mme

many more

people arrived. Each person, on approaching

Necker, said a word or two to her daughter, paid her a

compliment or shared

a joke.

She replied with easy grace. Some

took pleasure in provoking her, embarrassing her, or exciting her

young imagination

that already revealed

were most distinguished courage her to speak

The

Mme so

novelist

Mme

its

brilliance.

for their wit exerted themselves to en-

8 .

de Genlis, an authority on education, thought that

Necker brought up her daughter very badly by

much

Men who

time in her salon

among

the

crowd of

Genlis’s disapproval they surrounded Mile

letting her

wits.

To

spend

Mme

de

Necker and, while her

PRODIGIES mother’s attention was elsewhere, discussed with her jects that

were

far

beyond her

sorts

all

of sub-

years, including the passion of love.

Germaine’s early contacts with some of the leading minds of the eighteenth century helped to shape and stimulate her

own

Mme

and play with

Necker encouraged the

ideas at a

young

age,

most

ability to seize, assimilate,

vital to

ideas. If

Germaine’s intellectual development

was her encounter with outstanding rebels and reformers. Here were those independent thinkers

who were

ready to question everything

and accept nothing on authority, those fighters for enlightenment, and “the

new

ideas” she herself

enthusiastically

throughout her

also significant.

Once she was

some

life.

The

how

would propagate so

influence of her father

in her teens,

was

he treated her as a friend,

said like a lover, rather than as a daughter.

her diary

justice, toleration,

And

she confided to

she wished she had been born at the same time he was,

so that she could have been his wife. Certainly, she absorbed

some-

thing of Necker’s stance on reform, his desire for moderation, his dislike

of theories and systems.

How different from

Necker, ponderous, prudent, conscious of his

own

worth and that of his wife and daughter, was Benjamin’s father! Juste Constant de Rebecque was imposing and severe but also erratic, unpredictable, rash,

family

and

distinctly odd.

(many of the Vaudois

A

military

gentry, excluded

man from

from

office

in Berne, offered their services to foreign armies),

son.

Though fond of each

when they were

other, they

a military

by the

rulers

he dominated his

were sometimes tongue-tied

together, or else they argued, often about

money. Of

Juste’s eccentricities

perhaps the most notorious was his kidnapping of

an intelligent

girl

little

of nine named Marianne Magnin from her

modest home, a crime that went unpunished and before his marriage to Benjamin’s mother.

that

he committed

He arranged

for the girl’s

PRODIGIES education in Holland, a country where she

made her his

knew no

one, and later

mistress and eventually his second wife. Benjamin did not

discover until

many

years afterward that he had a half-brother and

half-sister, a fact that led

him worry even more about

who

His feelings toward Marianne,

looked after him

his inheritance.

when he was

a

small child, veered between expressed gratitude for her kindness and private aggressiveness against “this harpy.” Later Juste

broiled in a lawsuit with his superiors which lasted

became em-

many

which, through his rash and imperious behavior, he finally lawsuit darkened Benjamin’s

life.

erty

was

lost.

made every

Creditably, he

help his father, but his efforts were in vain.

years and

Much of the

This

effort to

family prop-

confiscated, and Juste retired to France, to Brevans, near

Dole, claiming French citizenship as a descendent of Huguenots

who

had been expelled. Benjamin’s cousin Rosalie de Constant

left a

uncle. According to her, Juste cared less for his

him:

when

years,

vivid portrait of her

first

wife than she for

she died in childbirth, they had been married for only two

and she was soon forgotten. Benjamin was not brought up

cherish his mother’s

memory, declared

Rosalie.

“The

to

third son of

General Constant, named Juste, was imposing in appearance, very intelligent,

and very eccentric. Mistrustful, secretive ... he has the

ability to inspire love

.

.

and mortify people with

.

but also no one knows better

his bitter irony.”

9

precocious talents— Benjamin was as advanced at thirty,

to

Benjamin inherited

of irony, his caustic tongue. His father could not

people are

how

thought Rosalie— and

set

fail

wound

his tone

to note his son’s

at thirteen as

most

about providing him

with what he thought would be a most suitable education for a prodigy with prospects. If

Germaine’s education was eccentric, Benjamin’s was bizarre.

Benjamin himself described

it

in

Le Cahier rouge

(so called

from the red

binding of his notebook), a memoir begun in 1811 and abruptly discon-

**->•42

,

PRODIGIES

complemented by

tinued. This account of his early years, his

grandmother,

is

as lively as a picaresque

on occasion appalling

tale— ironic, amusing, and

The

in its implications.

his letters to

voice of amused irony,

adopted with hindsight, barely conceals an undertone of distress

A succession of unlikely or unpromis-

lonely and distorted childhood.

ing tutors, frequent

Low

coming and going between Switzerland and

Countries, a brief visit to

the

London and Oxford, and many months

spent at distinguished universities, in

at a

first at

Erlangen in Bavaria and then

Edinburgh, made up the scarcely credible story of Benjamin’s edu-

cation.

Formal

it

was

not, but

somehow, from an

early age, Benjamin

acquired a deep love of learning and study, along with less reputable

occupations that he acquired from the example of others, like gambling

and a

taste for prostitutes.

When

he was not yet

Strohlin as a tutor,

who

beat

who

engaged a German named

five his father

taught Benjamin Greek as a kind of game, and

him and then smothered him with

and prevent him from

telling his father.

affection to

make up

for

it

This abuse was discovered,

and Strohlin thrown out. Next, after spending some time in Brussels, a lively place

where

officers like his father

le-Duc came on leave, Benjamin,

man named La Grange, oughly disreputable. opinion, he

was

who was

own

in a cabinet litteraire

his eyesight

From his tutor

was

a

who proved

a French-

to

be thor-

who

took the boy to

live

with him in a

Juste placed his son with his

devices, Benjamin spent eight or ten hours a

or lending library, reading whatever he found

and

to trouble

1776, the year

was

was taught by

a decent fellow but did nothing for the boy’s

there, including erotic novels

and

garrisoned at Bois-

mediocre, ignorant, vain man, in Benjamin’s

was dismissed. Then

education. Left to his

day

seven,

a regimental surgeon

also an atheist

brothel. He, too,

music master,

A

now

who were

irreligious works. His eyes suffered,

him throughout

Germaine

visited

former French lawyer

his life.

England for the

who had

left

first

time,

France under

PRODIGIES suspicious circumstances. M. Gobert lived in Brussels with a

woman and

young

he called his housekeeper. He taught Benjamin some Latin of his domestic arrangements and

history. Eventually, the scandal

other matters aroused public gossip that reached the ears of Juste, who,

end of 1778, took

at the

his

son back to Switzerland, where he stayed

family properties of La Chabliere and Le Desert, near Lau-

at the

sanne, until the spring of 1779. Benjamin passed to another French-

man, M. Duplessis, who turned out

who

to

be a defrocked

monk

trying to

The boy

spent

over a year with him, partly in Switzerland and partly in the

Low

avoid the authorities and

Countries, and

made some

committed

later

progress. But the

suicide.

list is

not complete: there

would follow young Nathaniel May, who gave him

lessons but

regarded more as a companion than a tutor; and then,

man

of serious learning, M. Bridel, a

member of the

Altogether there were seven widely differing jamin’s education, usually chosen because

them

to Juste.

And once

Juste

became

men

was

came

finally,

a

Protestant clergy. in charge

of Ben-

someone had recommended

disillusioned with an appointee

he expressed his scorn and mockery in his son’s presence.

From

Brussels

when he was twelve Benjamin wrote

mother, Rose-Suzanne de Constant, for tion, describing

how

he rose

at

whom

he

felt

to his

grand-

genuine affec-

seven and after breakfast worked

at

translating

Horace and had music lessons with M. Duplessis, followed

by dancing

lessons. After lunch, he read

verse,

had

a lesson

on the harpsichord, played piquet, had

and went to bed

at nine.

week he went out

into

I

carry

my

observe, pleasures

I

hat under listen

.” .

.

Quintus Curtius, wrote Latin

le

grand monde:

my 10

Sometimes he went

arm.

He

I

“I

act the

said he

his supper,

to the theater.

have a

fine coat, a

grown-up

Twice

a

sword, and

as well as

I

can.

I

was not much taken with worldly

but— ominously— he was

fascinated

by the gaming

table.

Gambling was one of the chief and ruinous diversions of the well-todo society of the day, and Benjamin soon became addicted.

-^44-H-

,

PRODIGIES His health was never really sound: from an early age he suffered

from feverish nervous

from circulating so

attacks. “I

fast

wish

my

blood could be prevented

and could be given a more harmonious flow,”

he told his grandmother. “I have tried to see this result,

sleep

.

.

.

I

if

music could produce

play adagios and largos that would send thirty cardinals to

but

do not know by what magic these slow

I

by becoming prestissimo. ...

I

always end

airs

my dear grandmother,

believe,

that this

should have some

illness is incurable

and

spark of it because

am twelve and a few days, yet I am not aware of its

empire;

dawn

if its

What an

I

is

will resist reason itself;

so faint, what will

extraordinarily

knowing

self-regarding, self-aware,

it

be

I

like at

letter for a

humorous, and aims

twenty-five?” 11

twelve-year-old!

It is

to entertain as well as

enlighten his grandmother about his activities.

What cation?

did Benjamin glean from this erratic and undisciplined edu-

He was

reading

Homer

before he was nine, and between the

ages of ten and twelve he added Cicero, Ovid, Horace, and other Latin

authors as well as ciples

Roman

history.

He was

acquainted with the prin-

of eighteenth-century philosophy and the work of materialists de La Mettrie, author of

like Julien

VHomme machine

Claude-Adrien Helvetius, a skeptical empiricist church and

its

Voltaire, the injustice,

and especially

who

criticized the

influence and preferred paganism to Christianity.

hammer of ecclesiastical

As

for

obscurantism, superstition, and

he was a friend of the Constant family, and Benjamin shared

something of his

brilliant

familiar with Voltaire’s

use of irony as a weapon. Doubtless he was

writings— for

who was

not? But he did not

claim any particular connection with the author of the Dictionnaire philosophique as he did with Helvetius and his ently, did

cultivated

he pay a

visit to the

European

maine with her

De VEsprit.

sage of Ferney, unlike

society, including

to see the great

Mme

Nor, appar-

many members of

Necker,

who

took Ger-

man.

In contrast to Germaine’s sheltered existence, Benjamin’s

life

was

,

PRODIGIES

human behavior

marked by early contact with the seamier

side of

through the conduct of his more disreputable

tutors. Evidently missing

from

rectitude or

his

upbringing was any

instruction of the sort that

it

was

Mme

was immensely

jamin, however,

youth

stress

chiefly with a

on moral

Necker

instilled into

any religious

Germaine. Ben-

though

in his

view toward combating what was

called

interested in religion,

“prejudice” in imitation of his favorite philosophes. Both Germaine and

Benjamin had early

literary ambitions.

He wrote

also a heroic novel, Les Chevaliers, about the battles of

and

his knights against the Saracens. His

Dido and

a tragedy,

Charlemagne

proud father saw

to

it

that this

novel was published in Brussels in 1779. Benjamin was twelve, more or

same age

less the

being performed

When

as at

he was thirteen, in 1780, his father took him to London, briefly,

at the university,

English.

It

then writing plays that were

Saint-Ouen.

where they stayed only of him

who was

Germaine,

was

at this

and then

to Oxford.

There

but he spent two months in the

is

no record

city,

learning

time that Juste engaged Nathaniel May, a young

student at Lincoln College,

who accompanied Benjamin for a year and a

half in Switzerland and the

Low

happened

to

Countries.

Some while

afterward Juste

meet again an elevated acquaintance, the Margrave of

Anspach-Bayreuth (whose mistress actress Mile Clairon).

at the

time was the ubiquitous

He advised Juste to send his son to the

University

of Erlangen, founded some forty years before. There Benjamin acquired a good knowledge of German language, literature, and thought, dividing his time between serious study, attendance at court, dissipation,

and the accumulation of gambling debts. By the time he was about

sixteen he felt

it

necessary for his standing to keep a mistress, and he

bizarrely chose a person of easy virtue

did not grant

him her

the Margravine,

would

favors. Benjamin’s

who had been

later refer to

whom

him

as

he did not love and

mockery of the

who

ruler’s wife,

gracious to him, reached her ears: she

having “the tongue of a viper.” 12

h-

*>>•4 6-

PRODIGIES Juste decided to court,

withdraw

from Erlangen and took him

was July

friends. It

who was no

his son,

longer welcome

at

Edinburgh, where he had good

to

Benjamin

1783. After placing

in the

home of

a

teacher of medicine, Juste departed. Benjamin enrolled at the University

and so began what he called “the most pleasant year of my

Edinburgh was no longer seen alleys,

as

Auld Reekie, so

called for

its

life.”

13

noisome

but as the Athens of the North, a city endowed with noble

buildings and

renowned

David Hume,

Adam

for

Smith,

teemed throughout the

its

innovative writers and scholars like

Adam

Ferguson, and

Benjamin was

civilized world.

the only foreign student: the university attracted

abroad to study medicine, law, or

many

political

far

others es-

from being

many who came from

economy.

Benjamin joined various university associations: notably, on No-

vember

he was elected to the Speculative Society, a well-

18, 1783,

known debating

society with

Among

regularly.

the

many

bated, Benjamin voted yes

Charles

I

its

own

political

hall.

and

He

attended

social issues that

justifiable?” His opinions

were already

on whether there should be universal

November

23, 1784,

many

radical.

He opened

toleration,

and on

he gave an address on the influence of pagan

mythology on manners and character— a theme for

were de-

on the question, “Was the execution of

the debate

him

sessions

its

years, culminating in his

that

would occupy

book on paganism, Du Poly-

theisme romain considere dans ses rapports avec la philosophic grecque et la religion chretienne,

published posthumously in 1833. Another question

under debate was “Would

women to have a learned students, twelve voted

it

be to the advantage of society to permit

education?” Even

no and only

five

among these open-minded

voted yes, but Benjamin was

the teller for the “yes” vote, indicating that his views tion

were

on female educa-

liberal for the day.

He made

a

number of good

friends in Edinburgh,

and he would

keep in touch with some of them. Interestingly, he does not mention

“H»-47-77-^-

moderates

like the

THROW

A BOLD

dramatist and politician Marie-Joseph Chenier, brother of the ill-fated poet, as well as influential

members of

the constitutional committee

such as Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, the eternal constitution maker, and

Fran^is-Antoine Boissy d’Anglas, president of the Convention Thermidor. At any time, as he told

his aunt

on July

after

he found

7, 1795,

By

the Constitution far too interesting to think of leaving Paris.

the

beginning of August 1796 he was informing her, “I have recently had a great success in Paris,

I

am on very good terms with the majority in the

Directoire and the Councils.” In the spring of 1797 he told her about

Des

the success of his latest pamphlet,

my

strengthened public.”

ties

As long

situation here

is

with the

as there

exactly as

I

effets

men who

de la Terreur: “It has

are at the head of the Re-

was no counterrevolution, he wish

principles, a lover of liberty,

it

to be: that of a

man

said,

“my

of independent

and esteemed for a certain

talent.”

10

No

sign then, in the early years of his association with Germaine, that he

found her an obstacle to

his

advancement, although the idea

may have

flashed through his mind.

Despite

its

Mme

praise of her in terms that recall his letters to

de

Charriere, his portrait of Mme de Malbee/ Germaine sins by omission.

He

notes her celebrity but does not mention

intelligence

its

nature.

and her “writings,” but he does not refer

He

lauds her

to their important

political character or to the fact that these published writings

preceded 1794,

his.

Her Essai sur les fictions

,

of hers

for example, probably written in

which explored the true psychological nature of the novel and

the need to raise translated

it

into

its

German. Thus, what Benjamin says

compared with what

actually

happened

then must be taken into account. forcefully in Cecile

is

much

that he

in 1811

must be

standing, impressed Goethe so

the

The one

in 1795,

letters

his

own

status

thing that comes across most

new and overwhelming

can ambition in 1795. In his

and

from May

eager, fresh, and largely hopeful and positive.

nature of his republi-

1795,

Benjamin seems

He spoke of Germaine

A BOLD

end of May 1795, as “a person whose heart, mind, astonish-

then, at the

ing and sublime qualities day.”

11

After

to her

even more every

“conquest” of her had not yet been achieved. He

his

all,

draw me and bind me

had a great deal to aim

still

THROW

muse, Egeria, and in a great

In the period that followed,

for,

and he could not do without her as

many ways

the smoother of his path.

both Germaine and Benjamin were pre-

occupied with vital matters on which their establishment in France

One was

depended.

the question of their respective financial resources,

and the other was the knotty subject of their nationality and citizenship, a

problem that would pursue them

As an

inveterate gambler, Benjamin

frenzy of speculation that seized society.

He

was rapidly caught up

little.

And

was

fantastically cheap: his

which consisted of three

commerce seems perhaps

to it

own

said.

among

have aroused no qualms

This type of

his

contempo-

does with the more tender consciences of today.

was by no means unusual for people of their

rooms, cost

fine

the sale of confiscated property, or biens nationaux,

promoted by the government, was “prodigious,” he

raries, as

in the

many members of post-Thermidorean

told his aunt that living in Paris

food, clothing, and lodging,

very

for the rest of their lives.

It

to seek to prevent the confiscation

property while encouraging others to purchase mansions

and landed estates that had been confiscated. One’s high-minded political

principles did not preclude the dedicated pursuit of self-interest.

Benjamin wrote excitedly to tunities for

she

came

investment in biens nationaux.

to

estate” that

his aunt extoling the rich

He

suggested to her that

if

France with 15,000 francs she could buy “a magnificent

would give her an income of 4,800

rates

of interest and went into other details

have

just

at

acquired an unimaginable bargain!

30,000 francs, which gives it is

oppor-

difficult to

make

me

francs.

79

12

specified

considerable length. “I I

have bought land for

8,000 livres income.

a better investment!”

He

You

will

Of course,

admit that

he needed to

THROW

A BOLD

own

property in France in order to be a citizen with the right to vote

and to hold

local or, indeed, national office: so

were bought

said property

as

if

the better

if

“an unimaginable bargain.” Sagely, his

aunt warned him not to put

conceded that

much

all

eggs in one basket. Benjamin

his

the tide turned, a restored

monarchy was

likely to

boot out of the country any owner of biens nationaux and he would have to

flee.

he advised not only his aunt but also

Still,

Samuel de Constant, pointing out

benefits.

its

Germaine

in

Benjamin has

just

made

and that he

will

have in

in France,

solid

stable, the price

you

reassure

money

[as distinct

as himself,

time must be wasted, he urged, because as

Benjamin’s father, Juste,

“To

she declared,

same course of action

of biens nationaux would

on the property mar-

clearly shared Benjamin’s views

ket: writing to

tion that

No

became more

the Republic rise.

to follow the

his uncle,

who wanted news

your fatherly

feelings,

I

of his son, shall

men-

a very fine purchase of biens nationaux all

likelihood ten thousand livres in

from fluctuating paper

assignats\ for the price

of his house in Switzerland.” 13 In order to

sold the house

from

pay

for his

investments in France, Benjamin had

on the rue de Bourg

his mother’s estate.

Normandy:

new

in

Lausanne that he had inherited

He purchased

three separate properties in

Vaux and

farmland, near Gisors; the

the chateau de

its

farm of Coquereaumont, near Rouen; and the farm of Saint-Denis de Moronval, near Dreux. These properties were dispersed: he had travel

be

many

difficult

farms

miles to deal with his

when

in the

it

came

to

Norman

tenant farmers,

paying the landlord.

He was

who

to

could

to sell these

ensuing few years— too soon, Germaine thought, to make

the vast profits he had expected. In the

autumn of 1796 he embarked on

environs of Paris: the abbey of Herivaux and

he had

fifty

men

were engaged

i

in

a

a its

major purchase

in the

adjoining estate. Soon,

day working for him, he reported

to his aunt.

They

knocking down the abbey and other “improvements.”

THROW

A BOLD

Benjamin loved Herivaux, where he could approximate the

of an

life

English country gentleman, a style he had admired during his youthful

He

escapade in Great Britain years before.

countryside— a sharp contrast

am

still

he told his aunt.

and the constant conspiracies.

He

It

green French

enjoying delightful solitude on

him

offered

“my

delighted in walking in

find “a small house, all that

from Paris

a respite

with his beloved dogs. If his aunt were to pay him a

would

soft,

on Lake Geneva, where

to his birthplace

the strong light hurt his eyes. “I

my country estate,”

loved the

visit,

forests”

he wrote, she

remains of the vast building

I

have

had pulled down, some young acacia trees that give no shade, some

young is

no

fruit trees that yield

grass, a

pond

that

no

is

fruit,

newly sown meadows where there

not yet

with water.” 14

filled

He was

so

comfortable there, he told her, that he did not want to leave his acacias. Part of his library

was

in place, the rest

of his books were on their way,

and studying had recovered some of its old attraction. Nonetheless, the extensive “improvements” at Herivaux con-

sumed

a great deal of money.

Benjamin took

to

borrowing

as he

the past to deal with his debts, a course of action that inevitably

Germaine soon perceived

to his troubles.

financial difficulties.

the

sum of 2,400

She was to help him

livres.

that he

later,

in

added

was embroiled

when

Eventually, Jacques Necker

had

in

she could, with

came

to his (tem-

porary) rescue with a large loan of 34,000 francs that Benjamin was inclined to regard as a gift.

Germaine and her by the

fact that

experiencing

ment

for

Benjamin

serious financial problems.

It

explained

was hardly the mo-

to try to recover Necker’s large personal loan to the

royal treasury, and, adding to their problems, Necker’s

placed on the

is

during these years, 1795 to 1798, they were themselves

some

them

father’s delay in helping

list

of emigres, which meant that

all

his

name had been

French properties

and their valuable contents had been sequestrated. Yet, in spite of his high position as finance minister to Louis XVI, he had never

81

become

a

A BOLD French

citizen,

and

as a

THROW

Genevan he could hardly be regarded

an

as

emigre. Germaine would have to take formal steps to persuade the Directors that this was indeed the case. Otherwise, the two mansions that

Necker owned

where she had played

saw

was

ruin.

As

and the chateau and

in Paris

as a child

would be

He

emigres in July 1798.

and then

could

the retreat at Saint-Ouen.

As

now

this

Saint-Ouen

Germaine

fore-

however, Necker’s name

removed from the

finally

list

of

the houses in Paris, retaining

sell

a result,

Benjamin the considerable sum

would keep

confiscated.

a result of her long negotiations,

at first provisionally

estate at

he was

him

to help

property until March 1802,

at

in a position to lend

Herivaux. Benjamin

when he

sold

it

and bought

Les Herbages.

Apart from financial problems, Germaine and Benjamin, in ferent ways,

were faced with the question of

and

both of them— Germaine on her mother’s side—

citizenship. In theory,

could claim descent from the Huguenots the country in 1685,

their nationality

dif-

when Louis XIV

who had been

forced to

flee

repealed the Edict of Nantes that

granted religious toleration to Protestants. During the Revolution, descendants of such forced religious exiles were granted French

citi-

zenship and permitted to return. This approach had been successfully taken by Benjamin’s father,

who was now

residing at Brevans, near

Dole. Benjamin chose to adopt the same argument: although so readily accepted in his case, his petition 1797. His enemies

would never forget

they saw him as a Swiss interloper

French

it

would be granted

that he

was born

in

was not

in

March

Lausanne;

who had no business participating in

affairs.

Germaine’s position was unlike

would seem evident,

his:

therefore, that she

she was born in Paris, and

was

a

French

citizen

by

it

birth.

But matters were not so simple: they were complicated by her dependent legal status as a

woman,

misogyny; and by the

tactics

a daughter,

and a wife; by

a

good dose of

of the powers that be in their mission to

THROW

A BOLD

be rid of her. There was no shortage of excuses. First, her parents were

both Swiss, and Necker’s devotion to the French crown meant nothing

now

that the

monarch had been

to a foreigner

guillotined. Second, she

was married

and thus took her husband ’s Swedish nationality, which

had indeed proved immensely useful to her the Revolution.

When

able to revert to

at critical

moments during

her husband died in 1802 she should have been

French nationality, but the authorities never con-

was the matter

curred. So convoluted

that at times

not sure what her nationality was. She would cation if the occasion arose, but she

irony was that any foreigner

was

who met

even she herself was

make use of the equivo-

also to suffer

under

it.

The

her saw her as French to her

fingertips.

In short, in spite of their great contribution to

and

political life,

siders.

But

it

literature

both Germaine and Benjamin would remain out-

was she alone who would face persecution.

The few months of apparent Paris,

French

security following Germaine’s arrival in

during which she presided over her influential salon, came to a

sudden end on August gendre,

who had been

18.

Her former butcher, the depute Louis Le-

a close associate of the powerful revolutionary

leader Georges-Jacques Danton,

vention. Legendre claimed that she ultraroyalist emigres. that respectable

Mme

de Stael in the Con-

was working

for the return of the

denounced

What seemed

to

him

particularly appalling

members of the government had yielded

to her

of seduction and had even dined with her instead of staying with their families, as they should. M. de Stael, seated diplomats,

was deeply offended, and he rose and

left

was

powers

at

home

among

the chamber.

Nouvelles politiques hastened to Germaine’s defense as “a person

the

The

whose

extraordinary union of intelligence, knowledge and talent honors the

France of her birth,” stressing her tion to the Republic

own and

her husband’s total devo-

and urging respect for her sex and her

gifts.

15

A BOLD

From

the tone of these

French by

birth,

it

THROW

words and

sounds as

especially the allusion to her as

Benjamin could have written them. To

if

be publicly— as well as wrongly and dangerously— attacked as a person engaged in maneuvers on behalf of the ultraroyalists was to convince

Germaine

that

September she departed estate at

would be

it

to a

sufficient

sensible to leave Paris. Early in

mansion on Mathieu de Montmorency’s

Ormesson, near Enghien. Benjamin

visited her there but

returned to Paris regularly to deliver by hand her letters to notabilities,

engage

own

affairs.

Two ber

5,

days after the royalist insurrection of

1795),

Pange

on her behalf, defend

in negotiations

13

her,

and pursue

his

Vendemiaire (Octo-

Benjamin was walking with Germaine’s friend Francis de

in the Palais-Egalite, as the Palais-Royal

was now

called,

when

they were caught up in a brawl. Since the stirrings of the Revolution, the Palais-Royal, today one of the

most peaceful and enchanting en-

claves in the city, had been the center for often-incendiary speeches

and rabble-rousing. From

from numerous

man

its

noble arcades rose the sounds emanating

and gambling dens.

cafes, brothels,

A drunken military

accused the two well-dressed friends of being royalists, a serious

charge in the days following

13

Vendemiaire, and they were seized and

hurried to prison. Nine years

later,

Benjamin

still

night he spent there with Francis de Pange, and idea of what the loss of freedom the footsteps of the free as they that recalls one’s

own

was

like:

“The

remembered

how

it

the

gave him an

noise from the street,

walk beneath the windows, everything and that of others, seemed to

situation

me

the

most unpleasant aspect of being imprisoned.” 16 Fortunately the imprisonment did not leased.

Two

last

long; the following

morning they were

re-

of their influential friends on the Comite du Salut Public,

Louvet and Chenier, came in the portentous style

to their rescue.

of the day:

“I,

4~>- 84^^“

"

Chenier vouched for them

representative of the people,

A BOLD declare that stant to

be

know

I

men

to Chenier,

the citizens

THROW

Francis de Pange and Benjamin Con-

of probity, enlightenment and civic duty.” 17 According

they had publicly condemned the rebels and upheld the

On

Convention.

Benjamin was annoyed that

his release,

his

name,

unlike that of Francis de Pange, did not appear in the press reports of the incident.

He

set

out

once to join Germaine

at

at

Ormesson.

Repressive measures followed the royalist uprising of 13 Vendemiaire,

which had been suppressed by the man of the hour, vicomte

Paul-Jean de Barras, and an as yet little-known Corsican general in his

entourage

named Napoleon Bonaparte.

A

number of Germaine’s

friends fled in fear of their lives to take refuge with her at

This did not please the triumphant

Ormesson.

members of the Convention. Ger-

maine might have looked for assistance from Barras, the new strong

man: she had been

with him since the summer. Handsome,

in contact

courageous, pleasure loving, and corrupt, he appears in her letters to him, where she protector.

not cause

him outrageously,

flatters

He helped

as her hero, savior,

her privately on various occasions,

him too much

trouble, but she could not count

when

on

it

and did

his aid.

Germaine was actually accused of fomenting the uprising, and

a

decree was passed: she must leave France forthwith. M. de Stael protested at this treatment

of his wife and Boissy d’Anglas, one of the

leading politicians, intervened

deprivation of her

human

but Germaine thought

it

on her behalf, both

rights.

The order

to leave

was withdrawn,

wise to depart “on grounds of health” for

Forges-les-Eaux, a small watering place in for Benjamin’s visits to his

was quiet and

citing the unlawful

Norman

farms.

Normandy, chosen perhaps

He duly

joined her there.

dull, just the place for reading, writing,

It

and entertain-

Beaumont— later inamorata of

ing a few friends like sad Pauline de

Fran^ois-Rene de Chateaubriand— who had lost most of her family in the Revolution.

No one seems

to

have inquired whether there was any

8^^

*

4

"

A BOLD

THROW

truth to the charge of Germaine’s participation in a royalist conspiracy. In that ambience of constant fear about plots and plotters, suspicions

against her

were deemed

By mid-December Eaux. She visited Paris

sufficient to

1795

condemn

her.

Germaine had had enough of Forges-les-

briefly,

where she met Ribbing, then she

left

with Benjamin for Coppet. There she remained for a year, until De-

cember 1796, though Benjamin would return from time capital to

ney

pursue his ambitions and also serve her

Coppet was not an easy one

to

the inveterate traveler, wrote to

“You

to time to the

interests.

The

jour-

depths of winter. Germaine,

in the

Francis de Pange from Besan9on:

are quite right not to travel.

What

roads!” At the relays where

they changed horses, she added, any attempt to pay with “republican”

paper

On

money was

the very

out of the question: people wanted only hard cash.

same day she confided

Ribbing

to

how

she had suffered

being constantly shaken up in the carriage, and she

had before

still

her the prospect of crossing the “terrible mountains” of the Jura, with their perilous precipices,

dark

fir

trees,

and dazzlingly white expanses

of snow. 18

Once

safely ensconced at Coppet,

enthusiasm for the Republic, Germaine and Benjamin

their great tled

where Necker did not share

down

some

to

closest literary

and

finishing the first

passions sur

le

serious writing. These

political collaboration.

volume of her

Germaine was

substantial study,

bonheur des individus

et

autumn of Cecilia ,

spirits,”

on her contemporaries when

1796. Already

still

Fanny Burney,

who had heard parts of it being read

it

at

their

work

De Vinfluence

des nations (the second

never appeared). Addressed to “passionate great impression

were the years of

her book

set-

des

volume

made

was published

a

in the

the author of Evelina and

aloud

when Germaine was

staying with Narbonne and other friends at Juniper Hall in Surrey in 1793,

was

lost

i

n admiration for

this

86

“profound

politician

and meta-

THROW

A BOLD

physician.” Stendhal found “very fine truths” in that he

could

was “trying

Rosalie de Constant,

less

and remarked wryly French” so that he

to translate her thoughts into

make use of them,

criticizing

it

he did. At readings in Switzerland,

as indeed

no unconditional admirer, could not forbear

Germaine’s “metaphysical gobbledegook” but was nonethe-

“astounded by the profundity of her ideas and delighted with the

brilliance, the

As

power or

for Benjamin, he

political

pamphlet De

was engaged on

Directoire, with

his first

19

important work, his

du gouvernement actuel de

la force

which made

necessite d’y rallier,

The

the novelty of her thoughts.”

its

la

France

et

de la

appearance in the spring of 1796.

whose prominent

figures he

now had

close

ties,

greeted the pamphlet with great approval. Indeed, so pleased were the

members of the government Moniteur the ,

that they decided to

official journal.

have

it

reprinted in Le

Yet such government approbation never

extended to Germaine. Instead, she was being accused once again of conspiring against the state; the Directoire gave the order for her to be arrested at the frontier if she ventured to return to France. Instructions

were precise: her carriage was to be thoroughly searched for cases with bottoms, interior safes, and concealed shelves

false

were not

to

be overlooked. “The

woman named

— even

the axles

Stael” figured

on

a

list

of thieves, forgers, and other criminals. Germaine’s indignation at this

knew no bounds:

offensive treatment

she was not one to keep

With her uncle Necker de Germany she hastened Felix Desportes, the

a letter

could go to France

from her husband who asserted

police denied

any knowledge of the order

not think,

that the Directoire will not

that

I

am

sir,

my home

and

in

it

suited her.

that the minister of

be pleased to see me:

my

-v->-87'< ^~

when

to arrest her, she cried,

part author of Benjamin Constant’s

written entirely in

to the office of

French representative in Geneva, to request a visa

for her passport so that she

Waving

silent.

work;

that this

it

“Do

knows

work was

presence; consequently

it

is

,

THROW

A BOLD impossible for

M. Constant

[the Directoire] to

it

doubt

my

very closely connected with

is

devotion to the

all

its

cause.

members of

the

Directoire .” 20 Thus, ironically, a year after her arrival in Paris with the

unknown Benjamin his ties

Constant, the famous

with the Directoire,

ties that

Mme de

Stael

contacts to have her writings noticed, did

to

Le Journal

and recommending

de Paris

on

drawing on her

she could to publicize

all

Benjamin’s pamphlet, urging Roederer to review paper,

to rely

she had originally instigated.

who was accustomed

Meanwhile, Germaine,

had

it

it

favorably in his

to another acquain-

tance for publication in England and Germany. Her claim to Desportes to

be part author of De

by her comments

la force

to Roederer,

du gouvernement actuel

who,

in her opinion,

is

contradicted

had not

sufficiently

appreciated Constant’s pamphlet in Le Journal de Paris: “Benjamin’s

work

is

not mine,” she declared. Admittedly, she wrote, there were

places to criticize, but “see a pamphlet.

own

I

that

even

have of his intellectual

we most admire

in

if it is

possible to put

was

I

ability.

.

more

ideas and style in

surprised, despite the high opinion .

.

There are pages equal

I

what

to

French.” Then, after praising his purely literary

accomplishments, she offered her main political criticism: “I should

never have

justified the

Jacobin appointments,” that

men on

administrative positions given to to

moderates

21 .

the extreme Left rather than

the

dilemma

that customarily follows the

of an arbitrary regime: after the death or exile of

distinguished public servants, the government

ploy any

official

many

often obliged to

is

em-

with experience, whatever his credentials. Germaine

could not agree: “This book and declaring her independence All the same,

De

I

make two,” she

insisted to Roederer,

22 .

la force

du gouvernement actuel was written while

Benjamin was staying with her: they discussed in progress to

the important

Benjamin, more responsive to the practical needs of the

moment, had recognized total collapse

is,

it,

they read their works

each other, and they shared the same ideas. Germaine

88

A BOLD

THROW

had stressed the need to reinforce the center in two essays of 1794, her Reflexions sur la paix adressees a ions sur la paix interieure.

And

M.

Pitt et

there

is at

aux Frangais and her Reflex-

least

one reminiscence of her

the passions in Benjamin’s pamphlet. Germaine,

book on

trenchant images,

compared

who

favored

the powerful passion of love to “the burn-

ing wind of Africa” that desiccates and destroys everything in a

comparison so striking and novel that

among Swiss wags of neoclassical

it

its

would arouse much

path,

hilarity

Benjamin, whose style usually

taste.

tended to be more sober, alluded to an all-consuming feeling “like the

burning winds of Africa” that cause wither.

23

he used In to

it

himself.

De

la force

make

may have been

Benjamin

the

in their

all

path to

grow dry and

so taken with the forceful image that

du gouvernement actuel Benjamin

government strong and

attractive.

tried to

show how

He developed an

idea of

Germaine’s that he had already adumbrated in his Lettres a un depute de la Convention,

namely, that after the Revolution of 1789 there could be

no going back. He also returned to a theme that he had worked on

in

Brunswick but had abandoned, a refutation of Edmund Burke’s Reflections

on the French Revolution (1790),

much admired

for the force of its

counterrevolutionary arguments. For Benjamin, as for Germaine, the

end of the ancien regime meant the end of heredity: a person’s destiny

no longer depended on birth but on merit. Humanity’s forward drive toward the newly formed interests that arose from

this great

was inevitable and unstoppable, and so there was no point by counterrevolutionaries to prevent alist

it,

like the

change

in attempts

British-sponsored roy-

invasion of Quiberon that had failed the previous year.

He saw the

main threat coming from the Right, although the communist “Conspiracy of Equals” led

winter of 1795—96. stained

by “Gracchus” Babeuf came

The Revolution was not

all

by the crimes of the Terror. The way

principles of 1789

from the Terror was

->->•89^-

to light in the

of a piece, permanently to separate the valuable

to establish a strong republic

A BOLD

THROW

based on law, with guarantees of order and liberty— a firmly grounded republic that

would

parties. Here,

he and Germaine were agreed.

attract the support

Whereas Germaine pamphlet her

De

on October

personal, aspects.

de

Stael, “a

He remarked

Frenchwoman,”

political ideas are

cal

which he reviewed

He

26, 1796.

discussed there

that unlike

about

his reservations

most

in

Le Moniteur

its political,

women

dealt successfully with the

writers,

most

not

Mme

difficult

and moral subjects: “The principles are generally good; the

political

author

Benjamin made public

to Roederer,

all

privately expressed her reservations about the

I’influence des passions,

Universel

of reasonable people of

is

not free from error. ...

It

becomes

clear that the

better acquainted with the theory of liberty than with practi-

knowledge of the Revolution.” 24 Hence her prejudice against

the

estimable Condorcet, a note that “produces a painful effect.” Leaving aside the reputation of that ill-fated revolutionary philosopher, Ben-

jamin’s

comment sounds

daughter,

who had

patronizing: after

was

all, it

she, Necker’s

experienced the Revolution firsthand as he had not,

and she had also been closely associated with many of the leading thinkers and participants.

He hastened

to add,

however, that these

small faults or errors of judgment did not detract from the merit of the

work

as a whole.

He quoted

incided with his own.

It

is

her political views where they co-

at this point, a

few months

after they

have become lovers, that Benjamin marked the connection between

some of their intellectual

ideas while at the

independence

same time seeking

vis a vis a

to

woman who

demonstrate

his

remains under

a

government cloud.

The long period of eighteen months his passion, either in extravagant

having been rejected or

ended

in

that

Benjamin had spent proving

and violent displays of despair

devoted attention to her every need,

in success in the spring

of 1796. Germaine’s distress

->'’-90^*

at

at

finally

being

THROW

A BOLD betrayed,

first

in the bitter

by Narbonne and then by Ribbing, had found expression

complaints of her ambitious book on the passions, but near

the close of the

book

the author

still

preserved hopes of finding what

she had always sought, lasting happiness in love: “Perhaps, at the very

moment

am

I

speaking,

I

believe,

still

I

wish

to'

be loved .” 25 That

touching phrase gives a hint, maybe, of the place that Benjamin was

beginning to assume in her

life.

Germaine might not have been physically attracted

to

Benjamin, he

might not have had the aristocratic graces and the heroic virtues of her ideal,

but gradually she grew convinced that his sensibility was different

And perhaps that very sense of

from that of his ungrateful predecessors.

woman

difference gave a disillusioned

wrote

in her

book on

Benjamin, that

it

the illusion of a fresh start. She

the passions, in a passage that might apply to

would be eminently

“man whose energy has not

desirable to be the sole love of a

effaced his sensibility,

who

cannot bear the

thought of another’s misery, and places his honor in kindness, a faithful to

vows

that public opinion does not guarantee .”

26

Proof of the existence of such a steadfast and solicitous be found in an extraordinary document secret pledge or register

known

man was to

as the Testament, a

of their commitment to each other.

gins with a mutual confession of faith, followed

man

It

be-

by Benjamin’s declara-

tion alone:

We

promise to devote our

lives to

regard each other as indissolubly

way our another

soon as I

fate lies in tie,

and that

we have

the

declare that

undertake

common

this

we

forever, that

to

truly

commitment,

and good as Mad. de

bound

do

we

shall

Stael, that

we

never contract

which unite us

as

so.

from the bottom of that

declare that

together, that in every

shall reinforce those

power

it is

we

each other,

I I

-H-C) I ««-4*

know

my

heart that

I

nothing on earth as kind

have been the happiest of

men

A BOLD during the four months

have spent with her, and that

I

the greatest happiness of

while she

is

this earth.

end of

whom

is

life

it

make her happy

to be able to

with the being

all

would

there

no

exist

who

understands

interest,

no

me on

feeling

is

signed by Benjamin, though not by Germaine,

undated.

None of eternal love,

his predecessors,

had ever

lifelong trust, faith,

conceive or formulate or April

who

months”

and it.

fidelity.

It

less

needed two born

The Testament

1796— after “four months”

after the

doubtless uttered protestations of

written such a declaration that formally

Coppet, from December onwards.

seems

consider

27

The Testament and

my

I

young, to grow old gracefully along with her and

to arrive at the

and without

THROW

promised

litterateurs to

thought to date from March

is

spent happily working together at

Or

it

consummation of the

might date from

July,

“four

Yet the actual date

liaison.

important than the nature and content of the document, an

extraordinary contract of unconventional spiritual marriage in which the

two “betrothed” affirm

their intention to regularize their

soon as they are able— Germaine of course Stael

teristically,

and

document

vows of marriage made

written in the

ria,

as

being married to M. de

still

(Benjamin had recently obtained a German divorce from his

wife, Minna). This

the

union

as “I.” will

in church.

The

first

declares that he will devote his

was

part of the contract

as

is

“we.” Then, charac-

off to speak for himself, in a state of eupho-

never leave her as long as they

together: this

needed

surely intended to be as permanent as

name of both of them, speaking

Benjamin veers

He

is

just the sort

life

to

live, that

making her happy

they will

grow

old

of thing that Germaine longed and

to hear.

Was

the Testament

composed by Benjamin

by Germaine, with the intention of proving

92

alone,

to her

though inspired

once and for

all,

A BOLD

THROW

long a period of trial, the depth of his feelings? She could have

after so

signed the

first part.

Why did she not do so? Was

it

because she did not

need to declare her commitment, since her “surrender” was

Or was

it

sufficient?

because the second part of the document related primarily to

Benjamin’s point of view, as he was borne aloft in his discovery of “the

who

being

someone

understands me”? She, looking for lasting love, wanted

to support

claimed the the

norm

and protect her,

for

whole history of

She

whose

knew

talents

manner

women. She had expressed a

woman’s

life;

was

history of hers, devoted as she tion.

in the

however,

also to

she was a celebrated

the

it

that society pro-

view

that love

is

was not the whole

works of ideas and imagina-

woman

of independent means

were widely recognized. Thus she held

in her

mind two

images of womanhood: the delicate creature, weak by nature,

who

needed to be supported and protected by an admired master, and the

woman. She would never be

daring, visionary, exceptional reconcile the two, either in her

There were some,

life

relatives

able to

or in her novels.

and

friends,

who

did not

warm

to the

idea of their liaison. Rosalie de Constant, always thinking of Benjamin’s interests,

lead.

worried about her cousin and wondered where

it

would

all

Mathieu de Montmorency, ever concerned for Germaine, had

serious doubts about Benjamin’s sincerity

Saussure

how

and told Albertine Necker de

he had questioned Germaine several times, warned her

about Benjamin, and begged her not to land herself in “a misfortune greater than any she could previously have

He

stated for Germaine’s benefit

“disturbed

mind” and his wild

known from

what he thought about Benjamin’s

“political

outbursts”— the grand seigneur

did not share the ambitious Benjamin’s republican “that

seem not

Mathieu style

of

listed

to

experience.”

ardor— utterances

be rooted in his heart or his beliefs .” 28 In addition,

among Benjamin’s faults his unfortunate

appearance, his

of dress, his odd obsessive habits, his nervous mannerisms. All

this left

Mathieu astounded when trying to conceive the kind of

93

A BOLD attachment

man

this

THROW

How

could inspire.

result in so unattractive a

He

person?

could so

much

intelligence

discussed his misgivings with

Adrien de Mun, elegant and cultivated grandson of Helvetius (the favored philosopher of Benjamin’s youth), Justifying herself to Adrien,

who

Germaine did not

shared his opinion.

Benjamin but said simply, “His defects are on the surface and qualities lie

now

she

deep down.” 29 By

this

time she had

of

reject the criticism

come

to count

his

on what

believed to be Benjamin’s intrinsic virtues hidden behind an

unfavorable exterior; besides, she had had enough of those whose

outward grace concealed If

their inner failings.

Germaine preserved any lingering doubts about her

liaison with

Benjamin, they were dispelled in July 1796 by an act of chivalry.

du jour that libeled Benjamin as a “terror-

article

appeared

ist,” a

member of the extreme

in the Feuille

Although he was

him

a cutting to

in Paris

make

a rebuttal; instead, tin

Left actively opposed to the Directoire.

on one of his periodic

sure he

saw

it.

visits,

Germaine sent

She was expecting him to publish

Benjamin challenged the author of the

de Vaux, to a duel.

in Switzerland, she

An

When news

article,

Ber-

of the challenge reached Germaine

trembled in agony and apprehension about the

outcome; she could not stop crying. She loved courage, but she also loved

life.

Here was the situation of countless novels she had read,

where the hero bravely puts

his life at risk

revealed not only to herself but also for

The

when

a

parties

were

in the Bois

all

and the heroine’s love

to see.

de Boulogne with pistols

at the

ready

mutual friend, Honore-Jean Riouffe— a former Girondin

had been

in prison

with

Mme

is

Roland but escaped her

terrible

who

fate—

intervened and reconciled the duelists. Bertin de Vaux published a

generous retraction, declaring that he had been misinformed: “No-

body

is less like

a terrorist than

M. Constant.” 30 Another

journalist,

however, took up the gauntlet: he spoke of Benjamin as “this adventurer

who

has arrived from Switzerland with the express purpose of

••^>-94^^*

A BOLD

THROW

teaching the government the secret of making use of terrorists to

murder honest men” and accused him of cowardice, which was tainly not

one of his

faults.

“Honor and glory

to the Constant

31 of Mme de Stael!” sneered the scribbler. Bertin de Vaux

felt

cer-

Benjamin

obliged to

issue a further rebuttal, contradicting his colleague’s fanciful account

of the duel and proclaiming his newfound friendship with his honorable opponent.

Before setting out for the Bois de Boulogne, Benjamin had pon-

dered on the likely effect that news of his death would have on Ger-

He

maine, with her high emotionalism and acute sense of suffering.

drew up

his will, leaving her the

his papers,

and a

He

ring.

house and estate of La Chabliere,

penned

also

all

a note to be sent to her in the

event of the worst, announcing that he was seriously wounded. Such

when

delicacy,

it

became known

knew what he means again,

to

to her,

me, what a

letter

what an angel of sensibility he

everything in

my

life

moved her deeply.

is

I

have

for

me:

lie.

“Oh!

I

forever.” 32

it is

life

from him

on him alone

now hanging on

love— that she had employed

“What I have

Ribbing.

just received

that

depends,” she told Rosalie de Constant. Ger-

maine used the very same phrase— her whole thread of Benjamin’s

“If you only

have really

suffered

is

felt that

for

the

Narbonne and

beyond words,” she informed Rosa-

my

life’s

Germaine may have originally

destiny depended on

him

drifted into the liaison with

Benjamin for consolation, but by July and August 1796 she was passionately in love with him, as he found

welcome

at

when he

Coppet.

The question of divorce was mooted. de

Stael,

returned to a joyous

If

Germaine divorced Eric

she and Benjamin would be able to regularize their union and

marry, as proposed in the Testament.

Word of their intentions,

if that is

what they were, soon leaked out. Some friends were shocked idea.

Although divorce had been

spite the laxity

legal in

France since 1792, and de-

and license of society under the Directoire,

“>>•9 5

at the

it

carried a

A BOLD THROW grand monde. Pauline de Beaumont, speaking of

definite stigma in le

Germaine’s rumored plans for divorce and remarriage, told Charles de Constant that “you would need courage to see

Mme de Stael if she does

such a foolish thing.” 33 But nothing came of their supposed plans.

Necker was opposed less

though he consented to her more or

to the idea,

formal separation from her husband

visit to

Coppet

in

September 1796, on

And Germaine was

les-Bains.

when M. de

his

way to

made

Stael

a brief

take the waters at Aix-

not going to make any

involve the loss of her children. Nonetheless, the

move

last

that

might

had not been

heard of the question of marriage between Benjamin and herself.

The bold gamble of their venture

to Paris

and the two years spent amid

the early chaotic upheavals and perils of the Directoire produced very different results for

tion at last in the

and

with leading literary figures, philosophers, and

and began

political thinker

center of political affairs. In short, he negotiations with important

own

position— however much

to establish his

might be challenged— as an active

also for his

his direc-

world of politics; made numerous invaluable personal

social contacts

intellectuals;

Germaine and Benjamin. He discovered

men

and writer

it

at the

became known. He entered

into

not only on Germaine’s behalf but

He

sake in order to claim French citizenship.

acquired

property in France that would eventually allow him to take part in elections

and stand for public

pursuit of

office.

Germaine was crowned with

he wanted:

(partial) satisfaction

leader of a

party— and

On

top of

all that,

his

success. In theory, he

of his ambitions— he was

fulfillment of the passion he

dogged

had what

still

not the

had so long and

ardently displayed.

Germaine, however, suffered a number of setbacks. Her Parisian salon, brilliant as

it

had appeared, was of brief duration. She did not

succeed, as she had hoped, in establishing herself as a

shaker in republican politics.

The men

in

power were not

mover and interested in

A BOLD

THROW

her advice as they were in Benjamin’s, though his differed hers.

Her motives were questioned: she was

intrigante, a

woman who meddled

part of her “sphere.” Worse, she

still

in politics, in matters that

capital. It

a result, she

was obliged

to

her

felon if

spend months away from the like the political

Benjamin and that he sustained with

fulfillment that she engineered for

the talent she had recognized and nurtured.

their various difficulties.

set foot in

common

cannot be said that she achieved anything

however, she was able to do

were not

was accused of conspiring against the

beloved Paris, and even threatened with arrest as a

As

from

widely regarded as an

very Republic she wished to support, forbidden to

she did.

little

much

On

the positive side,

to help her father

and her friends

She published to widespread acclaim the

in

first

of her major works, her book on the passions, whereas Benjamin so far

had produced only

articles

and a

was. Moreover, she entered into a

companion surely,

political

new phase of her

as passionate as she was,

proof of his undying love.

pamphlet, important as

it

relationship with a

an intellectual equal.

And

she had,

CHAPTER FOUR

Enter the Hero

Throughout the year

1796, and throughout

all

the

comings and

goings between Coppet and Paris and the provinces, Germaine and

Benjamin could hear the thundering reverberations of French vicGeneral Napoleon Bonaparte, appointed commander in chief of

tories.

the French

army

in Italy in

afterward, in May.

March of

From Montenotte

that year, entered Milan to Castiglione,

soon

Roverdo and

Bassano to Arcole and Rivoli, Napoleon’s campaign against Austria looked

like

one long triumph up

to the peace of

October 1797). Other French generals, such

were

also

supremely successful

young Bonaparte, already

a

as

Campo Formio

(in

Moreau and Hoche,

in defeating the Austrians,

but the

master of propaganda, issued such elo-

quent proclamations and addresses to his soldiers that he captured the public imagination with his elan and bravura. Here,

it

seemed, was a

grand and glorious accomplishment to counter the obscure machinations of plotters

and extremists on the Left and Right and the devi-

ous maneuvers of disreputable politicians. There was no talk then of

French exploitation and despoliation of Italy.

Benjamin could not help but his articles, while

to allude to the victorious armies in

Germaine — always

98

attracted to feats of physical

ENTER THE HERO courage— saw Bonaparte admired

in literature.

The echo of the army’s

ground bass

serve as a

as the incarnation of the hero she so

to the experiences

exploits in Italy

much would

and thoughts of Germaine

and Benjamin, though neither could foresee the path that the Corsican general would take only a few years later in 1799

when he

seized

power. During the drama of their further involvement in the upheavals

of the Directoire, Bonaparte would appear twice in person, on his return from Italy after the peace of

Campo Formio and

again on his

return from Egypt.

At Coppet

in

October 1796, Germaine was complaining about feeling

ill— something she did extremely rarely. Usually she enjoyed such

good health

that she

had trouble appreciating or sympathizing with the

ailments of others. This time, she had the vapors, she had a fever, she felt at a

very low ebb. Germaine,

it

turned out, was pregnant.

She was determined, however, not to allow her pregnancy to interfere with her intention to return to France.

quired about her “position” there, she said

it

When

was

a friend in-

distinctly

bad be-

cause of continuing accusations about her supposed connections with ultraroyalists, but she

the spring of 1795.

The

to return to France, 19, 1796,

was determined Directoire

still

and when she

set

to defy danger, just as she

had

had not granted her permission out from Coppet on

December

she was indebted to Benjamin for his protection. Earlier, the

only protection he could offer was his mere manly presence; now, included his important and useful connections with the

With

a

view toward having

(Saint-Ouen was at Angervillers,

went

still

until April,

when

Benjamin she

a

men

in

it

power.

French country residence of her

own

under sequestration), Germaine bought a house

but she disliked

to stay with

fortable

in

moved

and closer to her

it

and did not keep

at Fieri vaux

to

it

long. Instead, she

from the beginning of 1797

Ormesson, where she was more com-

friends.

•->•

Then,

99

at the

end of May, she moved

ENTER THE HERO to the

Swedish embassy on the rue du Bac, where, on June

birth to a daughter, Albertine.

to call, all

in the afternoon.

soon engaged

which was taken

day,

like

in discussing

any other

at

A steady stream of friends came with her the events of the day.

The more conservative among them expected her nursing the infant,

she gave

days later she was issuing invita-

main meal of the

tions to dinner, then the

around four o’clock

Two

8,

woman

to

be

still

abed and

in her circumstances,

though

they acknowledged sourly that Germaine had enough servants to deal

with any mundane

Much Stael, later

to

Coppet

tasks.

ink has been spilled about the parentage of Albertine de

duchesse de Broglie. As noted, M. de Stael paid a brief visit in

September 1796, and he also stayed there on

from Aix-les-Bains. Despite insist

on

his virtual separation

his conjugal rights?

Some have noted

Albertine had red hair— but that

is

from

his return

his wife, did

that, like

he

Benjamin,

hardly conclusive. More striking

is

the deep affection and attachment to Albertine that he always felt— and

— quite

often confided to his diary

brothers, Auguste and Albert, which

They even went on older.

It

looks as

if

unlike his relationship with her

was

cordial

writing letters to each other

when

close.

Albertine was

he believed she was his daughter, although that

bond did not involve any commitment on and education. In

enough but not

later years

his part to her

upbringing

Germaine, short of funds, expected him to

contribute to Albertine’s dowry, which she could scarcely have done unless she believed

him

to

be the

girl’s father.

the duchesse de Broglie destroyed

all

After her mother’s death,

the letters in her possession

between Germaine and Benjamin, which makes determined to eliminate any hint of her all

own

it

likely that she

was

illegitimacy as well as

the private and personal details of their convoluted relationship.

The need

to preserve her mother’s reputation as well as her

would have been paramount. The few confirm

this hypothesis. In

any

letters that

own

survived tend to

case, Albertine created an emotional

~> >* IOO'"-

ENTER THE HERO tie

between Germaine and Benjamin

throughout their

No

would

that

lives.

sooner was Germaine up and about than she was again busy

own

not only with her

with the

affairs

of her

preoccupations and family concerns but also

many

who was

Autun,

to

Most notable among

aristocratic friends.

was Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the

these

figure prominently

occupy an important place

(unlikely) bishop of

in her life for the next

few years. Along with many highborn young men under the ancien

who found

regime

themselves condemned to be unwilling members of

the clergy, he lived nonetheless a

An

accident in childhood had

life

left

of pleasure and self-indulgence.

him with

a

pronounced limp, but

apparently this did nothing to detract from his charming elegance.

Chateaubriand,

who

his youth. In her

was warm,

loathed him, asserted that he was good-looking in

younger days, Germaine’s friendship with Talleyrand

to say the least. In

London

in 1793

he had formed part of

her social circle and had associated with her and his close friend

Narbonne while they resided

at

Juniper Hall. After leaving England for

the United States, Talleyrand wrote desperate letters begging her to

save him: “If cried.

1

I

stay in this place another year

I

shall die here,”

Imagining his imminent demise, she could not

let

such a plea go

unheard. Enlisting the aid of Chenier, she succeeded in having charges against Talleyrand dropped and his list

of emigres: the

way was open

name

he

all

the

eliminated from the

for his return to France. She

was

overjoyed, and so was he: he wrote to her that she had achieved absolutely everything he desired.

Making

his

way

via

September 1796, not long faced a

Hamburg, Talleyrand arrived after the birth

new problem: how was he going

unemployed, he complained

to

Germaine

in Paris in

of Albertine. But he soon to live?

Impecunious and

that he could barely

manage

without some post. Germaine provided him with funds and applied directly to Barras

on

his behalf, pointing out that

by finding

a place for

ENTER THE HERO

man

such a gifted

the Director

would have

at his side

someone he

could trust implicitly. Finally, Barras yielded to her repeated entreaties. Talleyrand was appointed minister of foreign affairs on July

The

was nothing

like the

and power broker of

Mme

obligated to Germaine

famous (or infamously corrupt) wily diplomat later years.

He owed

immense fortune— to Germaine de view of

who was

untried Talleyrand of 1797

16, 1797.

de La Tour du Pin,

career— and

and everyone knew

Stael,

who

his entire

like

his

The

it.

Talleyrand had recently

returned with her husband from the United States, was typical: “The intervention of

Mme

de

Stael, all

powerful

at that

time through Ben-

jamin Constant, had made him a minister,” she was to write in her

memoirs, probably overstating Benjamin’s power but not influence.

his status

and

2

Germaine expressed her gratitude

to Barras.

She was soon engag-

ing Talleyrand to intervene with Napoleon in Italy on behalf of an aristocratic

widow in

tion for her late

dire distress

husband ’s

who was pursuing Italian compensaOne

sufferings.

from Talleyrand’s appointment was

personal gain for Germaine

that she

without Benjamin— to dinners and soirees affairs.

was invited— with or

at the

ministry of foreign

At one of these functions she met Lucien Bonaparte, Napo-

leon’s brother,

whose improvisatory

theatrical

harangue to the guards

during the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire 1799 was to turn the tide and consolidate Napoleon’s success. Lucien, his brother,

there

ing

was

would remain

talk

a

good

who

eventually

fell

out with

friend to Germaine. For a while, too,

of Benjamin becoming Talleyrand’s secretary, but noth-

came of it. At

first,

Germaine had some reason

to feel satisfied: for the

mo-

ment, no more was heard of her being arrested, nor had she been ordered to leave the country. Not only had she obtained the provisional removal of her father’s

she had

managed

name from

the

list

of emigres, but also

to raise her friend Talleyrand to high office. In

ENTER THE HERO addition she had witnessed with no success at the Club de Salm, later

little

known

pleasure Benjamin’s great

as the Cercle Constitutionnel,

where the leading philosophes, ideologues men of science, and ,

cians forgathered to debate the future of the Republic.

A

Des reactions politiques, together with

tion of his pamphlet,

de la Terreur, appeared in June to

much

politi-

second edihis

Des

effets

acclaim. His fears about the

advance of the Right and the increasing activity of reactionary royal-

were being confirmed.

ists

Yet, while

and ist

Benjamin was enjoying such great success

a political thinker,

The more

hacks.

mince

their words.

Germaine became

as a journalist

the target of many ultraroyal-

polite resorted to ironic digs, but

most did not

She was called a “hermaphrodite” (suggesting a

man-woman, or even

a bisexual), “a prostitute,” “a spark

of discord,”

“the most active and despicable intrigante in Europe,” “MessalinaStael” or a sink of sexual perversion, “a witch,” “a dressed-up hag,”

and

3 so on. Since the Revolution similar insults, often with the innuendo of

sexual license and perversion, had been leveled at any

seen to play

some

role in public

life,

woman who was

from Marie Antoinette

to

Manon

Roland. This consequence of Germaine’s fame could not have been pleasant for her, and she seriously

damage

must have feared

that such gross insults

her, putting her at greater risk.

Benjamin’s status in the public eye and her

was being affirmed

daily, hers

The

would

contrast between

own was marked:

while his

remained precarious. She carried on

regardless.

On Barras.

September

They knew

4,

Germaine and Benjamin spent the evening with

that the Directoire

was about

to strike against the

extreme Right, and they approved of this action as essential to save the Republic. Germaine, however,

Benjamin and

to Barras if

was

afraid of

anything went wrong.

something she did not anticipate, and Benjamin.

what might happen

it

What

to

followed was

forced her to differ from

a

ENTER THE HERO

boom

Hearing the

Mme

friend

of cannons,

de Valence, curious to

Mme

de La Tour du Pin and her

know what was going

on, dressed

inconspicuously and set out on foot through streets that they found either deserted or full of soldiery to call

with Benjamin Constant,” remembered

Mme

on

Mme

de

Stael.

“She was

de La Tour du Pin, “ar-

guing with him very heatedly because he maintained that the Directoire’s

able.”

coup

4

d’etat, in arresting the [royalist] deputes,

Germaine was

government

arrest,

reminder of his pierre’s

fearful

was indispens-

about the treatment of royalists under

while Benjamin used the argument of necessity—

earlier

view

in

Brunswick when he regarded Robes-

tyranny as necessary.

Unlike the events of 13 Vendemiaire 1795, the Directoire’s coup of 18 Fructidor

(September

repression: suspects

4,

1797) was marked by the most severe

were rounded up, imprisoned without

trial,

ished summarily, or deported to French Guiana, a punishment as the

ban-

known

“dry guillotine” because prisoners rarely survived the ordeal.

Germaine was deeply shocked: what she had wanted was

the strength-

ening of the Directoire and the victory of the Republic, not these draconian measures taken indiscriminately against people defeated, including those

and

his wife, she

who were

innocent.

Some

tances

for

Ormesson, where she gave refuge

who were

fleeing

A few days later

to friends

and acquain-

from proscription. Soon, she was being ac-

cused of showing far too royalist victims

in

Dupont de Nemours,

she saved from deportation by appealing to Chenier. left

Suard

friends, like

had warned beforehand, and they had escaped

time. Others, like the economist Pierre-Samuel

she

who were

much sympathy

for the

“

fructidorises

the

of 18 Fructidor.

Germaine could not forget her part

in desiring the

and she famously spoke of her profound remorse (1800) and again later in Considerations sur

les

in

De

coup

d’etat,

la litterature

principaux evenements

ENTER THE HERO de la Revolution franqaise (published posthumously in 1818). Benja-

min would

criticize the

(1830), but in 1797

it

events of 18 Fructidor in Souvenirs historiques

was

a different matter.

Soon

coup he

after the

enjoyed one of his most successful moments:, the speech he delivered

on September

16 at the

newly reopened Cercle Constitutionnel was

loudly applauded by an immense crowd that spilled out in front of the

(former) Palais Bourbon close by.

balcony to uttered

cries

of “ Vive

la

He was

asked to repeat

from the

it

Republique /” which presumably were not

by those who disapproved of the deportations. Several

zenesses” were present, but

it is

unlikely that

“citi-

Germaine was among

them. She was intending to go to Switzerland without Benjamin, she said,

although in fact she did not leave France. She informed his uncle,

Samuel de Constant: “Your nephew

will not

be accompanying me;

my

stay will be brief and his successes are very great in the party of which

When

he approves.

the Cercle Constitutionnel reopened he gave a

speech before two thousand people that was applauded as

Gracchus

Rome. You can imagine

in

that

he

has done everything he possibly could for

dear to me: principles

it is

to

him alone

would not

Clearly,

that

suffice for

content in France.

feels

me

me

to

are

to stay in France.

My

be forgiven for

Benjamin was not aiming to leave

He

who

and for those

owe being able

I

he were

if

Paris;

my sympathies.”

5

he wanted to take

advantage of his rising position with the victors and his success in reinforcing

it

through his networking, his speeches, and his writings.

Talleyrand would be recommending him to Bonaparte in

was thinking of forming was doing well

a

group ofpublicistes, or

in his ambitious projects, as

Italy,

journalists.

who

Benjamin

noted in Germaine’s

letter:

“His successes are very great in the party of which he approves.” She could have said “the party of which we approve,” but she did not do so

because she did not support what she regarded as punishment without trial

and the vindictive pursuit of the vanquished. She made

105-4

it

plain

ENTER THE HERO that

he

felt

“content”— though she did

this time, in the

autumn of

career.

certainly not

all

would be surprising if by

Germaine had done

a potential obstacle to the

And Germaine,

It

1797, given his personal success, Benjamin

did not feel that, in spite of

now proving

not.

for him, she

advancement of

begrudging

suffice for

words suggest

his political

while acknowledging her debt to him and his success, could not refrain

separating herself from his stance on 18 Fructidor:

would not

was

me

be forgiven for

to

my

from obliquely

“My

principles

sympathies.” These

that her republican ideals, sincere as they were, did not

serve to gain acceptance for her moderation and her humanitarian

conduct; they also suggest that such humanitarianism was not Benjamin’s prime concern at the In her

memoirs

Mme

moment.

de La Tour du Pin, a moderate royalist,

declared that she had seen Germaine almost every day during this

period and that there was a difference of opinion between Germaine

and Benjamin: “In

spite

of her more than intimate liaison with Ben-

jamin Constant she was working for the royalist party, or rather, for a

compromise.” 6 plausible, for

ism,

Mme

de La Tour du Pin’s swift self-correction seems

Germaine,

who

was always seeking

the moderates of

could not bear extremism and sectarian-

reconciliation and a

compromise between

Mme de La Tour du Pin did whom she thought a hypocrite.

However,

all parties.

not disguise her dislike of Benjamin,

Doubtless Germaine and Benjamin disagreed in September 1797, but

he was soon finding ways to stand up for her the difference

formed merely

in the press. Ostensibly

a passing cloud over their relationship.

Yet Benjamin had never really cared for Germaine’s close involvement

with members of the aristocracy, which he thought imprudent and

impolitic— as indeed

it

was.

passion for those in trouble.

Nor

did he share her all-embracing

Though much moved by

com-

the misfortunes

of others, his compassion did not tend to be immediate and active

like

Germaine’s. If you were in trouble she hurried to help you, regardless

”->-> 1

06

ENTER THE HERO of what side you were on. For her, compassion meant

was an

essential part

self-sacrifice;

it

of her religion and morality, and the enduring

legacy of her mother’s moral lessons.

It

was through Talleyrand

parte for the

first

time,

that

Germaine met General Napoleon Bona-

on the morning of December

6, 1797.

He had

returned triumphant from Italy the previous day. In his presence, she, the

renowned

conversationalist, esteemed for her witty repartee,

could scarcely speak. Her admiration and enthusiasm for the military genius, universally lauded as a hero in the press,

overpowered her and

rendered her tongue-tied. Here was the young Bonaparte, not yet thirty,

sketched by Jacques-Louis

straight hair, a compelling gaze,

David— without and

sober republican taste and simplicity

him

in Italy, all

of them

a

trappings, and with

romantic aura— the model of

itself.

lost today, doubtless

She had written

expressing her boundless

admiration in an excessively flattering tone, rather Barras. Bonaparte

would profess

woman who was

not in her right mind. In

to regard

letters to

them

like

her epistles to

as love letters sent

all

likelihood they

by

a

were

intended to obtain his intervention on behalf of General Lafayette,

whom

she

knew

well,

who were

and others

still

prisoners of the

Austrians. She had adopted their cause long before and had tried to enlist the

support of Belle de Charriere in her

was the chief object of her had so aroused

From

visit to

Belle’s dislike

the beginning,

campaign— indeed,

Colombier some years

this

earlier that

of the writer she saw as a parvenue.

Germaine did not succeed

in

making

as

favorable an impression on Bonaparte as she wished. If she harbored

any hopes of attracting him

At

this

his

own

to her brilliant circle, she

misread the man.

time a friend to the ideologues, he might well be stressing intellectual pretensions,

intellectual

women,

but viscerally he did not care for

especially those

serious interest— in politics. After

who “meddled” — that

December

"K>-I07-•>••

176-^-

JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN Gustav von Brinkman,

to Carl

when he

the time

whom

Germaine knew very well from

served in the Swedish embassy in Paris. Each letter

contained a double message, one for Germaine telling of Necker’s illness,

to

the other for the recipient reporting his death,

keep to themselves.

valet de

A

which they were

special courier, Francois Uginet, Necker’s

chambre and brother of Germaine’s factotum, delivered them.

On her return from

Coppet she was

Berlin to

to

be retained in Weimar,

where she would be surrounded by caring friends could rejoin her, “the person

I

Benjamin,

until he,

32 love best in this world.”

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Germaine wrote to Necker on April io to tell

him

had not received any

that she

letters

from him and recounted

for his entertainment the latest political doings; further letters to her

father followed

on April

had passed since

and again on April

14

By then

17.

his death. In the early nineteenth

took nine days between Coppet and Weimar and People did not expect to hear news

Benjamin

left in

eight days

century the mail twice a week.

left

at once.

haste for Weimar, covering the

same route he had

traveled earlier but in a very different state of mind, his thoughts

revolving

all

the time around her despair, the dreadful

she would finally learn from

man on

way

him

the truth about her father’s death.

a

satisfied

with the course he was taking.

when he would be include leaving his

The moment was approaching

able to arrange the rest of his

mark and acquiring

life,

which would Benjamin

a literary reputation.

concluded that the time had come to take command: “Certainly, not want to abandon you,

your

own

my

dear unfortunate friend, but

sake seize the helm of our

any duty on your side to oppose his

own

who was

view, Benjamin

it.

life

My

was the only

together.

resolve

real friend

There

is

is

I

I

must

do for

no longer

irrevocable.”

33

In

Germaine now had

capable of “guiding” her. Whether she would want

177

He

same time he was

to execution, yet at the

felt like

his

moment when

him— or

JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN indeed, anyone else— for a guide

was another matter

entirely,

one that

he did not take into consideration as he recorded his thoughts in his diary during his journey.

For much of the way he traveled night and day. He had

little

sleep.

The carriage wheels broke— a common occurrence— and he was forced to stop.

Then a few days later they broke again. He changed his carriage

for another, only to have in

Weimar, weary with

death, she

fell

it

suffer the

fatigue.

into convulsions.

same

fate twice.

By April 22 he was

When he told Germaine

of her father’s

Nothing could comfort or console her;

she was carried to her room. She arose the next day in a state of

blankness to face the rest of her life-like a shade on the bank of the Styx waiting to be ferried to Hades.

Yet the grim image of poor Minette that Benjamin had retained in his

mind ever

was only

since learning of her father’s grave condition

partly accurate.

The weakness of our nature

the initial shock wears off, totally is

immersed

its

that,

once

twenty-four hours a day. Undiluted grief

his cult

of pity and suffering, expected— and he

was mortified when he did not exerts

such

few human beings are capable of remaining

in grief for

what Benjamin, with

is

and death

find

it.

For,

somehow,

the

life

force

demands. Germaine said she was virtually dead, that she

could expect no further happiness in her gradually she found

much

to

occupy

life,

and she meant

it.

But

her.

Schlegel had accompanied her from Berlin to Weimar, and he

continued to do his best to console her. Benjamin,

high an opinion of Schlegel’s scholarly as

intellect

who

did not have as

and philosophy of life

Germaine, said he was not jealous of the time she spent with him,

but he was. Perhaps she preferred Schlegel’s attempt to divert her to

Benjamin’s all-pervasive

two escorts both shared

pity,

in

which might even seem humiliating. The

Germaine’s sad return to Coppet where,

denied future happiness and existing henceforward in a tomb, Ger-

maine took refuge

in

work. She soon undertook to write her study of

JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN the et

life

and principles of her beloved

father,

caractere de

de sa vie privee, published with his manuscripts.

Benjamin judged the work to be among her at

Du

finest.

Many

dealt

it

intact for her children.

most competently with the

financial

morass

Necker

years

later,

She was also faced

once with matters arising from Necker’s legacy: she

her sacred duty to preserve

M.

left

felt it

was

Germaine had

by her husband.

Necker’s affairs were in order, but she had an extensive and complicated network of details with which to acquaint herself and which

demanded her decision and est rates,

action,

from mortgaged property

Louisiana and

New

York.

her father’s notaries and

forces

it

was

a

woman

in

currency to inter-

in Paris to investments in land in

Much of her correspondence would be with

men

of business.

Whatever she might say over,

from changes

to her friends about everything being

of independence

and took charge of her

own

who

gradually recovered her

destiny and that of her children.

Germaine did not need any other guide or helmsman than the one

beyond the grave.

i yo-:~

203 -A~

politically

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE In the spring and

summer of 1807 Coppet was

a gathering of princes, diplomats, writers,

at its

and other

France, Switzerland, and the rest of Europe figured

Germaine required Benjamin’s presence sent Schlegel to fetch

him

or, as

majordomo Eugene with her terly resentful, felt obliged to

at

most

notabilities

among

her court;

brilliant:

if he

from

the guests.

delayed, she

on one occasion, dispatched her

carriage. Benjamin, humiliated

and

bit-

comply: he returned to Coppet to endure

scenes of reproach and invective, interspersed with

moments of tender

reconciliation.

With

the assistance of

some of her

guests, her children,

and a

ser-

vant or two, Germaine indulged her passion for the theater and ar-

ranged a series of remarkable performances, fully staged with painted curtain backdrops and splendid costumes, at

neva, which were attended by usually chose tragedies

composed

all

It

was

tormented Phedre, bewailing her

also in

Ge-

her friends and the local gentry. She

by Racine or

the plays herself.

Coppet and

Voltaire, or

sometimes even

in her favorite role as Racine’s

fate in her

doomed

passion for her

stepson Hippolyte, that Germaine excelled: she could figure admirably as the fated

prey of the implacable goddess Venus, a victim

who

ends

her agonies by taking poison. Another performance of hers that impressed her audience deeply was in Racine’s Andromaque, with Juliette

Recamier

as Hector’s grieving

jamin as Pyrrhus.

widow, herself as Hermione, and Ben-

When the impassioned princess

by Pyrrhus, her betrothed,

rails

against

him

Hermione, betrayed

in her fury, Rosalie

de

Constant thought that Germaine and Benjamin came perilously close to their

own

personal predicament:

how

could the two of them dare to

put what was happening to them so blatantly before the public? Indeed,

it

almost looks as

if

the passion of Phedre or

Hermione

seized

hold of the self-dramatizing Germaine in her fiery arguments with

Benjamin.

Meanwhile, he had decided to put forth his case and convince the

-^204-M-

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE

members of his

influential

for he

reckoned that

family, especially his aunt,

Mme

de Nassau,

order to placate society, which strongly disap-

in

proved of divorce, he would need them to acknowledge and accept his marriage to the twice-divorced Charlotte.

He

chose'as his “sole” confi-

who was

dante and adviser his sharp-witted, disabled cousin Rosalie,

fond of gossip, unmarried, and presumably inexperienced in matters of the heart. She

taken to

“/•

feel that

’"208~ 4*

I

that

I

“My

the fear of not

my

disappear. But neither he, nor you, nor anyone else will truth about that,

you

life

tell

would

me

the

cannot provoke the truth

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE because

The

it

would hurt me so much

if it

fear of not being loved explains

was not what

much of her

I

want

to hear.”

33

conduct.

Following Benjamin’s secret marriage to Charlotte

at

Brevans in

June 1808, he was determined to keep the knowledge from Germaine.

The second

Mme

Constant had a great deal to endure.

Les Herbages he came to Paris to his mistress.

While he was

at

Benjamin was unlikely ever

wife secretly, as

visit his

Coppet, Charlotte stayed

many months of this

Secheron. After

When he was at if

she were inn at

at the

kind of separation, realizing that

to bring himself to reveal their marriage to

Germaine, Charlotte decided to take the

On May

initiative.

9, 1809,

using her distinguished maiden name, Countess von Hardenberg, she

Germaine

invited

down

her

rival,

to call

on her

who was

maine had cried

at the inn, told

her the truth, and faced

Benjamin

in shock. Charlotte told

to her, “In the eyes of the

Lord

I

how

am more

Ger-

his wife

than you are.” 34 Possibly to avoid Germaine’s public discomfort,

it

was

agreed that the marriage was to be kept secret. Soon, however, curiosity as

was aroused, and

unflattering

rumors about the couple flourished

tongues began to wag.

Notwithstanding Charlotte’s revelation, Germaine returned to

Coppet with Benjamin. He staying with his father. great actor despair.

visited his wife at

When Germaine

heart

I

means

traveled to Lyons to see the

Talma perform, Benjamin followed

Benjamin told Rosalie,

treating a really angelic creature ness, has

Brevans where she was

been

ill

that so long as

or in her affection, situation that

I

I

who

.

.

.

how

I

badly

in

am

notwithstanding her gentle-

despair. But in the depths of

fatal attraction to

believe her to be of

my

another person, which

good

faith in her suffering

could easily take a violent decision to be free of a

weighs heavily upon me. ...

of duplicity, bad

was

“I realize perfectly

more than once from

have some mysterious

her. Charlotte

faith,

If

I

could discover any sign

malevolence, the spell would be broken. Tell

209

me

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE in heaven’s

name what you know.” 35

Charlotte, he

lotte’s

ing,

from

if,

although married to

infidelity or malice to

That autumn, Germaine was

her.

Recamier that she could not

talking with him.

as

needed proof of Germaine’s

still

feel truly liberated

Juliette

was

It

On December

9,

live

telling

without seeing Benjamin and

he informed Rosalie about Char-

manifold virtues, her simplicity, equanimity, and delicacy, add-

“But sources of suffering remain from a

deep liaison that lasted

fifteen years.

.

.

.

terrible,

There are times when

ages, written in a style that resounds within a spirit to them, return

suddenly to tear

mind.” 36 So he was later that

still

stormy, most shatter-

of suffering, along with almost magical im-

ing, searing expressions

when,

still

my

accustomed to yield

heart to shreds and confuse

my

very conscious of Germaine’s power over him

same month, he and Charlotte were united

marriage in Paris that permanently

ratified the private

in a civil

ceremony of

June 1808.

The two

rich fictional

works

Germaine and Benjamin stories

of an

in

that

grew out of the

and

a betrayal:

Adolphe betrays not only Ellenore but

Adolphe

he relates his story

is

is

between

1806—1807, Corinne and Adolphe, are both

ill-fated liaison

death. Indeed,

altercations

already dead

Oswald betrays Corinne,

also himself.

when

Both

tales

the manuscript in

end

in

which

discovered.

In Corinne the tragic

outcome

is

signposted early. Corinne and

Oswald, though originally destined for each other, are separated not only by his father’s disapproval of her display of talent as a young but also by their opposing aspirations.

The

girl

early part of the book, the

scenes of the Italian journey that Germaine regarded as absolutely essential to the

work, indicated her cultural and

Italian regeneration, liberation,

is

theme of

and the dream of future unity, and also

provided evidence of Corinne’s breadth of English and half-Italian, she

political

nothing

less

intellect

and

heart. Half-

than a female genius, a very

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE difficult quality for a novelist to

The

does.

convey

Germaine

as successfully as

woman

depiction of such an exceptional creature— who as a

makes use of her

gifts

and encourages others to emulate

them— formed

part of the book’s originality for the readers of the day, especially

women, on whom

who fled

it

had a liberating

The mysterious Corinne,

effect.

turns out to be the elder daughter of an English nobleman, has

from

a

narrow-minded, mediocre, closed society that

and does not appreciate her all-embracing

stifles

her

intellectual curiosity.

She

has taken refuge in her mother’s native land,

comed, adored, and esteemed, especially public, a talent not too far

which Germaine

is

known

Italy,

as a poet

removed from the to excel, since

art

where she

who

wel-

improvises in

of conversation in

depends on the

it

is

ability to

speak with ease and spontaneity. Enter Oswald, Lord Nelvil, a young Scottish officer who, interestingly,

is

treated as a representative Englishman,

embodying

values of northern Europe as distinct from those of the south.

accustomed trated the

to the

dominance of the

young Corinne; he

He

is

social proprieties that so frus-

governed by duty and the

is

the

call

of an

active life in the service of his country; he does not seek an exceptional

wife

who

as the

Rome

is

renowned and who seems

from what he regards

worthy norm. However, when he sees Corinne acclaimed he

is

dazzled: they

his sensibility gloire

different

and

fall

passionately in love, she being

into the inspiring

Forte, warns,

world of the

“Do

his imagination

arts.

Her

not approach her,

drawn by

and he by the radiance of her

his physical courage,

and the way she awakens

in

and

offers

him entry

faithful friend, Prince Castel-

if

you

are

condemned

to leave

her:

you would search

who

shared and enlarged your feelings and your thoughts, you would

never find her

like

in vain, as

long as you

again .” 37 Oswald

is

live, for the creative spirit

struck by these words, which

prove to be prophetic. Eventually obliged to return

home

to rejoin his regiment,

Oswald

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE is

soon absorbed into

former way of life. He finds himself especially

his

attracted to Lucile, Corinne’s half-sister, a lovely

whose heart

timid and innocent, and

also the betrothed chosen for

him by

young

“unknown

is

girl

to itself.”

his late father. Corinne,

38

him from

his

promise to

way

She

is

is

has

hap-

to return his ring, thus absolving

Oswald

her.

is

who

followed him to England without his knowledge, realizes what

pening and generously finds a

who

believes, or

wants to believe, that

she has forgotten him, and he marries Lucile. Happiness does not ensue. Meanwhile, the hapless Corinne returns to

her

est in

own

gifts,

happiness, Corinne

and

falls into a decline.

was wrong

would thwart her natural

After

existence,

to a

man who

and repress rather than stimulate

39

who

Lucile,

visit Italy

grown

has

jealous of

with their young daughter, Jul-

Corinne, embittered by suffering, resolutely refuses to see Os-

iette.

wald. Yet she says she forgives him and,

at the

same time, exacts what

can be seen as a subtle revenge: she contrives to teach thing she knows. “She says she wants Juliette

innocently

music and to

own

.

some years Oswald and

Corinne’s place in his heart,

“For the sake of her

become attached

to

her talents,” intervenes the author

Italy, loses all inter-

40

.

is

The

girl

me

to

be

like

Juliette

every-

Corinne,” remarks

makes astonishing progress

in Italian

and

taught an air to be repeated every year on a particular day,

remind Oswald of

a certain significant

moment

in his relationship

with Corinne. Winning Lucile’s confidence, Corinne instructs her on

how

to please

more

Oswald by enlivening her conversation and showing

interest in life:

“You must be you and me

My

only remaining wish for myself

his

daughter some traces of

never

How

know

my

is

that

influence,

a feeling of delight without

at the

Oswald and that

same time.

finds in at least

.

.

.

you and he

may

remembering Corinne .” 41

could one person simultaneously be so seemingly generous and

yet also so vengeful?

Could the author, normally so perceptive, have

been unaware of such

a baleful interpretation? After Corinne’s death,

212

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE the wretched and remorseful Oswald,

obliged to

remember Corinne

the unforgiving

own

and, in this regard,

The rancor wife

that

I

every moment. The novel ends with

at

fate, after

do not wish

is

what he had

lost?

I

do not know

feel for

Benjamin and

his choice

by the author Always ready

disapproving articles

already suggested in the final pages of Corinne with

prom-

herself.

to defend

critics

on Corinne

of a

her superior in rank but was otherwise far from

the heroine’s death after intolerable suffering, an end so often ised

for his

blame him or absolve him.” 42

either to

Germaine would

who might be

being her equal

is

Did the approval of society console him? Was he

common

with a

says he loves his wife,

words of the author: “Did he forgive himself

past conduct?

satisfied

who

Germaine and

infuriated

by some of the

of the novel, Benjamin wrote three remarkable

for Le Publiciste

on May

12, 14,

and

16, 1807, shortly

after the

book’s publication. They are largely appreciative, especially

the

but occasionally his personal feelings obtrude. In the

last,

article

he discusses the character of Corinne,

cal, calling

whom

first

he sees as theatri-

attention to “this union of qualities and faults, strength and

weakness, energy of mind and sensibility of heart.” ironic about the moralizing critics of the novel

merit of “enthusiasm”:

away by enthusiasm sardonically.

“Where

that

it is

who

He

is

brilliantly

take issue with the

are they then, these

men

so carried

urgent to save them from it?” he inquires

43

Yet while he

is

probing the moral

effect

of Corinne, he pens an

extraordinary, eloquent passage that runs counter to the whole intent

of the novel:

“No work

lesson: that the

should

offers with greater clarity this important

more one possesses

know how

to

brilliant faculties, the

more one

keep them under control; that when one offers to

the tempestuous winds such billowing sails one should not hold a

shaky helm with trembling hand; that the more numerous, dazzling

and various are the

gifts

of nature, the more one should tread in the

,

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE midst of men with mistrust and discretion; that between the rebellious

and an

spirit

indifferent,

and that for penetrating

judgmental society the struggle

spirits,

proud and

is

unequal;

sensitive characters, ardent

imaginations, wide-ranging minds, three things are essential, on pain

of seeing misfortune descend upon them: to

how

to suffer,

and

how

to despise.”

that defiantly does not trim

that of an entry in his diary

its sails

on June

44

The metaphor he

to the 1

know how

8,

to live alone,

uses, of a ship

tempestuous winds, repeats

1804, with the

same underlying

and intense disapproval of Germaine’s attitude and conduct and of her challenging political stance vis-a-vis Napoleon in comparison with his

own

discretion and

avowed contempt. By returning

to this idea in his

May

1807, he offers a sharp public reproof to the author of

Corinne

whom

he purports to defend. Moreover, he would repeat that

reproof,

word

article

of

for

word,

in his essay

on Germaine published years

after

her death. Clearly, he meant what he said.

Worse was

to

come. One of the major themes of the novel

role of the highly gifted tive,

mediocre

on

artist in a

society, specifically that

extension, France as talented

woman

woman

the

disapproving, unapprecia-

of northern England

Germaine has known

it.

or,

Benjamin has

little

by

As an exceptionally

she once saw herself as an Indian pariah in her

literature. It is plain that

is

book

sympathy with

this

female role, as evidenced in his discussion of the morality of Corinne,

where

at

one point he writes

been written

in all ages

in the first-person singular,

on the need

to confine

women

“Much

in their

has

house-

holds and to keep them in a sheltered, humble, and circumscribed sphere, and in general

I,

too, believe in this need.”

public declaration of the longstanding

45

companion of

And

this is the

a celebrated fe-

male writer. Besides, he adds, the author of Corinne does not

assert

anything different. In confirmation of this statement he has the

gall to

quote Corinne’s conventional stepmother, the bane of the heroine’s youth. This passage accords with his views on the primacy of a quiet

-y>2 1

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE domestic

life

of the sort that he formerly considered with Amelie Fabri

and Antoinette de Loys and

that, at the

share with the compliant Charlotte. for the novel in his articles,

it

time of writing, he hoped to

Whatever admiration he expresses

appears that

its

true drift toward raising

the consciousness of women does not appeal to

Then,

in the

second

Benjamin comes

article,

Oswald, and he finds an echo of himself

in the least.

to the character of

(He was not

in the novel.

saw himself portrayed

alone: Prosper de Barante also

unlike Benjamin he

him

was mightily annoyed.) As

if

as

Oswald, but

seeing himself in the

mirror, Benjamin chooses to define the vulnerable Lord Nelvil as “a

mixture of timidity and pride, sensibility and indecisiveness, taste for the arts and love for a regular

life,

inclination toward enthusiasm.”

attachment to

common

views and

Once Corinne and Oswald have met,

“they cannot be happy together; they will no longer be able to be

happy apart.” This comment applies aptly liaison

to the current state of his

with Germaine. “Oswald travels through Italy with Corinne

and sees

all its

marvels. Her eloquent language, her musical voice, her

poetic enthusiasm enhance everything with supernatural splendor. But in the

midst of this delirium that overturns his heart and his senses,

Oswald remembers him.”

He

his native land, his duties, the career set out for

charmed without being subjugated, never

is

satisfied

with

himself, full of regrets. “This poetry, these fine arts, these pictures, this

music seem to him to be active

life,

life’s

adornments, but he asks where

useful and nobly fulfilled,

vain .” 46 Benjamin allows his

own

is

to be

life itself,

found and he seeks

it

in

dissatisfaction, hesitation, frustrated

ambition, and regret to pierce through his resume of Oswald’s responses. Moreover, along with the matter of a career, he considers

Oswald’s encounter with the virginal Lucile to be a powerful element in his absorption into his destined

way of life.

Adolphe qualified by Benjamin as an anecdote or a novel, gives an ,

account of a liaison from which

all

reference to female genius, an idea

*» 215-^*

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE that

is

No

central to Corinne, has been expunged.

Germaine claimed a timid

to find

no

allusion to herself in

young man who wants

to

wonder, then, that

its

pages.

Adolphe

have a liaison because he thinks

is

it is

the thing to do, like the youthful Benjamin, who, at Erlangen, took a mistress he did not love. Quite deliberately he sets his sights

on

Ellenore, a Polish lady ten years his senior with no intellectual pretensions. Ellenore, after falling

on hard

times,

mistress of a nobleman, had children

had spent many years

by him, served

in local society. Clearly, in

reminiscent of the

life

much of its detail,

story and outlook of

Ellenore rejects Adolphe’s attentions, but she

and soon before.

is

He becomes

love at the

he

is

overcome by

start, in

in ecstasy.

with her, he

is

Anna

is

with

his interests

exemplary devotion, and contrived, precariously and with

win respect

as the

difficulty, to

this

account

Lindsay. At

moved by

is

first

his assiduity

a passion such as she has never experienced

her lover, and although he was merely feigning

time he genuinely grows to feel

Though Adolphe never envisaged

drawn

into a

web of lies and

a

permanent union

half-truths

willfully leaves the sanctuary of her protector

dren to be with him. In so doing, she

For a brief while

it.

when

Ellenore

and abandons her

chil-

sacrifices all the respect she has

gained through years of discretion. His love for her quickly fades. It is

from

this point, as

Adolphe, mired

in Ellenore’s pain, strug-

gles in vain to be free of her, that the tale bears

the stormy scenes between Benjamin and

words

that

some resemblance

Germaine— scenes

mean something other than they

say,

words

to

filled

with

that

once

spoken cannot be retracted. Yet when Ellenore ceases to be an “aim”

and becomes a “tie” and then a “burden,” when she

and grows ever more demanding, she jamin believed to be standard to Julie

in all

is

such

feels threatened

following a course that Ben-

liaisons, as

he once maintained

Talma. Adolphe regrets his failure to pursue a career suited to

his station

and dreams of marriage to some pure young girl— the

Lucile figure, as

it

were.

2 1 6 ~*^~

1

CORINNE AND ADOLPHE

The break

Adolphe employs

subtle strategies that

free, his

in his vain effort to

attempts at self-justification that turn against him, pro-

vide one source of the

of compassion he

is

tale’s

enduring power. By staying with her out

doing her a disservice, because

his love that she needs.

When,

finally,

it is

Ellenpre discovers that he has

not told her the truth, that he does not love her, she

Adolphe, however, does not enjoy his freedom: I

had missed so much weighed upon me! ...

was no longer loved:

not his pity but

in everyone’s eyes

I

I

was

falls

“How

was indeed a stranger .”

liaison

from regret and remorse and

is

flects the

but

free, 47

I

He does

said to

dies alone.

on which he embarked so casually and so thoughtlessly

as a destructive force for

dies.

this liberty that

not adopt a career or assume the position in society that rightfully his; he suffers

and

ill

is

be

The seen

both Adolphe and Ellenore. The novel re-

author’s feelings of entrapment at the

moment of writing.

Unlike Corinne and Adolphe, their creators did not conveniently die: the conclusion of their long liaison civil

was

to

be far more messy.

If his

marriage in Paris marked in a sense the end of their intimacy,

which had grown so fractured,

it

was

far

from being the end of

their

connection. For a good while they continued to meet at intervals and write to each other. Eventually they public events brought feel torn,

went

their separate

them together on the same

side.

ways, until

Benjamin might

but he had the freedom he had so wanted. Germaine might

be resentful, but she was not one to break with friends. Her musical voice, the

web of her enchantment,

->->•2

her image would pursue him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Flight

to

Freedom

As freedom of expression was stifled under Napoleon’s authoritarian separately, stances.

make

their escape

Benjamin took

rule,

Germaine and Benjamin would,

abroad— but

flight into

with growing consistency

what he

in

very different circum-

called voluntary exile in

an attempt to recover his personal freedom. Germaine, on the other hand, was forced into exile by persecution and by threat to her very existence.

At a time when there was genuine despotism and oppression,

when some were

languishing in prison for years without

others were summarily banished at the ruler’s arbitrary

trial

while

command,

Benjamin spoke of the “tyranny” and “despotism” of Germaine. In the wider context of oppression under Napoleon’s regime, the word “despotism” seems excessive. Even Benjamin was aware of the word’s strength. For instance, the original

Bonaparte’s dictatorship was

title

of his

De Vesprit de

later

powerful attack on

conquete et du despotisme, but

he decided to substitute the word usurpation for despotism. As he told Charles de Villers, he thought despotism was possibly shocking and risky.

Yet he did not consider

He bared

it

too shocking to use about Germaine.

his soul to his friend

->

218

Claude Hochet on the theme of

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Germaine’s behavior after she sent Schlegel to bring him back to

Coppet from this

house

his father’s

at

Brevans. “Life

is

unbearable with

despotism,” he wrote, “and the lingering feelings of affection that

I

preserve as a precious relic of [an association of] 12 years, collapse

under

this

to reason

heavy and troubling weight of a tyranny that yields neither

nor pity.” Benjamin had not the temperament to be

madman”

1

Schlegel,

who had

Germaine’s slave for

life,

actually signed a declaration that he

who

and

Having somehow become aware of

was

that she

was

regarded her as a “supernatural

being” whose happiness should be everyone’s

Germaine denied

like “that

consideration.

first

of despotism,

this accusation

despotic: “Ah!

My

dear friend,” she

confessed to Juliette Recamier in one of her dazzling flashes of lucidity,

“how

painful

whom bitter,

the incompleteness of feelings!

is

and without but

I

whom

one cannot

live,

I

am

not that

I

a person with

am

despotic or

appear to everyone to be something strange that

both more and

less

than the ordinary course of

life .”

2

is

worth

Her “despo-

tism” was simply the force of character of an extremely strong-willed

woman who was demanding was loved

always throbbing with energy, always active, always

as she

wished to be. This mostly

bizarre strategy of juggling suitors at the

ideas

and her quest for reassurance that she

in her expectations

same

two or more love

who

quest led to her

objects, soul mates, or

time. She could be coolheaded in deducing general

from her observations and experiences, but she was already

times frenetically “Romantic” in the

On

futile

the contrary, Benjamin

calculated the risks.

was not

manner of the generation

was usually

He might have

energetic; indeed, he often

rather unjustly, because usually he

with him everywhere a trunk

full

to

at

come.

cautious, a lifelong gambler his frenzied

moments, but he

blamed himself for being lazy—

was busy

writing, and he carried

of his unpublished manuscripts.

Sometimes he needed prodding— but he did not always want prodded.

->•219- 4-

to be

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM His sufferings were caused not only by his deteriorating eyesight,

which sustained damage

in his

youth from voracious reading, and by a

painful eye operation in the days before chloroform, but also

chronic indecisiveness as

much

by Germaine’s conduct. In

as

known

gallerie,

or Inner Spirits.

who

was

leader

Its

his

his mis-

Ames

Inte-

his cousin, Charles de

Lan-

ery he turned for advice to a quietist sect rieures,

by

as the

opined that Germaine was the cross that Benjamin had to

bear and counseled submission to

God and

the complete abnegation of

the will. Benjamin did his best to put this difficult advice into practice,

him

hoping for a similar conversion on Germaine’s part that might

rid

of her. She, too, became interested in mysticism

at this time,

but she

remained uncommitted. So did he. He said he

calmer, though, and

took to peppering his diary with the

initials

felt

“LvdDs f” — “La volonte

de Dieu soit faite,” or “God’s will be done.”

Since he compared any

woman

in

whom

he expressed an interest

with Germaine, he was drawn to contrast her with Charlotte, the longsuffering, compliant, softly feminine “angel.” This

him

lead

comparison would

to his first full description of Germaine’s appearance:

it

make amends

to

figures in his novel Cecile, an incomplete attempt to his

second wife for the cavalier

will

way he had

treated her. Germaine,

it

be recalled, had found Benjamin’s appearance most unattractive

when

they

first

met, though perhaps she overdid her distaste for Rib-

Did Benjamin

bing’s benefit.

feel the

same about her? “In

stature,”

wrote Benjamin of Mme de Malbee/ Germaine, “short rather than and too stocky

to

tall,

be slim, irregular and over prominent features, a not

very pleasing complexion, the most beautiful eyes,

fine

arms, rather

overlarge but strikingly white hands, a splendid bosom, excessively swift

movements and poses

that

broke

this

formed

became

in

a

moments of whole

that

were too masculine,

a

very

feeling in an extremely touching

that struck

irresistibly seductive

one unfavorably

when

Mme

220

soft voice

way— all

at first glance,

but

de Malbee spoke and became

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM animated.” 3 the

way

The

stockiness, the beautiful eyes, the enchanting voice,

her speech could

appearance are

all

make people

forget any deficiencies in her

many

confirmed by

other witnesses. Curiously,

although Benjamin had always stressed his admiration for her outstanding qualities of heart and mind, in this portrait he certain distaste for the

“man-woman” who

he was in a rage with her as well as for the to

women who were

now

reveals a

featured in his diary

virile aspects

when

long attributed

intellectually gifted.

After Benjamin’s definitive marriage to Charlotte in Paris in

December

1809, the couple did not depart at once, as might have been expected.

On

the contrary, early in 1810 Benjamin returned alone to Coppet,

where he remained for several months while he and Germaine ham-

mered out an arrangement of their complex ter

financial affairs.

The mat-

of the somewhat equivocal shared ownership of the house on the

rue des Mathurins, for instance, was settled. In an agreement written in his

own hand and

that he to

owed her

signed also by Germaine, Benjamin acknowledged

eighty thousand francs. This large

be repaid immediately— which was

sum

just as well, for

did not have

he was about to

flounder under the huge gambling debts that would force him to

Les Herbages, his furniture, and left to

many

books— but

of his

it

her in his will. As Germaine would discover afterward

was

sell

to

when

be

she

consulted a lawyer, this document was not valid because, being a

woman,

she was a minor in the eyes of the law.

“Now

that the struggle

is

over,” Benjamin told Hochet in the

spring of 1810, “I should like to erase from

everybody

else

any bitterness

in a liaison that so

mind could not save from the abyss where will not

be

my

fault if at the least

friendship does not survive.” 4

philosophical stance

now

my memory

all

many ties of heart and

liaisons are engulfed.

It

an affectionate and long-standing

He could adopt

that the

and that of

end was

221

a lordly, moralizing,

at last in sight

and

his life

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM was “out of her empire.” For Germaine, however, were looming on the horizon,

in

which Benjamin would play

lesser role as her support or adviser,

That summer, having

month

was

Germany

discussing

it,

first

culture.

was consulted, though

idea for

ment of

it

his familiarity

Schlegel,

De I’Allemagne was He

praised

in the

it

employed

a fine

lifetime,

diately after her death.

German

de Barante:

its

Benjamin had

religion,

in

superb monu-

“It is a

is

a curious

infancy. Significantly,

importance of De VAlin his writings

though he would refer

in verse like the

language,

Benjamin told her that he

to the outstanding

to

it,

literary ambitions

on Ger-

briefly,

imme-

of his own; he

forthcoming Le Siege de Soissons, and he

With

“ferment”

in

philosophy and culture, the subject was, in theory

at

a perceptive literary critic.

least,

thinking about

for the purpose, played

lemagne as a landmark in European literature

German

it,

work. Parts of it were unequalled,

to Prosper

however, he did not allude

was

for six

form of letters from

with the

remark, considering that the century was in

wrote works

called,

visitors as well as cor-

5 the nineteenth century, perhaps the last.” This

maine during her

was

No doubt Benjamin, given his long stay

a larger part in the book’s composition.

his opinion.

Paris

and seeking advice from writers and scholars with

Germany in his youth and

thought

from

book on which she had been working

had the

knowledge of German in

of Chaumont that

She had been reading widely for

in 1803.

at all.

current owner, an American citizen. She

its

company of distinguished

recting the proofs of the years, ever since she

at first a

wife elsewhere, Benjamin spent a

left his

living there in internal exile, as banishment

entertaining a large

it,

and then no role

in the Loire valley at the beautiful chateau

Germaine had rented from

serious troubles

his interest in the

one that he himself might have chosen

De UAllemagne was

in

he did not.

written with high enthusiasm, the virtue on

which Germaine expatiated had found treasure

to treat, but

in her

moving final

Germany, and,

pages. Delightedly, she

as always, she

*+->- 222--

the

blow

fell:

the proofs of De VAllemagne

October

copies of the

~Y

Then

ordered her to leave Fosse within

forty-eight hours; the manuscript and

were

emperor request-

22^

'


^22 6

Benjamin was not told about

Couronne

in

it.

Lausanne,

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Germaine and Benjamin took leave of each

other.

Two

years after-

ward, he remembered what she said to him then: that “she believed

would never meet again

A

week

in this life.”

on May

later,

15,

he

10

set off

where he would spend almost three years

was forcing him himself to

to leave France.

fulfilling the talent

he

work on

self to his

once and for

all;

free

he was

free

free: free to

no one devote

he had neglected; free to engage

man

of

letters; free to

devote him-

establish his literary reputation

always the center of controversy and

compromised; indeed, altogether

to enjoy his ideal

and

in voluntary exile, for

of his troublesome association with a notorious,

had “renounced” three years

lotte;

with Charlotte for Germany,

last

would

woman who was

strong-willed politically

religion that

At

felt

full-time in the scholarly life of a

we

earlier; free to

of a quiet domestic

life

free

move

of

politics,

at his

which he

own pace;

free

with his placid wife, Char-

of all the emotional dramas and traumas he had experi-

enced for so long with that fiery whirlwind Germaine.

Benjamin might have renounced

politics,

but he could not suppress his

thoughts and responses to the situations he encountered in the course

of what was otherwise a fairly uneventful journey. As he reported to his cousin Rosalie, in Strasbourg

he met on quite amicable terms the

marquis de Barthelemy’s secretary, with lently during the Directoire in 1797:

has killed off

all [political]

opinions,

the other

bank [of the Styx] and we

peace.” 11

He was ready

the imperial regime

to

had

whom

he had quarreled vio-

“Ever since the present regime

we meet

again like the dead on

exist like the

communicate

dead

profound

in

to his intimates his

totally suppressed free speech,

view

that

one of the

cornerstones of his political convictions. With even more savage irony

he lashed out

at the repressive

measures he found

governments are more repressive than and

at the slightest

ever.

Anyone poor

opportunity every suspect

-y>-

227^*

in Heidelberg:

is

arrested.

is

“The

suspect,

There are

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM twenty prisons

in Heidelberg, all

have tried to escape they are

arms and

their neck, their

of them

now

legs.

.

.

it

Because some prisoners

chained to the wall

They can

.

they sleep only leaning on their chains.

Yet

full.

It is

at their waist,

no way

in

lie

down and

convenient for the

jailers.

cannot be said that any distinctions are made between the guilty

and the innocent; for

as the courts try

who

only those

confess, and as

the innocent cannot confess to anything, these last are detained indefinitely. It is

no longer war of the have-nots against the haves, but of the

haves against the have-nots, and the Revolution having given them [the reactionary oppressors] the experience

firmness in their measures.

This bitterness

at the

What a nice moment

tireless in

concerned with their

Once

in

leading

for the

her active compassion for the

underdog— was

and favorites

who

on

that innkeepers insisted at the ancestral

to discover that Charlotte’s relatives

only person present

race !” 12

fate.

Germany, he found

officials,

human

Benjamin— like Germaine, who

him “Baron de Constant.” He arrived Hardenbergs

they use great

fear,

treatment meted out to the innocent and the

defenseless poor demonstrates that

was judged

of

were

home of all

court of Westphalia.

at the

calling

the

ministers,

He was

the

did not sport an embroidered coat, a sash,

and the ribbon of an order. The

castle,

though somber

in appearance,

had the advantage of being very near the university town of Gottingen,

which was endowed with one of the

finest libraries in

Europe. There

he intended to consult various professors, philosophers, and authorities

on

religion

and to complete

his

magnum

opus on the subject. He

proposed to rent an apartment and see Charlotte two or three times

week, but she insisted on coming to stay with him

At

was

first,

full

everything seemed to

his

in Gottingen.

high expectations, and he

of enthusiasm. His work was going well and, as he reported to

friends and relatives, he

whose

fulfill

a

was

perfectly

happy with

his angelic wife,

virtues he listed. After a while, though, his tone changed.

228

-

-

The

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM work was not always going except one Frenchman he

maine

in 1803, Charles

cheerful man. There

de

so well. There

knew from Villers,

was no

Coppet. in the

German

an authority on Kant,

sort

professors worked solidly

all

found

day

how

and suffered heavy losses Worse,

ideal

of domestic

tedious that

escaped to the gaming tables for a

little

life

beings.

Moscow reached Gottingen in tance. ‘‘But here,” he

and

was

home. They

at life

had

that he

He

in actuality!

at roulette.

fessors in the pursuits of academe,

human

in Paris or at

entertainment and excitement,

in his view, than the total absorption

of their fellow

not a

in the library,

evening they returned to their wives and stayed

pursued for so long— but

who was

he complained, no conversa-

social life,

might be perfect examples of that

to talk to

the journey to Metz with Ger-

no lightness of touch, no wit of the

tion,

was nobody

was

When

the

of the

German

pro-

their indifference to the fate

news of the destruction of

the

autumn of 1812, he sensed

its

impor-

wrote to Claude Hochet, “people are so

far

buried in their books and in learning that, what with Villers being

away, it.

I

have not been able to find a soul with

whom

I

could talk about

A town of 500,000 inhabitants can be blown up without a Gottingen

professor lifting his eyes from his book.” 13 Characteristically, Ben-

jamin was being drawn inexorably toward the opposite of the quiet to

which he had

quiet the

life

fled so expectantly.

Then

the

war came

closer,

life

and the

turned out to be not so quiet: troops were constantly on

march tramping everywhere and even the boom of cannon could

be heard.

And what of rather lazy, she

Charlotte?

now

as not

very bright and

ventured to engage with him in a dispute over

politics: “Bitter quarrel

entry, followed

Once regarded

with Charlotte over politics,” ran the diary

by the cutting observation, “She has not two ideas

to

put together.” Other quarrels followed and were duly noted. For instance, “Charlotte’s character changed,” he

->**

220

4*

•>-23 1-H-

attributed the

whole

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM adventure of her escape and her journey to eastern Europe to her

imprudence and Schlegel,

to the influence

whom

of impulsive Rocca rather than that of

he judged far too incompetent in practical matters to

have conceived the enterprise and put

had been active never cared

it

into effect. In fact, Schlegel

arrangements of the escape, but Benjamin had

in the

him— a rival of sorts— and his lofty abstractions. observed to Hochet, whom he sought to reassure, that

much

Moreover, he

for

Germaine, “notwithstanding her too sensible to take on a

fatal taste for the theatrical,”

young man

her, cannot satisfy her in

like

Rocca, who, “such as

was I

far

know

any way.” 15 Less a friend of hers than of

her sons, Rocca was nothing but an escort, Benjamin conjectured, re-

marking

that he

was pained by her mistaken choice of

a traveling

companion.

Benjamin then delivered

companion: “She

me: and

I

a

most touching eulogy of his erstwhile

when her

from her

than ever, sacred to

can see merely an act of imprudence whose consequences she

has not foreseen, in accepting the only

time

now more

always be, and

will

side.

company

that

was

left to

her at a

abandoned her or were violently torn

friends either

Consider what she was, such grace, such a wonderful

mind, such ease with others, such kindness of heart, such incomparable eloquence, such a spirited and childlike temperament that

made her by

turns a naive and vulnerable creature and the most potent genius.

There

w ere r

in the ruts in spite bitter

of

ones

shining

storms in that strong and impetuous

where the water all I

the sufferings feel at the

memory, and

I

is full I

am

there are none

of mud. Yet in spite of her mistakes,

have endured, in

harm

spirit;

that she has

spite

done

very glad to have

of the even more

to herself, she

known

her.”

is

a

He con-

cluded in English with an adaptation of Hamlet’s loving words about the uniqueness of his dead father: “Take her the like of her again .” 16

(“He was

a

all

in

man, take him

->232-^-

all,

for

you’ll never see all in all,

/I shall

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM not look upon his

This moving testimonial of Benjamin’s

like again.”)

reads rather like an obituary.

Two days after

Germaine, very much

alive, left

Vienna, where she

and her party had waited for passports, Napoleon’s armies invaded Russia. After traveling through Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland, she

crossed the Russian frontier at Brody on July 14, 1812.

Grande Armee

it

was necessary

Moscow, and she was one of the

To avoid

to take a circuitous route, via last

the

Kiev and

foreign travelers to see the oriental

splendor of the city before the Russians put

to the torch.

it

Only

recently she had undergone a late pregnancy, and yet here she was,

waiting for horses, staying

was always

food. She

country was

at

execrable inns, and being offered strange

treated with extreme courtesy although the

war with France.

Petersburg, where she

by the

entertained

at

diplomats,

among

Alexander

I

On

August 14 she arrived

was showered with

nobility,

others.

The

royal family

and lavishly

invitations

and she engaged

in talks

welcomed

in Saint

with English

her;

young Tsar

received her twice in audience, discussing with her as an

equal his liberal intentions, especially concerning serfdom, and relat-

ing to her what Napoleon had said to him on the raft at

concern

now was

to find

some way of putting an end

Tilsit.

Her chief

to the emperor’s

tyranny.

While Germaine was enriching her imagination, seeing strange sights

and customs, drawing ideas from her impressions and experi-

ences that would figure in her gripping account

conversing with prominent figures

among

working against Napoleon, Benjamin

in

increased his worry.

The

What

Gottingen was increasingly in

fact that so far

on her

travels,”

he had received no

a relief when he heard

he

letters

from her on July

“God protect her on her travels,” he prayed. As he was

->->23 3 -H-

d’exil,

the Allies, and actively

a state of high anxiety. “I can think only of her

confided to his diary.

Dix annees

27.

quarreling with

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Charlotte and complaining about his marriage, he noted,

Mme

regret

And

de Stael!”

“How

again,

than ever!”— even, he added, with a letter

from her on December

was what

us. It

I

A

“Mme

Such entries

is

was

finished

between

do not

alone. But

me.

I

shall

much

never recover from

Was he

us

let

for

regret: this.”

17

not married to

to resign herself to her fate

and

with Charlotte for Germany?

months

also during these

major defeat. Already,

all is

after receiving

charming.” So

in the diary are disconcerting.

left

Then,

I

de Stael more

came an even stronger note of

later

really lost to

away when he It

way

far less

Had he expected Germaine

another? fade

he wrote, “So,

ties that are

few weeks

de Stael

faults.

wanted. Let us make our

be incommoded by Charlotte!

24,

her

all

Mme

regret

I

“How

in the

Napoleon suffered

that

autumn of

his first

1812, a conspiracy led

by

General Malet, although ultimately unsuccessful, had revealed that there

was serious discontent and opposition

in France.

winter of 1812, the long retreat of the Grande

with

its

terrible casualties left to die in the

signal that the

lost

Germaine’s activity

A royal June

in Russia

when he

24, 1812,

9, 1813.

At

Crown

Prince of

wastes, gave the

after

attentive Benjamin, nor

read about

it

all.

None of this

was

the

news of

in the press.

arrived in Sweden,

where she would stay more than eight months,

last,

she

felt

truly free

friend, General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte,

ted

snowy

welcome awaited Germaine when she

on September until

on the

in the

Armee from Moscow,

conqueror might not be invincible

development was

Then,

Sweden

in 1810.

and independent. Her old

had been unanimously

He was

intelligent,

elec-

handsome,

ambitious, and a long-standing rival to Bonaparte. Having decided to

work

actively toward Napoleon’s downfall,

Germaine urged Berna-

dotte to declare his opposition openly with the aim of overthrowing the dictator

and becoming the head of the French government.

It

seemed

to

her that Bernadette’s republican and libertarian principles under the

Consulate in 1802,

when she had been very closely associated with him,

"'^>234'"

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM

made him mean

a

most

suitable candidate to lead France, although

replacing one general

who, however high

his reputation,

would be preferable

rule

who was was

would

a military genius with another

any case she thought

not. In

to the restoration of the

the only other option. She

it

his

Bourbons, which was

became his unofficial agent and propagandist.

Bernadotte found posts for her sons— Auguste in the Swedish diplomatic service and Albert as a lieutenant in the hussars— while Schlegel

was appointed

With

full

his secretary-cum-publicist.

force

it

struck Benjamin that he had not played his cards

well and that Schlegel had

managed

more

his career

successfully. He,

Benjamin, could have accompanied Germaine in her encounters with the

movers and shakers of Europe; he could have been Bernadotte’s

He would

aide.

de Stael as

I

“From time

later

was

note in his diary, “I

io, 8,

or 4 years ago.” 18

as

life,

He

when our

preoccupied with

soldiers pass 19

Mme

told Prosper de Barante, I

dream of her and

awake these dreams cause an unusual

crossing the river Berezina.” the retreat

as

to time, at fairly long intervals,

several hours after being

my

am

by some great

fire, at

for

stir in

Smolensk or

These disturbing images he drew from

from Moscow: the flames of the French bombardment of

Smolensk, a city that the French ultimately could not hold, and the skillful

Armee by means of the

escape of the remnant of the Grande

hastily built

pontoon bridges over the Berezina. As he saw

had foolishly stayed with Germaine while

the connection

would have served

his ambition. If

persevered, his hopes for advancement would

something really stupid when to

me, a

tie I

kept

when

it

I

broke a

tie

was harmful

now

be realized:

that could

to

stirring

October

2, 1813,

and a week

later, “If

235-^*

I

me

want

her

“I did

have been useful

me.” 20 By

of ambition has seized hold of

left

only he had

now

the grip of ambition, just as he had been in 1795: “I don’t

mad

he

his political career suffered

through her reckless provocation of Napoleon, and he had

when

it,

he was in

know what

again,” he wrote

on

to try active life again,

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM moment.” 21 That “moment” was

this is the

of Leipzig, which took place October 17 to

the buildup to the battle

and

19, 1813,

in

which

Napoleon’s forces suffered a significant defeat. Bernadotte emerged as the

man

By

the spring of 1813

of the hour, the controversial victor and hero.

Germaine had not heard from Benjamin

for

two

months, nor had he heard from her. Correspondence across war-torn

Europe was not an easy matter. They had not seen each other

managed

nearly two years. Eventually, in Stockholm, she

for

to find a

trustworthy traveler to carry to him a veiled note of her plans, informing him of her intention to go to “Doxat et Divett” (the

London

branch of her Swiss bankers), meaning England. She also urged him act:

“What I do not comprehend

politics] has

now. is it

I

am

not declared

itself

not speaking in any

that the

is

sooner and

way about

Doxats do not tempt you;

your rare genius? What you lack anything in

my

had not waited

to

to fetch

When

is

how

own

[meaning

for letters

it

has not done so by

myself, but about you.

in fine,

decisiveness. ...

I

do not ask

to

22

decisiveness and how, years before, she

Coppet with

home

at

knew how

to

her.

writing to Benjamin from Stockholm she

appeal to his sensibility as well as goad his ambition.

He was a great one

for recalling anniversaries, mulling over memories, nostalgia, especially about

for

for yourself?”

be asked before hastening to Rosalie’s

him back

How

what are you doing with

name, but cannot you do something

She reminded him of her

Lausanne

how your taste

to

Albertine— “Albertine,

refrain in his diary. Benjamin, in response, inquired

and indulging

alas!”

is

a

in

common

whether Germaine

had forgotten him. She reassured him that she certainly had not and expressed her regrets:

“Do you remember your promise

never be separated?

can assure you that you have

through your

I

fingers,

Just as he

let

that

we would

a fine career slip

without mentioning everything else.” 23

complained to Hochet that he had nobody to

*>>-236^

talk to in

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Gottingen, she told Benjamin about her sense of mental isolation— in spite

of the company of charming Albertine,

intervals,

and

a

good

who

wrote

also

to

him

at

part of the Swedish nobility, to say nothing of

Rocca. Evidently, she meant that she was unable to pursue the unique

ongoing conversation with Benjamin. “I always have some of your letters

look

with me,

I

at the address.

Everything

makes me shudder, and yet father, you,

heart that all,

there

is

I

secretaire without holding them,

have suffered through these

I

should

like to receive

and Mathieu [de Montmorency] remain forever closed— there

am dead and

I

my

never open

there

I

I

dreading the sea journey to England]

possible that despair like

same

litany:

of that.

How is it that she

left

were

if I

my

her

My of my

again.

in a part

life in

to

drown

was

[she

voice would be calling on

which has been

mine was unable

Benjamin has

lines

am always suffering and, in spite of

live— and

these three names, only one of

some

I

to

me. ...

fatal to

Is it

keep you?” 24 Always the

ruins, but, she adds,

could not retain his love

when

no more

him

she loved

Why was he not like her present gentle companion, Rocca, so devotedly loyal? Why could not fidelity accompany supreme intelligence? Why were feelings incomplete? so deeply?

When Germaine

arrived in

continued to urge Benjamin to public and one private: to

dom, and

London act.

at last

on June

18, 1813,

she

She had two aims in mind, one

promote the cause of Bernadotte and

to find a distinguished English

free-

husband for Albertine, who

had reached the marriageable age of sixteen. As

it

turned out, neither

prospective British suitors nor the idea of making her

life in

England

appealed to her daughter. Germaine had not been in England for some ten years; then, she had lived in Surrey, with tocratic friends,

the

and was seen

as just

numerous French refugees who

however, she came as a prime mover

and defeat Napoleon.

Narbonne and her

one well-known

fled

exile

aris-

among

revolutionary excesses. Now,

in the struggle to

defend freedom

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM She was lionized. Eager to talk with her, politicians— both Tories

and Whigs,

all

revealing a deep sense of liberty, as she told

Benjamin—

together with leading figures in society called on her at her hotel. Aristocrats,

was

as

who were on

London

the point of leaving

for the

summer

their custom, invited her to their great country estates, includ-

ing Bowood, Althrop, and Hatfield House. She met almost everyone of interest

and importance, from Lord Erskine, the distinguished lord

whom

chancellor, with

she discussed the penal code, to Sir James

Mackintosh, the celebrated polymath,

young Benjamin Constant from

Among least,

days

his

the poets she encountered

who

recalled the astonishing

at

Edinburgh University.

were Coleridge, Southey, and, not

Byron.

As much

Byron admired her and her works, the notorious

as

creator of Childe Harold could not resist teasing her mercilessly. told her that “all the

moral world thought that her representing

virtuous characters in Corinne as being dull,

was

a

most insidious blow aimed

the shade. She it

was only by

me

every

Dieu!”

was so

my

“ Ecoutei

above

all people,

I

it

the

more

was the

so, as I

at that

should give

acts

man

Mme as

it

in

She interrupted

to

person

go on.

.

.

.

.

who ought

to deteriorate

.

.

was ready

Mon

Had you

seen her!

She told

me

to talk

that

I

/,

of morals, as

them.” She was outraged “and

appeared calm and in earnest, though I

“

I

assure

you

to laugh outright at the idea that

/,

period considered the most mauvais sujet of the day,

de Stael a lecture on morals.” With characteristic

lordly nonchalance

great a

last

silent.

exclaiming— “Quelle idee!”

had the courage

required an effort, as

who was

could keep her

I

gesticulating,

nobody had done more all

tedious,

and calculated to throw

done!” “ Vous m’impatiente {/”

now wonder how

the

excited and impatient to attempt a refutation that

volubility

moment by

at virtue,

commonplace and

all

He

Byron could not bring himself

Napoleon,

to believe that so

whom he deeply admired, knew about all the

of persecution of which she complained or thought her of

;

238

'

”

suffi-

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM cient importance to be dangerous.

How

mistaken Byron was! All the

same, while fully aware of her self-complacency and her lack of tact, he

observed that “she was, notwithstanding her with great

ture,

talents,

and many

qualities,

little

defects, a fine crea-

and had a simplicity quite

extraordinary,” thus reinforcing Benjamin’s view of the childlike ele-

ment

in her nature.

And

then

25

De UAllemagne was

published to wide acclaim. She was

Regency society with

living the high life in

its

round of parties,

dinners, plays, and concerts, but that did not prevent her to

Benjamin the familiar

Nor

Always

wilfull,

cards at a spa in

reciting

of his disastrous effect on her existence.

tale

news of

did the dreadful

from

routs,

the death of her younger son, Albert.

he had quarreled with his partner during a game of

Germany where he was Byron expected her

the ensuing duel.

pouring of emotion, but Meanwhile,

in

in spite

stationed,

and he was

killed in

to indulge in a theatrical out-

her genuine grief she remained reticent.

of Germaine’s prompting on the topic of

Bernadotte, Benjamin appeared to be in no hurry to act: he had his

crown

reservations about the

Germaine emphasized how Ber-

prince.

nadotte “holds you in such high regard, he has such a promising future so in conformity with our feelings.” She pressed Benjamin: “Will really

do nothing

away from me? but where and

.

.

for yourself, for that superior self .

Certainly, to see

how?

forgive you! ...

I

.

.

.

All

is

should not

you have taken

you again would be

lost for

you

to be reborn,

me, through you, by you! God

like to die

without seeing you again,

without speaking with you again as in the past.” 26 However, by the time she wrote to him in this vein, on

November

30, 1813, in a mixture

of praise, prodding and reproach, condemnation and reconciliation, he

had already joined the crown prince. Naturally, Germaine was pleased

when

she heard the news: “I was very .

with, for

would be

it

.

to learn that

you

are with

All the same, the chief difficulty remains to be dealt

the Prince.

.

moved

folly to

hope

>

239

to overturn the

man

[Napoleon]

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM against the will of the nation.

waste your rare

gifts

.

.

.

whatever

any longer, that

gratified that she offered to help to in

Do

is all

I

you and do not

suits

desire.”

27

She was so

have his book on religion published

London.

A

number of factors had moved Benjamin,

reflection

and hesitation, to abandon caution

many months of

after

at last

and take

action.

These included

tingen,

and with both the domestic and the academic

his dissatisfaction

political

with Charlotte, with Got-

of

style

as

life;

well as his realization that large cracks were appearing in the solid-

seeming walls of Bonaparte’s conquests, demonstrated by the resounding defeat at Leipzig— “What an overthrow! Nemesis! lapse

is

confirmed.”— and

France. 28 Finally, and not activities in Russia,

ver,

.

The

col-

change of regime was possible

was the

in

positive example of Germaine’s

God-given

embark on

talent but instead

which he was destined. He

the

Gottingen for Hano-

left

where he met with Bernadotte and dined frequently with him. By

November taken.

work:

I

io he had decided to join the

am making

it is

a duty.”

in tete-a-tete

mote the still

least,

.

Sweden, and England, and her repeated urging

that he not waste his political career for

that a

.

29

a declaration.

crown

One must

prince:

“My decision

contribute to the great

Despite further hesitation, by

November

13

he was

with Bernadotte, discussing what he could write to pro-

cause. Yet after doing

what Germaine had urged him

worried about her attitude toward him.

When

to do,

seems that she has

really forgotten

He produced very

De Vesprit de

civilisation

rapidly his sizable “pamphlet” (in effect a

conquete et de Vusurpation dans leurs rapports avec la

corrupting consequences, so telling in for

all

its

Orwellian detail that

arbitrary governments. Based

an earlier treatise on

“it

me.” 30

europeenne , an indictment of Napoleon’s dictatorship and

good today

he

Schlegel arrived

with news of her, Benjamin confided regretfully to his diary that

book),

is

politics,

it is

holds

on the manuscript of

also an eloquent

~b *2.40**

it

its

paean to the liberty

,

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM of the individual that has not credentials the

title

page

lost its

listed the

power. As proof of his libertarian

author as “Benjamin de Constant-

Rebecque, member of the Tribunate, purged in 1802, correspondent of the Royal Society of Gottingen.” In

De

shows

traces of Germaine’s unpublished

tuelles

he demonstrated

how

the rise of

Vesprit de conquete ,

book Des

commerce

which

circonstances ac-

burgeoning

in the

nineteenth century changed everything, making wars of conquest an

anachronism: what people really wanted was privacy and peace to

improve

The work caused

their lives.

editions, establishing

He was extremely Polar Star: he

But

Napoleon

Benjamin Constant

major

political thinker.

to Bernadotte for life,” he said.

Benjamin was

at last

after a public silence

tainly not kept silent

as a

and ran to several

when Bernadotte decorated him with

gratified

was “devoted

just as

a great stir

the

31

proclaiming his opposition to

who had

of ten years, Germaine,

cer-

throughout that period, was beginning to wish for

Napoleon’s survival,

having worked publicly for

after

his downfall.

Their opposite routes were due nonetheless to the same circumstances: the decline and

imminent defeat of the dictator and,

consequences of that

For Germaine the dominant

fall.

presence of foreign armies on French In

especially, the

was

fact

the

soil.

London, news of the Allied invasion of France was convincing

Germaine distinction

that the leaders of the Coalition

were not going

between Napoleon and France,

as she did:

to

make any

both would be

united in defeat. She was in disarray. Already, the previous year, at a reception at Prince Naryshkin’s estate overlooking the Gulf of Finland,

she had declined to drink a toast to the defeat of France and would

difficult to

only to the downfall of Napoleon. She found

it

very

accept that they would be seen as indistinguishable.

Now

raise her glass

she began to criticize Benjamin for failing to consider this factor:

you not

see the danger for France?

counterrevolution that

.

.

.

will

Do you

not

feel the

soon overturn everything

”>->•241

in

“Do

wind of France?

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM .

.

Is this

.

Moscow tions, a

the time to speak

ill

of the French, when the flames of

are threatening Paris?” 32 All the confusion and

mixed emo-

jumble of the personal and the public, poured from her. In the

end, however, realism would prevail. Louis XVIII himself had been living in exile in

England

in a

mansion near Aylesbury; she had seen

the corpulent figure being carried in his wheelchair at Bath, and she

had not warmed

to him. But

prominent

royalists

had made tentative

proposals to her; for example, the due de Berry (son of the comte

X) had been

d ’Artois, future Charles

am not in bad odor with the to submit.”

It

seemed

Bourbons.

If they

She told Benjamin, “I

come back one

will

have

was

better than the anarchy

in the 1790s, but, she

added, “they have not

to her that anything

and chaos experienced

changed one

to see her.

iota, especially the

she wished she could talk about

members of

it all

to discuss all this with you, but

their entourage.”

How

with Benjamin! “I should so

what would

I

not

like to talk to

like

you

about? ... At least our minds will always be attuned to each other,” she mused. 33

She then returned to her theme:

“It is

no longer the time

people against the French, they are hated too

man

himself [Napoleon], what free

spirit

much

As

for the

could want him to be over-

thrown by the Cossacks?” She urged Benjamin

was doing, and about how

already.

to incite

to think about

a pamphlet, as distinct

from

what he

a large, consid-

ered work, required close attention to the immediate circumstances:

“One must not speak gres.

made

May God

banish

to return there

criticism,

ill

of the French

me from

when

the Russians are at Lan-

France rather than that

I

should be

with the help of foreigners!” Whatever her

though, she assured him that she would be of service to him

and, in spite of everything, “I shall be your friend, you must never

doubt

it.”

34

She wondered whether the senate could not invite Ber-

nadotte to negotiate peace: he could be another William of Orange, the instigator of a peaceable revolution like that of 1688 in England. She

242


->243

kept as far

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM of sight from high society— had changed and would

as possible out

behave impeccably toward him when they met again. She informed

Benjamin about the nature of the relationship: “Our mutual affection established for

life,

he has supported

generous and tender care that lined Rocca’s

new

I

shall

“Do

malleability:

me

in

my

misfortune with such

never forget

not think

is

it.”

And

of him as an

she under-

obstacle .” Yet

in spite

of this apparently happy union she could not forgo her lamen-

tations

and reproaches: “Ah! The

you who de-

past, the past! It is

stroyed our lives through the instability of your character— we would

be united here and leaning upon each other for support

if

you had not

unleashed everything against me. Farewell! Be loyal to France and

freedom, there

is

nothing without friendship.” 36

While Germaine agonized

in

England

in the spring

of 1814 Ben-

jamin was serving as publicist for the procrastinating Bernadotte. In

March 1814 he joined the crown prince the

Low

Then,

at his

headquarters in Liege in

Countries to await the advance of the Swedish army on Paris.

rapidly, for

Benjamin

as for

Germaine, the

illusions faded.

Bernadotte did not reach beyond Nancy, the capital of Lorraine.

March train.

31, Paris fell to the Allies,

who brought

“So Paris has really been taken.

justice.

Lvd

D s f.”

37

Benjamin

left

.

.

.

Bourbons

the

What

a fall!

.

.

.

On

in their

Divine

for Brussels with Bernadotte,

who

then returned to Sweden, ultimately to be satisfied with inheriting the

Swedish throne. Germaine told Benjamin that there was nothing to do but to rally to the Bourbons and that she was returning to Paris,

wearing the white cockade of the monarchy with perfect sincerity “while thinking

much more about independence

truth the French are not in the least

worthy of

than freedom, for in

it.”

38

She could be as

scathing about the failings of her fellow countrymen as he was. She

declared that she was finished with politics, while maintaining that

what was important now was

to

end the Allied occupation of France.

She assured Benjamin that when she returned to Paris she would be

•**-244

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM delighted to

welcome him and

Charlotte.

Unbeknownst

to her,

Char-

behind in Germany, was finding consolation with Adolphus

lotte, left

Duke of Cambridge, one of the sons of George

Frederick,

III.

Benjamin’s short-lived attempt to revive his political career after a

gap of many years had not so

far

proved a dazzling success. After

Louis XVIII was established on the French throne, and a few days before the abdication of Napoleon at Fontainebleau, Benjamin decided,

“Liberty system.

is

not

at first that

who had masterminded

letter

and

from

effect, a veritable

in the course

his

of conversation he showed Ben-

mother. This

letter

Germaine was engaged

He does

in

not say.

shown him anything

that

to

fool: in

held his

own

Chambery

make

his

some contemptible It

own moves, saw

might prove detrimental to

in

What was

intrigue.

it,

it

seems unlikely that Auguste would have

reputation. Entrusted with negotiating

was no

produced an unexpected

explosion of disgust in Benjamin’s diary.

As Benjamin, who was preparing

precisely?

the restora-

monarchy. Then Germaine’s son Auguste happened to

arrive in Brussels

jamin a

a place for us in a peaceable

he had no contacts or patrons in France; he even

thought of writing to Talleyrand, tion of the

make

worth the trouble of trying.” 39 All the same, he wrongly

It is

surmised

Let us try to

lost.

his mother’s

on her behalf, the young man

December

1807, he, only seventeen, had

while pleading her cause with Napoleon himself,

who

admitted afterward that he had treated the youth with severity. In her recent letters to Benjamin, moreover, the approaches she

Germaine had made no

had received from the Bourbons and

sentatives or of her negotiations with

them and her

with

all

her stratagems and strategies; after

all,

shape some of them and had been engaged for

spokesman just tired

in her dealings

of

it

all.

with those in high

He claimed

He was

famil-

he had helped to

many

office.

that her conduct,

their repre-

reluctant accep-

tance of the inevitable, the restoration of the monarchy. iar

secret of

years as her

Perhaps he was

whatever

it

was,

THE FLIGHT TO FREEDOM “sickened is

me and

severed in

my mind

between

the last ties

bringing up her daughter on the same

Nostalgia for the past, concern, regrets,

all

us;

and she

Poor Albertine!” 40

lines.

vanished in an instant. This

did not bode well for his forthcoming reunion with Germaine.

Together with Auguste, Benjamin

left

Brussels for Paris. His spirits

revived somewhat. “Let us serve the good cause and serve ourselves,”

he candidly advised himself in his diary, an ambitious politician eager to establish himself as well as his liberal principles.

was rather

different.

41

Germaine’s attitude

Only two days before, she had invoked France:

“May she be reborn under her kings and under liberty!” At least, unlike the usurper, Louis

thought. “Well,

let

XVIII was

likely to

be favorable to

us be content since tyranny

is

literature, she

overthrown,” she

observed to Hochet, as she tried to make the best of an outcome she had not desired. 42

Benjamin arrived

followed from London on

going to

from Brussels on April

in Paris

live as subjects

May

12.

The two ardent

15;

Germaine

republicans were

under the restored Bourbon monarchy. And

they were going to meet again, face to face, after an eventful separation of three years.

^>246

CHAPTER NINE

Reunion

in Paris

— and After

Germaine was looking forward most

keenly to meeting Benjamin

again in Paris, as she repeatedly told him in her letters from London. After alluding to her poor health and, in a socially acceptable, round-

about way, to pains due to menopause, she assured him, “I really should

like to see

you

again, in case

about what you will be doing.

.

.

am to die soon.

I

.

...

So write to

Adieu, remember me.”

And

me to

encourage and sustain him, as she often did, she enthused about his qualities:

“Your

intelligence

and your

admiration, and to talk with you, will

always be the chief of

all

if

my

talents will

you

still

always arouse

care for

pleasures .”

1

taking place in the world. constitutional

the

all

Would

my conversation,

She longed to discuss

everything with him, just as they used to do with so

and especially the meaning of

my

much enjoyment,

momentous changes

that

were

there be established in France a truly

monarchy? Would

there be a parliament of

two cham-

bers like the one in England that they admired?

Benjamin, on the contrary, tion.

When

two months

felt

no such

feelings of warm anticipa-

they met in Paris her disillusion was great: “During the I

have spent in Paris,” she told her intimate friend

Juliette

Recamier, “I have not received from him the slightest indication of

;

'

247 "*^

REUNION friendship and

I

On

the

PARIS— AND AFTER

did not imagine

She bewailed the chasm.

IN

way

it

that fifteen

was

possible to be so insensitive .” 2

wasted years had vanished into a

same day she conveyed her deep disappointment

Benjamin himself:

“When you saw

reside near

you the tone of your

from Paris

to

me

found you

in

harmony with your

in

that

letters

would be coming back

I

London wounded me

she had

warned him

grown very

thin

and

letters,

When

deeply.

intense persecution and

when

arrived

I

3 .

Had Germaine

was poor,

that

from

truly recovered

which took place during

the birth of Louis-Alphonse,

I

not a glance, not a hint in

that her mother’s health

pale.

to

changed and those you wrote

your voice that betrayed a memory,” she complained Albertine had

to

a period of

she was already in her mid-forties?

The

cumulative strain, struggle, and agitation during the years of exile, the uncertainties and difficulties she experienced

when

she was traveling

across war-torn Europe, her constant worries about the future of

Albertine and Auguste and about Rocca’s declining health, and the dreadful, futile death of her younger son Albert in a

had taken the

their toll, as

symptoms

duel— all

these

had her abuse of opium to combat insomnia and

associated with menopause.

This decline in her health was no passing phase. Germaine’s appearance had changed noticeably: she was “no longer the historian but the victim of Dix annees d'exil

recalled the liberal literary scholar

future minister Abel-Fran9ois Villemain,

when he saw her some months finery, at

once striking and

scarlet turban partly

who was

deeply saddened

after her return to Paris.

careless, that she usually

wore, beneath that

Mme

de Stael no longer

seemed the same person. Her face was downcast and sadness. That fiery spirit,

as if sick with

which usually enlivened her expression with

countless swiftly passing nuances,

who

“Beneath the

covering her thick black hair and which blended

with the expressive splendor of her gaze,

place Villemain,

and

was no longer

in evidence.” In its

fully recognized in her present state the physical

REUNION

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

cost of her long resistance against absolute power, observed in her “a

look of changing, insightful disquiet, a sort of foreboding in sorrow.” 4

At the very

least

Benjamin might be expected to show' some un-

derstanding or express some concern

when he

perceived the changed

appearance and condition of his former lover .and companion.

He was

not.

attempt to

entirely

make

in his

own

did

concerns, especially his

a place for himself in the political life of the Restora-

The time he

tion.

wrapped up

He

spent working with Bernadotte had renewed his

confidence and his taste for political action. In the it,

weeks before Germaine’s

Benjamin paid

a great

many

met with those apparently

arrival in Paris,

visits to the

and certainly

eminent and

indestructible pillars of

all

after

influential;

he

regimes, Talley-

rand and Fouche, as well as General Sebastiani and others he had

known during

the Directoire and the Consulate.

Some he had encoun-

tered in the course of his efforts to alleviate Germaine’s exile and

recover Necker’s millions.

He was

trying to establish himself and his

reputation as a leading political journalist, a committed opponent of

Napoleon, guise.

a supporter

of the Bourbons in their proclaimed liberal

The impression he gave was

public, he

that, instead

of keeping

silent in

had been a dissident voice and an emblem of resistance

to the

tyrant in the years between his dismissal from the Tribunate in 1802

and the publication of his impressive attack on the usurper, de conquete, in 1813,

important

articles,

now

in

its

third edition.

He

De

Vesprit

published various

including his observations on constitutions and his

views on the responsibility of ministers,

much admired by Germaine.

In these articles he defended free speech

and freedom of the press

at a

time when, notwithstanding Louis XVIII’s promulgation of the liberal Charte, or Charter, there

were very strong currents of reaction.

Benjamin was truly shocked when he saw Germaine not

work much because of my

she

is

thin

and

pale.

I

visit to

Mme

de

did not allow myself to

Stael.

at last.

“Did

She has changed,

show any

feeling.

What

REUNION would be the use? Albertine She

the one

is

regret.

I

PARIS— AND AFTER

IN

is

charming, extremely witty, adorable.

should

I

like to

spend

my

life

with her.” 5 His

apparent indifference to Germaine, confided to his diary, did not prevent him from dining with her almost every afternoon

custom-

at the

ary hour of four or four-thirty. Her salon was again celebrated for brilliance

and frequented by luminaries from

all

its

over Europe, crowned

heads, statesmen, diplomats, generals, and distinguished writers and scholars, offering

Benjamin an excellent chance

the eminent and powerful

Mme de Stael.

who

She has changed

make

to

contact with

flooded into the capital. “Dined with

in

every way. She

is

withdrawn, almost

cold, thinking only of herself, scarcely listening to others, attached to

nothing, even to her daughter, except out of duty, to myself not at Instead, he concentrated pletely myself in her

been done with

my

all

his affection

manner of thinking,

I

am

“is

my poem

to

pleased with what has

in her upbringing.

Mme

de

Stael. It is

6

com-

handiwork,” he commented complacently,

though he had played no part noted, “Read

on Albertine: she

all.”

7

A

few days

al-

he

later

easy to see that she no

longer loves me, because she scarcely praised me.” 8 Clearly her praise,

which he had ment, did

relied

still

on

in the past to give

matter to him.

A

him support and encourage-

great weight

shoulders, he claimed, after seeing Germaine, for

longer

felt

any

affection. Indeed,

Germany and whom he had not about

much during

his

was

far

lifted

whom

he preferred his wife,

from

his

he said he no

who was

still

in

seen for a long while or even thought

involvement with Bernadotte.

The reunion of Germaine and Benjamin then,

was

from being

a

romantic

in Paris in the spring

affair. It

was not even

a

of 1814,

moment of

amicable reconciliation, as perhaps Germaine had hoped or imagined. Despite his journalism and his socializing, Benjamin loss

when Germaine departed

July. Life

for

felt

somewhat

at a

Coppet with Albertine and Rocca

in

seemed empty: he missed Charlotte, who was managing

250

?

REUNION

IN

perfectly well without him.

It

there

he

was nobody

felt at a

in Paris

low ebb. In

PARIS— AND AFTER seemed

whom

his

nobody loved him, and

that

he loved: in short, he was bored and

apathy he failed to correspond with Ger-

maine: Albertine wrote to complain that he had not written to them

Coppet when he must know how her mother the latest

news and gossip from

crisis:

he

mind?” he inquired on August lose his head, such

was

on

his letters for

Paris.

Then, suddenly, the vacuum was

most turbulent midlife

relied

at

fell

Benjamin succumbed to

filled.

madly

31, 1814.

in love.

Indeed, in

his frenzy. His passion

“Am

I

losing

a

my

some sense he did

took command, bring-

ing an abiding interest into his loveless existence. Timid expressions of lifelong devotion to his beloved, bitter outpourings of despair, wild threats of suicide— these were, as ever with Benjamin, the

love strategy, but in this instance, they were see that

it

was rather absurd

be behaving

for an experienced

like a lovesick adolescent. All the

of “passion in a novel as

at 18,”

words

Germaine’s shortcomings a decade

demand

for love as at 18,” he

unlikely that, governed

by

no

man

earlier, its

avail.

He could

of forty-seven to

same, he was in the grip

that echo his

romance of passionate love and

for the

to

all

forms of his

condemnation of

and especially her longing expression: “It

is

had complained about her then. 9

his

new

passion, he

.

It

.

.

the

seems

would have remem-

bered the phrase he had used to characterize what he had perceived as

Germaine’s emotional immaturity.

Who was the Juliette

object of this grande passion

It

was none other than

Recamier, Germaine’s most deeply cherished female friend.

had known her for

at least

He

fourteen years without ever transgressing a

tone of social playfulness. Indeed, on occasion he had remarked to

Prosper de Barante that she was ageless and good-hearted, but frivolous.

Once, he had traveled amicably with her

carriage to meet Germaine.

He

in close

proximity in a

had, moreover, acted in Andromaque

alongside Juliette at Coppet without joining her queue of admirers.

It

REUNION seems not conduct,

to

PARIS— AND AFTER

IN

have occurred to him that Germaine would interpret his

when

she learned of

it

on her return

to Paris at the

end of

September, as a further “betrayal” of their companionship and association,

not far short of that of his secret marriage. Could he seriously

have expected her to give her blessing to the union of her ex-lover and her best friend?

Of course,

point of view; he

was

he did not attempt to see matters from her

the only one

who

counted. Germaine told him,

referring to the effect of his obsession with Juliette, “I

you

are not bored

you

as a

no longer mean anything

form of remorse

have the sad

now

I

one

that

ability to see into the

feels

only

know

to you. ...

when one

depths of the

I

is

human

that since

appear to

unhappy.

heart.”

10

I

He

regarded Germaine simply as an obstacle, and a detested obstacle

at that;

he was convinced that she would do

his passion

formed

and harm him

in

all

she could to frustrate

every way. For him, she had been trans-

He wanted

into the serpent in the garden.

nothing about his feelings for

Juliette, so

Germaine was spreading rumors about

his family to

know

he informed Rosalie that

his nonexistent

amours with

various ladies, and that his happiness with the angelic Charlotte was

complete.

He reproved his friend Hochet for criticizing him and doubt-

ing his ability to be a statesman or a minister in Germaine’s presence, for fear that she

would undermine

Ever since the Directoire,

his reputation.

Recamier, a vision in fashion-

Juliette

able diaphanous white as she reclined

iconic paintings

famous

for being famous. finesse,

Admired throughout Europe

for her grace,

and beauty, she was one of the great celebri-

of the day. Germaine would tempt her friends to Coppet by saying

that Juliette

would be coming

around 1800 when

Juliette’s

bought a Parisian mansion that

in the

by Baron Gerard and Jacques-Louis David, had been

charm, elegance, ties

on her chaise longue

moment

to stay.

for the first time

husband, the banker Jacques Recamier,

that

their friendship

They had met

Necker had put up for

had blossomed.

~y>~

252 -M-

It

sale,

and from

has been called “ une

REUNION arnitie

amoureuse

love— and so

it

her feelings for as

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

a friendship that

is

barely distinguishable from

was, at least on Germaine’s part. She once compared Juliette,

endowed with “mysterious

qualities” as well

charm, with the depth of her feeling for Benjamin. For Germaine,

this

was no mundane or

number of such was

social

friendship— she enjoyed a countless

friendships with distinguished

intense, ideal, sublime, visceral,

women— but

one that

and unique. To discover that

Benjamin had joined the extremely long

of Juliette’s suitors, from

list

Lucien Bonaparte and Adrien de Montmorency to Prince Augustus of Prussia, Prosper de Barante, painful.

Germaine warned

had once warned

her,

and her

own son Auguste, must have been

Juliette, just as

Mathieu de Montmorency

becoming involved with such

against

a volatile

character as Benjamin.

Locked

in a

manage

was murmured,

a

unconsummated union

hlanc, or

man who was

(with, so

really her father), a marriage of

convenience to protect property during the Revolution,

deemed not only ravishingly posed a challenge few his luck.

When

men

was

Juliette

was

beautiful but pure and unattainable. She

could

resist.

Benjamin

he alluded to his timidity

“Dare!” she said famously.

it

Intelligent,

also a practised coquette,

felt

Juliette

impelled to try

encouraged him:

of equable temperament, she

and Germaine

saying that she would have been too perfect

if

later

reproached her,

she had put friendship

before coquetry. Juliette was partly mistrustful and partly intrigued by

making another conquest.

Benjamin’s ardor, unable to

resist

noted in his diary: “Perhaps

also, as

tally she [Juliette]

wants from

men

Mme de

Stael said,

me from

arousing in her.

several encounters with her .” 11

woman, an his diary

.

.

fundamen-

only the sort of physical sensations

that their desire evokes in her, faute de mieux,

often prevented

.

Later, he

I

and that

gained

He addressed

little

my

timidity

profit

from

her as an enchanting

angel descended from heaven, a five-year-old child, but in

he would apply to her the usual complaints he leveled against

REUNION

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

women he knew: he said that she dominated him and that he was her slave. When he did not get his way he followed his custommost of the

ary pattern of behavior, from wild passion and suffering to mutterings

of loathing, and, toward the end, studied indifference. His intentions were not platonic: “This cursed nable,” he declared

12 .

Gambler

woman

is

impreg-

that he was, he thought that he should

have risked everything on a single throw, that he should have seized a

moment when cessfully,

she was emotionally vulnerable (as he had done, suc-

when wooing

He acknowledged

ing to commit suicide.

from several fool .”

13

Charlotte) or taken her by force after threaten-

tete-a-tetes

He remained

through

had

that he

his timidity: “I

in thrall to her for

failed to “profit”

have been a great

more than

a year,

and

his

obsession led him into some curious and unexpected areas. For instance, although he

had long scorned

print of the family coat of tion,

“my

seal

he asked Rosalie for a

arms because, under the Bourbon Restora-

everyone was resurrecting old

because

privilege,

titles

new

ones, and

like a

draper .” 14

or adopting

‘Benjamin Constant’ makes

me

look

Perhaps he fancied that as Benjamin de Constant, the appellation his father

had favored, he might appear

quence

be a person of more conse-

in Juliette’s eyes.

Meanwhile, Juliette to

how was

he to pass the time while waiting around for

look kindly on him? Apart from his writing there was

always gambling, of course. lette table in

A

tremendous stroke of luck

November enabled him

Neuve-de-Berry with a nately, his later its

to

heavy

fairly large

to

buy

a fine

losses prevented

house on the rue

him from being

able to afford

visits to prostitutes.

But what he really needed was to find ways to win

To

rou-

garden and a superb view: unfortu-

upkeep. In addition, there were, as in the past,

and hold her

at the

Juliette’s attention

interest.

please Juliette,

who was

Caroline of Naples, he wrote a

a friend of Napoleon’s sister,

memorandum addressed

Queen

to the Allies in

REUNION

PARIS— AND AFTER

IN

favor of Caroline’s husband, Joachim Murat, the Neapolitan throne.

And

who wanted

enjoy closer contact with the

in order to

object of his pursuit, Benjamin encouraged Juliette to

memoirs: she would speak said into order.

Among

1815.

him

for

to

He was working on

entirely

unburden

about Germaine as

The

is

satirical,

Mme

friendship of

life

in the winter

of

on Germaine doubt-

a section 3

compose her

while he put what she

memoirs

by Benjamin: chapter

was patently

means

a

about his former compan-

sharper even than anything he wrote

de Malbee in

Germaine and

place in this cruel chapter.

new

these

his current bitterness

These pages are

ion.

him about her

the papers that survive

composed

less

to

on

to stay

Germaine

Cecile.

Juliette is

occupies relatively

little

depicted as swift in expressing

thoughts, which the idealized Juliette

is

swift to

comprehend and

judge; a strong, virile temperament contrasts with a delicate, refined,

feminine one.

The substance of chapter

3

does not

lie

but in the analysis of Germaine’s character by a

here, however,

man who knows

intimately her every flaw. After the allusions to her controversial ap-

pearance, her splendid gaze, her customary expression of benevolence,

and her astonishing conversation comes the sword thrust: her conviction of her

own superiority. He never admits that she has a good

be proud about, not

least

her writings that changed the face of

ture and of culture in general.

things that

deal to

make her perhaps

He

writes,

“Mme

the most astounding

litera-

de Stael unites two

woman

in the entire

world, a combination that deceives others as well as herself. Her imagination,

full

of eloquence and poetry, endows her words with a

nobility, a loftiness, a

charm and the

mark of generosity and devotion

to others that

captivate, but she has such a sense of her superiority

huge distance

that separates her

from the

rest

and of

of humanity that

it is

primarily in her favor that this nobility, this loftiness and this generosity are cisely

brought to bear.

does he mean?

He

It is

not egoism,

it

is

suggests that egoism has

a cult.” its

What

pre-

shameful aspect

REUNION

“Mme

whereas

de

awe .” 15 Egoism,

Stael’s cult

in short,

self- worship. In contrast

Germaine believed

of herself inspires a certain religious

far too small a

with

this view,

in the equality

word

to express

Germaine’s

her cousin Albertine Necker de

blind to her faults, declared that

of all

human

beings before

God and

herself to be superior because of her genius.

felt

On

is

PARIS— AND AFTER

who was by no means

Saussure,

never

IN

one

page he attacks her sincerity by presenting her

brilliant

eloquently expressed yet contradictory views one after the other;

seems almost possible to hear her voice, so vivid de Stael filial

perfectly sincere, he says,

is

when

his mimicry.

is

it

Mme

she declares that family and

obligations should take second place to the right to happiness of

magnanimous Rousseau’s

when

La

souls

Nouvelle Heloise.

demanded

she

endowed with

that

He

insists

on

when filial

as a

alluding, of course, to the time his father’s

Coppet. She

is

home, where

filial

equally sincere, he

piety and duty against the claims of love. Here he

strongly disapproved.

The

He once

is

wooing of Juliette, of which Germaine

peculiar irony of the situation

jamin himself held that a truth

different

at

manner of

mother she advocates the complete opposite and

alluding to her son Auguste’s

contrary.

is

Benjamin leave

duty called him, to attend on her maintains,

sensibility, after the

is

not complete unless

it

is

that

Ben-

embraces

its

maintained, moreover, that there are a thousand

ways of looking

at a question.

On

almost every page of his

diary there are feelings and thoughts that directly contradict each other. Indeed,

it

is this

very contradictory integrity that makes his

diary such a remarkable document.

Perhaps the most cruel page of all concerns her love for her father,

which verged on

idolatry.

mately than Benjamin, to

Germany

who

to protect her

Nobody knew about a

this love

more

inti-

decade earlier had ridden night and day

by being

the

first

to tell her

death. Then, however, he had marriage in mind. lavish praise for her father in her writings has

25 6 -+•>-2

^

REUNION former republican

him on

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

were not pleased

allies

the extreme and risky course he

benefit of

what he

when on March Paris that

either.

was taking and gave him the sermon.” 17 Nonetheless,

called “another political

the astonishing

6, 1815,

Germaine lectured

news reached

Napoleon had escaped from Elba and had landed

Juan on March

1,

on hastening

intent

caution to the winds.

With

all

to the capital,

the force of his eloquence he violently

March

the Journal de Paris and article

he declared,

Golfe-

at

Benjamin threw

attacked Napoleon in two notorious articles published

second

the public in

on March

1 1

in

19 in the Journal des Debats. In the

“It is Attila,

is

it

Genghis Khan, more

fearsome and hateful because the resources of civilization are

at his

disposal” for pillage and massacre. “I say today without fear of being

misunderstood:

I

wanted freedom under diverse forms;

monarchy;

possible under the

not go,

like a

I

saw the King

saw

I

rally to the nation:

it

I

was shall

wretched renegade, dragging myself from one power to

another, disguising infamy with sophistry and stammering words that

have been profaned

ransom

in order to

shameful

a

life.”

18

These

resounding phrases would come to haunt him. The very next day, Louis XVIII, to

whom

he had so loudly pledged his

ignominious haste for Ghent with

Benjamin had

his rhetoric,

He had gambled and

lost: all

he

resistance to Napoleon, and,

knew

that he

risking his

have him put to death.

emperor

Germaine feared

a talk with her

solicitude touched him:

was

he could do now, he thought, was to

die nobly, for he fully expected the for him.

departed in

his court.

some

tried to rally

though carried away by life.

all

faith,

During

to

“She moved me, and

did not really hate her.”

19

I

one morning her

felt that, in spite

She urged him to

of my

from the

anger,

I

capital

without delay: “I beg you for the sake of our old affection to

leave immediately.” 20 Fearing that

all

flee

hopes for liberty were

she herself departed hurriedly for Coppet.

En

5

8 •>-2

at

“My

dear

REUNION friend,

do me one more

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

favor, see that

Benjamin

leaves.

am

I

greatly

worried about him after what he has written.” 21 Benjamin hastily departed to join Prosper de Barante in the Vendee. Napoleon entered the

on March

capital

20.

A

week

covering to his great surprise that

Not the

Benjamin returned

later

least surprising aspect

all

was

to Paris, dis-

quiet.

of Napoleon’s astonishing and varie-

gated career was his pragmatic decision to establish a liberal regime in 1815, a decision that baffled a great

really last?

be sincere

Who

was

many

people. Could Napoleon

in his liberal-minded talk?

to

be believed? Above

Would

what

all,

if

his

new regime

Napoleon had

re-

turned for good? Even Germaine received kind words from elevated quarters. that the let

Her

many

friend of

years, Joseph Bonaparte, informed her

emperor had not forgotten her magnanimity

him know, when he was

a prisoner

nate him. Joseph assured her that

would be permitted claimed that

it

to speak

and write

was not himself but

destruction of De UAllemagne these blandishments or the tine:

me

if she

“He managed very

for twelve years,

on Elba, about were

new

To

who had

now, she

Napoleon

placate her

his underlings lie.

a plot to assassi-

to return to Paris

freely.

— a blatant

in contriving to

ordered the

She was not convinced by

liberal order, telling

her cousin Alber-

well to do without a constitution and without

and even

now

he cares as

little

for the

one

as for

the other.” 22

Although Germaine would convey the impression tial

in

her influen-

Considerations sur les principaux evenements de la Revolution frangaise

that she stood firm, she in fact

wavered

for a while.

There was some-

thing epic to appeal to her imagination in Napoleon’s daring escape

from Elba,

his reconquest

swift restoration of

all

of the country in

just

under three weeks, the

the trappings of his rule, and his decision to

adapt the constitution to the time, the circumstances, and his rent requirements.

“Mme

de Stael would really

•^-259-H-

like to

mend

own

cur-

fences,”

REUNION thought Benjamin

23

PARIS— AND AFTER

IN

She admitted to him that although she had gone

.

along with the monarchy she was not committed to the royalist party and, therefore, “if the

mate power all,

Emperor grants freedom he

my view.”

in

Besides, he

seemed

since the landing at Antibes [Golfe-Juan]

resist

him.

the nation

I

should be

less

capable of doing so

would be even more unlikely

to

be the

legiti-

be invincible: “Above

to I

will

do not know who could

now

than in the past, so

oppose him .” 24 There was,

moreover, the outstanding question of the repayment of Necker’s loan,

promised by Louis XVIII. Her son Auguste was employed tions in Paris, but he

were

far

from

full.

had

little

hope of success, for the

in negotia-

state coffers

Nonetheless, Benjamin was optimistic, according to

Auguste. Germaine told

Juliette that if Napoleon

were

to settle the debt

her gratitude would prevent her from doing or saying anything to

oppose him. Yet, as

much

covered that

it

as

Germaine desired the repayment, she soon

would come

at

much

reported to her, Lucien Bonaparte had leon “would not take the

first step.

dis-

too high a price. As Auguste

made

him

clear to

that

He wants your mother

Napo-

to receive

her payment from his generosity, not from justice, he wants her to cross the Rubicon .”

25

She would have to come to Paris to undertake

negotiations in person and rally to the emperor’s refused,

though she could not help wondering

new

if

cause.

Germaine

she was putting her

pride before the interests of her children. She decided to keep

from Paris and stay discreetly and associates,

at

like Lafayette,

away

Coppet, criticizing those of her friends

Sismondi, and Benjamin himself,

who

chose to rally to the liberal Empire. It

was, temporarily, a parting of political ways for Germaine and

Benjamin. Yet, throughout the months of his passion for Juliette and his professed loathing for

new

political

Germaine, and throughout the period of his

involvement, the two former companions— despite fur-

ther personal differences— continued to

260

comment on

political affairs at

REUNION

And Auguste

a distance.

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

stayed at Benjamin’s during the abortive

negotiations for repayment, in which his host continued to take an active personal interest.

Benjamin Constant was his virulent attacks

far too useful a writer to

A

on Napoleon.

with impeccable liberal credentials

regime required. He paid offers

visits to

brilliant-

polemicist and publicist

like his

was

Fouche and

De

harshly to Germaine over

though

after talking

whether there were

He was

he decided. the will

new regime

I’Allemagne.

in

what the new

who made

Sebastiani,

He

real prospects for liberty:

visited Joseph

so

Bona-

“So what! Let’s accept,”

hardly more convinced by the liberal assurances of

than was Germaine: “Intentions are

a position that

French

who had behaved

with him he could not help wondering

be despotic. Never mind. Shall

wanted was and

just

and promises to him, giving him serious hopes of advancement.

Often he dined with Savary, due de Rovigo,

parte,

be punished for

would

political life,

I

get

establish

what

I

liberal. Practice

want?” 26 What he

him permanently

one that would also impress

in

France

Juliette

and

win her respect and admiration.

When Germaine learned that Benjamin had been appointed one of the commissioners to prepare the additions to the constitution, she

urged him to consider guarantees rather than the declaration of rights. She did not

hesitate,

moreover, to remind him of his rash words, so

quickly contradicted by his actions, in his notorious pro-Bourbon and

anti-Napoleon go, like a

article

of March

19,

when he proclaimed,

“I shall not

wretched renegade, dragging myself from one power to

another, disguising infamy with sophistry and stammering

have been profaned in order to ransom a shameful

home by quoting from

this

life.”

words

that

Germaine

hit

bold declaration, which he would doubtless

have preferred to be forgotten: “I do not want to say anything about politics,

I

remarked

cannot ‘stammer words that have been profaned,’ ” she acidly.

27

->•>•

26

REUNION

On

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

April 14 Benjamin had a long conversation with the emperor

himself, the

first

of many: “He

is

bring him a draft for a constitution. Shall

want

to

do so? The future

is

dark.

Napoleon again received him favor: “It

is

Tomorrow I

an astounding man. I

make

it

at last?

shall

Should

I

D s f.” On the following day

Lvd

but his draft met with

in audience,

little

On

not exactly liberty that they want,” noted Benjamin.

April 18, he spent two hours with Napoleon: Benjamin’s revised draft

received greater approval. severely, “but

position

I

I

am

sharp-witted

am doing

in.”

28

women

He knew

good, and also

igy,”

at

want

I

friends

was more amused

Napoleon,

way he

at

to get out of the

emperor,

who

29

candidly revealed his utter

whom he called a “phenomenon,”

On April

accepted

19 he

of

circle

Benjamin’s volte-

profoundly impressed as he was by the range and

great man’s mind.

him

criticizing

However, one member of Germaine’s

face than judgmental about the

astonishment

many were

that

“prod-

a

of the

flexibility

had another long audience with the

many of his

ideas.

As

a

reward Constant was

nominated for the Council of State: “If my nomination goes through,

am on my way

without forgoing any of

taining political affairs were! Within a

my

principles.”

court,” he

How

enter-

few days, he was wearing the

gold embroidered uniform of a councillor of

member of the new

30

I

state.

“So here

am,

I

a

commented approvingly. 31

On the whole he was pleased with himself, despite receiving anonymous

letters

every day that conveyed disapproval both of him and of

the Additional Act to the constitution, familiarly

jamine, though he was not the only person

maine was divided between approval and satisfied

with the constitution yet

I

known

who worked on

have some objections to details.

military

Ger-

it.”

She

As regards

the

councillors of state, are they responsible or inviolable?

“A Chamber of

it.

was extremely

criticism: “I

showered him with queries about important

the role of the peers?

as la ben-

What

men would

will

be

be no

guarantee of liberty,” she cautioned. Were the administrators in the

-^262- 275*“^

REUNION about her

own

IN

PARIS— AND AFTER

contentment, which would be complete

health were to improve. Notably, she regrets

unhappiness— implying

that a

all

if

only Rocca’s

the time she wasted in

good deal of it was spent with Benjamin

or bewailing their separation. All that counts now, she realizes,

is

the

heart’s affections.

As

for Benjamin, he often liked to reminisce, recalling the

of Albertine, for example, or the

significant dates in his life: the birth

anniversary of the scene

at

Secheron when Germaine was

of his secret marriage to Charlotte.

and with

diary, first

hour

it

A

saw

Mme

his

an entire period of his existence, he remembered his

de Stael for the

first

time.

I

observation he

summed up

at the

same

should have done better

not to embark on this liaison and afterward not to break this brief

finally told

few days before he closed

encounter with Germaine: “Twenty-two years ago I

most

it

off.”

53

With

his current attitude to his long-

standing, complex, tempestuous, but ultimately fruitful relationship

with Germaine. After so so

many

many storms,

so

much pain mutually inflicted,

veerings on his part, he had reached the conclusion that in

severing the connection he had

made

extraordinary admission.

**“27 6>-

277 -->307~h-

footnote of Mme de

,

,

NOTES TO PAGES 13.

135-148

Benjamin Constant to Rosalie de Constant, October

19, 1800, in

Constant and

Constant, Correspondance, 1386—1830 pp. 25—26. 14.

Benjamin Constant to Rosalie de Constant, August

21

and October

19, 1800,

ibid., pp. 22, 25.

Dix

15. Stael,

16. Ibid., p.

18.

Mme 4,

p.

122m.

I07n3.

De

17. Stael,

annees d’exil,

la litterature

ed.

Van Tieghem,

vol. 2, p. 428.

de Stael to Jacques Necker, mid-June 1800, Correspondance generate, vol.

part

1, p.

288.

Mme de Stael to Jacques Necker, August 27, 1800, ibid., p. 313. 20. Mme de Stael to Joseph-Marie de Gerando, October 8, 1800, ibid., p. 21. Mme de Stael to Jacques Necker, November 15, 1801, ibid., p. 428. 19.

22.

Benjamin Constant to Rosalie de Constant, November

329.

14, 1800, Correspon-

dance, 1386—1830, p. 26. 23. Ibid., p. 27.

Les Amours de Benjamin Constant,

24. Levaillant,

p. 63.

25. Ibid., p. 64.

26. Ibid., p. 65. 27. Ibid., p. 66. 28. Ibid., p. 68.

29. Ibid., pp. 30. Rosalie 31.

32.

Mme de

69—70.

de Constant in

Stael, Correspondance generate, vol. 4, part 2, p. 567.

Stael to Camille Jordan,

February 20, 1802,

Benjamin Constant to Claude Fauriel, July

15,

ibid., p. 465.

1802, in Glachant, Benjamin

Constant, p. 64. 33.

Mme de Stael to Camille Jordan, August 20,

1802, Correspondance generate, vol.

4, part 2, p. 548.

Mme de Stael to Jean-Marie Pictet-Diodati, August 12, 1802, ibid., pp. 35. Mme de Stael to Claude Hochet, September 6, 1802, ibid., p. 554. 36. Mme de Stael to Camille Jordan, September 6, 1802, ibid., p. 556. 34.

37. Glachant,

Benjamin Constant,

Mme

Mme

38.

part

de Stael to 1, p.

p.

544—545.

76.

Pastoret, June 9, 1800, Correspondance generate, vol. 4,

284.

->->-308-^-

NOTES TO PAGES 39.

Mme

de Stael to Jean-Baptiste Suard, November

570; Stael, Delphine, ed. Didier, vol.

p.

149-163

1, p.

4, 1802, ibid., vol. 4, part 2,

421.

40. Stael, Delphine, ed. Didier, vol. 2, p. 187. 41. Ibid., vol.

1, p.

421.

60— 61.

42. Constant, Recueil d’articles, iyc)5—i8ij, pp. 43. Ibid. See also

Madame

Simone Balaye,

de Stael: Ecrire,

Delphine

lutter, vivre,

44. Stael, Delphine, ed. Didier, vol. 45.

“

1, p.

et la presse

sous

le

Consulat,” in

pp. 231—243.

58.

Mme de Stael to Claude Hochet, March 3, 1803, Correspondance generale, vol. 4, 6. part 2, pp. 593—594; Mme de Stael to Joseph Bonaparte, March 27, 1803, ibid., 602.

p.

46. Editor’s note in Stael, Correspondance generale, ibid., pp. 61 1— 612. 47. Stael, Delphine, ed. Didier, vol.

1, p.

moral de Delphine,

48. Stael, Quelques reflexions sur le but

Journey

1.

Mme de Stael to Jacques Necker, 5,

part

Mme de

3.

Benjamin Constant, Journaux

5.

Mme

Unknown

October 27, 1803, Correspondance generale,

Stael to Jacques Necker,

December

18, 1804, pp.

October

intimes,

7, 1803, ibid., pp.

February

5,

part

1,

p.

48—49.

19, 1803, p. 247.

10, 1804,

Correspondance generale,

227.

Constant, Journaux intimes, March

7. Ibid., p.

2,

1803, p. 247.

248.

8. Ibid.,

July 28, 1804,

9. Ibid.,

January

p.

344.

6, 1803, pp.

225—226.

10. Ibid., p. 226. 11. Ibid., p.

226.

12. Ibid.,

March

13. Ibid.,

August

14.

vol.

428—429.

de Stael to Jacques Necker, February

vol. 6.

into the

in ibid., vol. 2, p. 371.

85.

1, p.

2.

4. Ibid.,

396.

2,

1803, p. 248.

19,

September

Constant, Journal intime

7,

and October

et lettres

14, 1804, pp. 355, 368, 390.

a sa famille,

->>-309-'^-

p. 250.

NOTES TO PAGES 15.

Constant, Journaux intimes, January Correspondance generate, vol.

16. Stael,

Constant, Journaux intimes, January

18.

Mme

de

6, 1803, p. 226.

5,

17.

163-185

part

1, p.

132.

6, 1803, pp.

226—227.

Journal sur UAllemagne, November

Stael,

1803, in Les Carnets de

15,

voyage, p. 31. 19.

Mme

de Stael to Jacques Necker, December

vol. 20.

5,

part

1, p.

Correspondance generate,

152.

Mme de Stael to Jacques Necker, January 6, Albertine Necker de Saussure, January

21.

18, 1803,

1 1

1804, ibid.,

and

p. 185;

Mme de Stael to

31, 1804, ibid., pp. 189,

213-214.

Constant, Journaux intimes, February 16, 1804, pp. 268, 1489^.

22. Ibid.,

March

Benjamin Constant to Rosalie de Constant,

21, 1804, p. 280;

February 27, 1804,

in

Constant and Constant, Correspondance, ij 86— 1830,

pp. 47-48. 23. Constant, Journaux intimes,

24. Ibid.,

May

25. Ibid.,

March

3

and March

December

7, 1804, p. 422.

6, 1804, pp. 275, 302.

17, 1804, p. 280.

26. Constant, Cecile, p. 189. 27.

Mme

de Stael to Jacques Necker, March 23 and 27, 1804, Correspondance

generate, vol.

5,

part

1,

pp. 284, 293.

28.

Mme de

29.

Benjamin Constant, Journaux

Stael to Jacques Necker,

March

1

and

5,

1804, ibid., pp. 257—258.

intimes, April 7, 1804, p. 288.

30. Ibid., April 9, 1804, p. 289. 31.

Mme

de Stael to Duke of Saxe-Gotha, April 28, 1804, Correspondance generate,

vol.

5,

part

1, p.

337.

32.

Benjamin Constant, Journaux

33.

Constant, Journaux intimes, April 14, 1804, pp. 292—293.

intimes, April 13, 1804, p. 292.

7. Corinne

1.

Benjamin Constant, Journaux

2. Ibid., 3.

June

18, 1804, pp.

intimes,

and Adolphe

January 26, 1803,

p.

233.

321—322.

Catherine Huber to her parents, December et la Suisse, p. 91.

-V>~3IO-H~

4, 1789, in

Kohler,

Madame

de Stael

,

,

NOTES TO PAGES Corinne ed. Balaye,

4. Stael,

186-205

See also Poulet, “Corinne

p. 521.

5.

Constant Journaux intimes, August 24, 1804,

6.

Kohler,

7.

Constant, Journaux intimes, January 23, 1805,

de Stael la Suisse

8. Ibid.,

January 26, 1805,

9. Ibid.,

December

10. Ibid.,

Adolphe.”

p. 359.

,

Madame

et

p. 501. p. 451.

p. 453.

9, 1804, p. 424.

September 9 and December

28, 1804,

and January

2, 1805, pp.

369, 434,

438. 11. Ibid.,

12.

Mme

December

1

and

9, 1804, p. 424.

de Stael to Benjamin Constant, November

rate, vol. 5,

part

2,

pp.

1,

1804, Correspondance gene-

446—447.

13. Ibid.

14.

Constant, Journaux intimes, January

15. Ibid.,

September 7 and

16. Ibid.,

February 4 and

17.

8,

5,

1804,

p.

17, 1805, p. 448.

368.

1805, p. 459.

Benjamin Constant to Rosalie de Constant, June 24, 1807, Constant, Correspondance, 1386—1830,

18.

Constant, Journaux intimes.

19. Ibid.,

20.

May

8,

in

Constant and

p. 60.

1805, p. 520.

January 25 and 27, 1805, pp. 438—439, 453—454.

Mme de Stael to Vincenzo Monti, June 23,

1805, Correspondance generate, vol.

5,

part 2, p. 605. 21.

Constant, Journaux intimes,

22.

Mme

December

de Stael to Maurice O’Donnell,

29, 1804, pp. 434—435.

May

23, 1808, Correspondance generate,

vol. 6, p. 431. 23.

Mme de Stael

24.

Necker de Saussure, Notice,

25.

Constant, Journaux intimes, October 20—25 an d 589, 597

to

Benjamin Constant, p.

May

15,

1808, ibid., pp. 420—421.

cccxxvii; Constant, Adolphe, ed. Leuwers, p. 65.

November

22, 1806, pp.

588—

-

26. Stael, Corinne, ed. Balaye, p. 53. 27.

Benjamin Constant to Claude Hochet, December Stael, Lettres a

28. Rosalie

4,

1807, in Constant and

un ami, pp. 139— 140.

de Constant to Charles de Constant, August

Madame

de Stael et la Suisse,

p. 341.

18,

1807, in Kohler,

1

NOTES TO PAGES 29.

Benjamin Constant

to

205-219

Claude Hochet, March

Lettres a un ami, p. 170;

Benjamin Constant

Constant and

31, 1810, in

Stael,

de Constant, July 22,

to Rosalie

1809, in Constant and Constant, Correspondance, lySC—iSjo, p. 94. 30. Rosalie

de Constant to Charles de Constant, September 8 and October

1807, Kohler, 31.

Madame

32.

de Stael et la Suisse, pp. 342—344.

Benjamin Constant and Rosalie de Constant, spondance, ty 86— 1830,

Mme

de Stael to

Mme

14,

p.

in

Constant and Constant, Corre-

104m

Recamier, April 20,

21,

and 30 and December

16, 1808,

Correspondance generale, vol. 6, pp. 349, 410— 41 1. 33.

Mme de Stael

34. Charlotte 35.

to

Mme Recamier, c.

March

1808, ibid.,

p.

388.

Constant to Benjamin Constant, February 1810,

Benjamin Constant

November

to Rosalie de Constant,

ibid., p.

622m

14, 1809, in

Constant

and Constant, Correspondance, ty 86— 1830, pp. 109— no. 36.

Benjamin Constant

to Rosalie

de Constant, December

9, 1809, ibid., p. 113.

37. Stael, Corinne, ed. Balaye, p. 57.

38. Ibid., p. 94.

39. Ibid., p. 431.

40. Ibid., p. 575. 41. Ibid., p.

578—579*

42. Ibid., p. 587. 43. Constant, Recueil d’articles, iyc)5—i8iy, pp. 85, 87.

44. Ibid., p. 86; Constant, Melanges, p. 868. 45. Constant, Recueil d’articles, iyc)5—i8iy, p. 86.

,”

46. Ibid., pp.

Madame

90—91; Simone Balaye, “Benjamin Constant lecteur de Corinne de Stael: Ecrire,

47. Constant, Adolphe, ed.

Benjamin Constant

to

pp. 265—278.

Leuwers, pp. 163—164.

8.

1.

lutter, vivre,

in

The Flight

to

Freedom

Claude Hochet, July

Lettres a un ami, p. 128;

16, 1807, in

Constant and

Benjamin Constant to Charles de

Villers,

ber 27, 1813, quoted by Harpaz in the Introduction to Constant, conquete, p. 23.

*>>3

Stael,

Decem-

De TEsprit de

,

NOTES TO PAGES

219-235

Mme Recamier, in Levaillant,

2.

Mme de

3.

Constant, Cecile pp. 183—184.

4.

Benjamin Constant to Claude Hochet, February

Stael to

Une Amide amoureuse,

p.

276.

Constant and

13, 1810, in

Stael,

Lettres a un ami, p. 119.

Benjamin Constant

5.

to

Prosper de Barante, August

Barante, pp. 535, 538; Constant, Recueil

Benjamin Constant to

6.

Amide amoureuse,

Mme

pp.

de

Stael,

'articles,

September

a Prosper de

8, 1810, Lettres

d

iyc) 5 —i 8 ij, p.

263.

6, 1810, in Levaillant,

241—242; Constant and Recamier,

Une

Lettres,

1803—1830,

13, 1810, in Levaillant,

Une Amide

p. 41.

Mme

7.

de Stael to

amoureuse, 8.

p.

Mme

Recamier, October

267.

Mme de Stael to Claude Hochet, July ami,

9.

19, 1811, in

Constant and

Stael, Lettres a

un

p. 176.

Benjamin Constant, “Statement,” April Constant, p.

a Benjamin

19, 1811, in Stael, Lettres

147m

10.

Constant, Journa ux intimes.

11.

Benjamin Constant

May

to Rosalie

8, 1813, p.

708.

de Constant, June 20, 1811, in Constant and

Constant, Correspondance, 1386—1830,

p. 146.

12.

Benjamin Constant

13.

Benjamin Constant to Claude Hochet, October

to Rosalie

de Constant, July 2—6, 1811, 5,

ibid., p. 149.

1812, in Constant

and

Stael,

Lettres a un ami, p. 225. 14.

Constant, Journaux intimes, April 14, 1807, and February

September

27,

October

19,

and November

15,

April

8,

June 27,

27, 1812, pp. 627, 687, 690, 693,

697, 698, 700. 15.

Benjamin Constant to Claude Hochet, August

9, 1812, in

Constant and

November

2,

Stael,

Lettres a un ami, p. 221. 16. Ibid., p. 222. 17.

Constant, Journaux indmes, June 17,

18. Ibid.,

19.

and

24, 1812,

and January

June 28, 1813,

18,

August

11, 1813, pp.

6,

9,

693, 695, 699, 701, 702, 703.

p. 711.

Benjamin Constant to Prosper de Barante, April Barante,

and December

7, 1813, Lettres

p. 565.

20. Constant, Journaux indmes,

September

6, 1813, p. 714.

-^313 -3

11, 1815, in Jasinski,

“En marge de deux

1

NOTES TO PAGES 26. Constant, Journaux intimes, 27.

Mme

March 30 and

261-274

31, 1815, p. 778.

de Stael to Benjamin Constant, April

10, 1815, Lettres a

Benjamin Con-

stant, p. 83.

28. Constant, Journaux intimes, April 14, 15,

29.

Mme Antoinette Recamier

18, 1815, pp.

May

de Gerando to Camille Jordan,

Lettres,

,

and

180J—1830,

779—780.

9, 1815, in

Constant and

p. 198.

30. Constant, Journaux intimes, April 19, 1815, p. 780. 31. Ibid.,

32.

Mme

April 23, 1815,

de Stael to Benjamin Constant, April 30, 1815, Lettres a Benjamin Con-

stant, pp.

33.

89-90.

Constant, Journaux intimes.

34. Ibid., April 20, 1815, 35.

Mme

May

20, 1815, p. 783.

and November

14, 1814, pp. 780, 759.

de Stael to Benjamin Constant, April 30, 1815, Lettres a Benjamin Con-

stant, pp.

36.

p. 781.

90—91; Constant, Journaux

intimes.

Mme de Stael to Benjamin Constant, May

May

6, 1815, p. 782.

15, 1815, Lettres

a Benjamin Constant,

pp. 93-94. 37. Constant, Journaux intimes. 38.

May

19, 1815, p. 783.

Mme de Stael to Benjamin Constant, May 23,

1815, Lettres a

Benjamin Constant,

pp. 95-96. 39. Ibid.,

May

28, 1815, pp.

97—99.

40. Constant, Journaux intimes, 41.

31

and June

Mme de Stael to Benjamin Constant, June pp.

42.

May

784.

12, 1815, Lettres a

Benjamin Constant,

100— 103.

Benjamin Constant

to Rosalie

de Constant, August 1815,

Constant, Correspondance, ij86— 1830, 43.

2, 1815, p.

Mme de Stael to Benjamin

p.

in

Constant and

209.

Constant, July 21, 1815, Lettres a Benjamin Constant,

p. 105.

44. Ibid.,

August

11, 1815, p. 107.

45. Ibid.,

August

11

and September

1,

1815, pp. 106,

108—109.

46. Constant, Journal intime et lettres a sa famille, p. lvi. 47. Constant, Journaux intimes, 48. Haussonville,

49. Constant,

Femmes

Journaux

January

16, 1816, p. 807.

d’autrefois, p. 21

1.

intimes, July 17, 1816, p. 818;

«*»3 6~«-

Benjamin Constant

to

Mme

NOTES TO PAGES Recamier, June

and August

5

275-286

17, 1816, in

Constant and Recamier,

Lettres,

1807-1830, pp. 323, 326. 50.

Mme

de Stael and Albertine de Broglie to Benjamin Constant, February 23,

1816, in Stael, Lettres a

Mme

51.

de Stael to

Mme

Benjamin Constant, pp. 118—120.

Recamier, February

Madame

de Stael: Lumieres et

52.

Balaye,

53.

Constant, Journaux intimes, September 19, 1816,

to.

Mme p.

2.

226. p.

822.

The Death of Corinne

Madame

de Stael: Lumieres et

liberte,

227.

Benjamin Constant

mort de

to

August Wilhelm Schlegel,

Mme de

in Balaye,

“Benjamin Constant

Stael,” p. 17.

Constant Journaux intimes, February ,

4. Stael, 5.

liberte, p.

de Stael to Mary Berry, in Balaye,

et la 3.

Recamier,

263.

p.

1.

Mme

17, 1816, Lettres a

5,

1805, p. 459.

Considerations sur la Revolution franfaise, ed. Godechot,

p.

389.

Stael, Corinne, ed. Balaye, p. 572.

6. Ibid. 7.

Due de

Broglie, Souvenirs, in Balaye, “Benjamin Constant et la

mort de

Mme de

Stael,” p. 18. 8.

Benjamin Constant, in Balaye,

9. Ibid., pp.

10.

“Benjamin Constant

et la

mort de Madame de

July 18, 1817,

Stael,” pp.

21—22.

27—28.

Benjamin Constant, “Necrologie,” Mercure de France, July 26, 1817, d’articles:

11.

“On Mme de Stael f Journal general de France,

Le Mercure,

la

Minerve

et la

Renommee,

Sismondi to Eulalie de Saint- Aulaire, December

vol.

1, p.

in Recueil

282.

13, 1830, Espistolario, vol. 3,

p. 109. 12.

Benjamin Constant to Lettres,

13.

1807—1830,

Benjamin Constant

Mme Recamier, August

and Recamier,

p. 334.

to Rosalie de Constant, April 17, 1817, in Constant

Constant, Correspondance, 1786—1830, 14.

1817, in Constant

p.

226.

Rosalie de Constant to Benjamin Constant,

May

11,

1817, ibid., p. 228.

and

,

NOTES TO PAGES

289-299

Epilogue

Benjamin Constant

1.

Barante, 2. Stael,

to

Prosper de Barante, August 1812, Lettres a Prosper de

p. 561.

Considerations sur la Revolution franqaise, ed. Godechot, p. 605.

3.

Benjamin Constant, “Avant propos,”

4.

Benjamin Constant, Preface to Melanges,

5.

Benjamin Constant on d’articles:

in Principes de politique, p. 1100. in Oeuvres, p. 835.

Stael, Considerations sur la Revolution franqaise in Recueil

Le Mercure,

la

Minerve

et la

Renommee

vol.

1, p.

451; Stael, Consid-

erations sur la Revolution frangaise, p. 68. 6.

Constant on

7.

Kloocke, Benjamin Constant,

Stael, Considerations sur la Revolution franqaise, p. 453. p.

286.

Benjamin Constant, “Encore un mot sur

8.

le

Recueil d’articles: Le Mercure, la Minerve 9.

Benjamin Constant, Preface to Melanges, Constant, p. 243;

proces de Wilfrid Regnault,” in

et la

Renommee,

in Levaillant,

vol.

1,

pp. 358—360.

Les Amours de Benjamin

Mme de Stael to Benjamin Constant, August

15, 1815 , Lettres

a Benjamin Constant, p. 109. 10.

Benjamin Constant to Joseph de pas, p.

11.

12.

Villele,

October

5,

1822, in Guillemin, Pas a

55.

Constant, Portraits, memoires, souvenirs,

Benjamin Constant Levaillant, Les

to Emilie

p. 53;

see also pp. 47—48, 102— 103ml.

de Constant Rebecque, March 24, 1830, in

Amours de Benjamin

Constant, p. 246.

13.

Vigny, Le Journal d’un poete, in Oeuvres Completes, vol.

14.

Sismondi to Eulalie de Saint-Aulaire, December p. 109.

~h~3i8-•>-32 6-

*

Routledge, London, 1993.

INDEX

Abolition of slave trade, 277, 292

Beauharnais, Josephine, 71

Academie Fran9aise, 296, 298

Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron

Adams, John, 50—51

de, 18

BC

Adolphe (Constant):

Adolphe, 180, 210;

GS

1

for Ellenore,

274; love relationship 217; love, in,

view

model

Beaumont, Pauline de,

for

81, 185; betrayal in,

model

as

as

273—

215—

in, 184,

Beauvoir, Simone de,

1

Berlin, GS’s travel to,

172— 175, 177

Berlin, Isaiah, 291

of, 61, 116; veracity

Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste, 146, 242; battle of Leipzig, 236;

201

Aeneid

(Virgil), 224,

Alembert, Jean Le

Alexander Allemagne, 184,

85

I,

268

Rond

opposition, 234—235, 237, 239, 240, d,’

40

244 Berry, due de, 242

Tsar, 233

De

Berton, General, 295, 296

/’(Stael), 55, 62, 166,

Boissy d’Anglas, Fran9ois-Antoine, 78,

222—225, 2 39, 259, 283

Amiens, peace treaty

of,

147

Andromaque (Racine), 204, Anglomania,

85

Bollmann, Erich,

251

Anna Amalia, Dowager Duchess of

27

Bonaparte, Joseph, 127, 128, 152, 156,

Saxe- Weimar, 169, 172, 173

Anspach-Bayreuth, Margrave

173, of,

Anspach-Bayreuth, Margravine d,’

21,

Bonald, Louis de, 292

36, 56

Arblay, Alexandre

and Napoleon

8 1 , 259, 261

Bonaparte, Lucien, 102, 128, 253, 260

46

of,

1

Bonaparte, Napoleon. See Napoleon

46

63—64

Bonstetten, Charles- Victor de,

Augustus, Prince of Prussia, 253

15,

187—

188, 191

Bourbon

restoration, 3;

and BC,

75, 118,

and GS, 235, 242, 244, 245—

Babeuf, Fran9ois-Emile, “Gracchus,” 89

245, 249;

Barante, Prosper de, 198, 207, 215, 222,

246; resurrection of titles, 254; sec-

ond, 263, 270—271. See also Louis

23°, 235,251,253,259, 278, 289 Barras, Paul-Jean de, 85, 101— 102, 103, 121

XVIII Bridel (tutor), 44

4-^327-M-

,

1

INDEX Brinkman, Carl Gustav, von, 177 Broglie, Albertine de: at

Caroline of Naples, Queen, 254—255

on Adolphe 274;

Catholicism, restoration of, 145—146,

deathbed of GS, 278, 280; dowry

263-269;

for,

in exile

with GS, 231,

237; health of, 156, 166— 167; legacy to,

192; marriage of, 264, 269, 274,

275; paternity of,

ship with

BC,

100— 101;

149 ,

Cazenove d’Arlens, Constance, 7 Cazotte, Jacques, 193 Cecile (Constant), 6, 12,

relation-

100, 163, 172, 200, 236,

237, 246, 248, 250, 251, 264, 274-275,

171, 173, 185,

278,

Censorship: of De VAllemagne, 223— 225, 259;

Charles of, 7,

Edmund,

47, 60

Charriere, Isabelle de (“Belle”), 113, 140, 141; Caliste, 8, 50; correspon-

of, 51, 52

Buffon, comte de, 40

Burke,

I,

Charles X, 296

23—24,

51-53, 140, 166

Brunswick, Duke

under Bourbons, 296

Cercle Constitutionnel, 103, 105

281—282

Brunswick, ducal court

220—221

Cecilia (Burney), 86

282; salon of, 287 Broglie, Victor de, 264, 269, 274, 275,

76—78, 169,

no

89, 109,

9, 10,

59, 64; criticism

of GS, 8—9,

Burney, Dr., 63

relationship with

Burney, Fanny, 63—64, 86—87

51-52, 53 ,

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 238—239,

11— 12,

dence with BC,

55 ,

BC,

8,

n,

54, 58, 10, 107;

30, 50,

164

Charriere-Bavois,

Mme de,

206

Chateaubriand, Fran9ois-Rene de,

272-273

101, 133, 141, 151, 278,

85,

287

Cabanis, Georges, 109

Chateauvieux, Frederic Lullin de,

Caffe (doctor), 295

Chenier, Andre, 20

Cahier rouge, Le (Constant), 42—43, 48,

Chenier, Marie-Joseph, 78, 84—85, 101

49, 50, 61

Chevaliers,

Le

Les (Constant), 46

(Corneille), 15

Caliste (Charriere), 8, 50

Cid,

Cambaceres (Consul),

Circonstances actuelles,

124, 131, 137, 163

Cambridge, Adolphus Frederick, Duke

Campbell, John,

Campo

M.

Necker

of,

(Stael), 179

et

82—

83 Citoyen Franpais, Le,

98

Capelle (bureaucrat), 230

Du

(Stael), 119,

241, 275

159, 165

Formio, peace

Caractere de

Des

Citizenship, and nationality issues,

of, 245

18, 19

Clairon, Mile,

de sa vie privee,

15,

1 5

22—23, 46

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 238

Concordat with Papacy, 145—146, 149

->~>328-*h-

—

—

—

INDEX Condorcet, Antoine-Nicolas Caritat,

Marquis de,

57, 59,

from “Minna” von

46, 48; divorce

Cramm,

90

no,

94—

24, 28, 53, 92; in duels,

226, 295; at Edinburgh

Condorcet, Sophie de, 49, 195

95,

Considerations sur les principaux evene-

University, 47—48, 189, 238; educa-

ments de

la

Revolution fran$aise

104— 105,

(Stael),

tion

119, 259, 277, 280,

1

1

and upbringing,

33, 35

— 36,

42

on

47, 54; egotism of, 52, 54-55; elections,

283, 290, 292

5,

74—75; in England, 46, 50—

271—273; on equality, 292—293;

“Conspiracy of Equals,” 89

51,

Constant, Benjamin: and banishment of

Erlangen University, 46—47, 216; on

GS,

153,

157—158, 195; and Belle de

Charriere, 164;

8, 30, 50,

51-52,

escape of GS, 231—232, 233; eyesight

problems

53, 55,

and Bernadotte, 239, 244, 249;

of,

and Bourbon regime,

82,

1

18, 245,

249; at Brunswick ducal

financial

no— iii,

problems

117, 187, 221;

of,

on censorship of De

freedom

of,

of, 82, 96; funeral

297—298; gambling

of, 31, 44, 46,

VAllemagne, 224; in Cercle Constitu-

48, 79, 189, 221, 254, 264, 296; in

tional, 103, 105; characterization of

German

GS, 218—219, 2 3 2 — 2 33 2 5 5

travels of, 155, 165,

2 5 2 °7> 209—210,

in, 264; republicanism

221, 225, 226, 228, 229—230, 240,

73—75, 89—90,

244, 250—251, 271, 296; marriage

128; return

with GS, question 188; marriage to

Cramm, 23—24, mony,

of, 176, 184,

of De

186—

“Minna” von 53, 166;

64, 65—66,

1

274-

1 1

from

8,

of, 58, 60,

122— 123, 127—

exile,

246; review

la litterature, 134;

on Revolu-

tionary events, 58—60; royalist

on matri-

charge against, 84—85; scholarly

14 — 1 15, 116, 186,

interests of, 53, 56;

and Sieyes, 120,

214— 215; model for Lebensei, 149;

122— 124; on

and mysticism, 220; and Napoleon,

in Tribunate, 124, 126, 135, 136—137,

attacks on,

122— 123, 218, 258, 261,

290; and Napoleon, opposition

social conventions, 64;

142; Tribunate speech of,

to,

135;

withdrawal from public

239—241, 258; in Napoleon’s Hun-

143— 144,

dred Days, 261—263, 265, 2 7°> 2 9G

Stael,

and Necker,

stant relationship

16, 145, 148, 257;

Necker’s loans

paganism, 47;

to, 81, 82, 117;

on

in Parisian society,

127— 132,

154,

life,

136,

163—164. See also

Germaine de-Benjamin Con-

Constant, Benjamin, works: Adolphe

77—

{see Adolphe)', Cahier rouge,

Le 42—

76—

78, 79, 109, 195—196; paternity of

43, 48, 49, 50, 61; Cecile, 6, 12,

Albertine, 100— 101; physical

78, 169, 171, 173, 185,

appearance

93-94, 143;

Chevaliers, Les, 46; Doctrine politique

75—76, 78, 96,

qui peut reunir tous les partis,

of, 13, 71,

220-221;

De

political

ambitions

118, 135,

235-236, 245, 249, 298;

275; Effets de la Terreur, Des, 78, 103;

political

enemies

Esprit de conquete,

cal setbacks to,

of,

of, 158, 270; politi-

109— no,

political successes of,

1

3 1

— 114;

105—106, 123—

to

298—299; posthumous

GS by, 282-285,

Thermidorean

73—79; precocious

tributes

70—71,

talents of,

De

la, 87,

un depute de

296, 297; in post-

Paris, 67, 69,

240—

actuel de la France et de la necessite d’y rallier,

270—271; posthumous tributes

to, 1,

/,’ 2.18,

241, 249; Force du gouvernement

124; as political turncoat, apologia for,

De

la,

28—29,

42; properties of, 79—81, 96, 112, 143,

-H-330-M-

88—89; “Cettres a

la Convention

,”

74—75,

89; Lettre sur Julie, 116, 154;

Melanges de

litterature et de politique,

283, 294, 296, 297; Polytheisme

romain considere dans ses rapports avec la philosophie grecque et la religion

,

INDEX Du

chretienne,

constitution republicaine dans

grand pays,

De

Constitution: of 1814 {la Charte ), 249;

47; Possibility d’une

la,

und

134— 135; Principes

of 181 5

{la benjamine), 262; English,

292; of

Hundred Days, 261— 262; of

de politique, 184, 269, 291; Reactions

Year

politiques, Des, 103; Souvenirs histor-

121, 123;

iques, 105; Spirit

Consulate: Concordat with Papacy,

145—146; criticism by BC, 122— 123;

Angleterre en 1660, Des, 118; Wall-

203, 207

by Necker,

criticism

Constant, Charles de (cousin),

122; dictatorship

of Napoleon, 125—126, 146; establish-

8, 52,

ment

205, 206

of,

1

20-121; Parisian society

under, 137—138, 138; persecution of

Constant, Charlotte (second wife). See

Hardenberg, Charlotte von

121,

122—

124; Tribunate, 124, 126, 127,

136—

GS, 127— 132; and Sieyes,

Constant, Henriette de Chandieu,

Mme

(mother), 33

137, 142

Convent education,

Constant, Juste de (father), 28, 80, 81; characterized, 41, 42; death of wife, 33,

33, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47; financial of, 42; mistress of, 33,

relationship with

BC,

thinkers

prob-

at,

to, 9, 16,

41—42;

41, 51,

35

Coppet: assemblies of writers and

42; education and upbringing of BC,

lems

of Year X, 147

Constitutional monarchists, 71—72, 147

of Religions, The,

14; Suites de la contre-revolution en

stein, 184,

77—78, 195; of Year VIII,

III,

86-90,

118, 139, 143,

275; death of Necker

at,

land, 108,

with BC, 75 - 76 135 140, 170, 185,

286; GS’s banishment

194, 209, 210, 227, 254, 264, 269, 279,

GS’s

,

and GS,

7, 87, 95, 144,

BC,

189;

on

Juste

205;

life at,

to, 156,

86—90,

285—

230;

118, 137, 138, at,

204, 251, 271

Corinne ou Vltalie (Stael),

BC

of BC-GS, 93, 204, 206—207 Constant, Rose-Suzanne de (grand-

mother), 33, 44-45

206;

210— 213; Byron on, 238;

death scene 18

2, 184,

on, 213— 215, 283; betrayal theme

of, 166,

1

68,

at,

178-179; theatrical performances

de Constant, 42, in; on relationship

Constant, Samuel de (uncle), 80, 105,

175—

175-176;

in; funeral of GS

dante of BC, 205; correspondence

286, 293; and gambling of

visits

during French occupation of Switzer-

Constant, Rosalie de (cousin): as confi-

,

BC’s

191— 192, 204, 209, 221, 226,

176,

m, 264

198, 204, 275;

model

in,

280—281;

for Corinne,

GS

as

180— 181, 186;

man, 62—63; Napoleon on,

Constant, Victor de (cousin), 140

and

Constant, Wilhelmina “Minna”

203; portrait of GS as Corinne, 287;

(first

wife), 23—24, 53, 92, 166

ideal

setting of, 197

>>331-^-

5

INDEX Corneille, Pierre,

Correspondance

revolutionary law, 16, 95; stigma of,

1

39—40

litteraire,

95-96, 273

Coulmann, Jean-Jacques, 297

Dix annees

Coup of 18 Brumaire,

Doctrine politique qui peut reunir tous

Coup of 18

102,

120— 123

Fructidor, 103— 105, 106, 129

Coup of 13 Vendemiaire, 84—85, Courtney, C.

P.,

partis,

d’exil (Stael), 233

De

la (Constant), 275

Ducos, Roger (Consul),

104

Dumouriez, General,

4

Cramm, Wilhelmina von (“Minna”),

les

121, 124

55

Duplessis (tutor), 44

Dupont de Nemours, Pierre-Samuel,

2 3~ 2 4, 53, 9 2 > 166

Custine, Delphine de, 71

104

Duras, duchesse de, 274

Danton, Georges-Jacques, 83

Daunou,

Edict of Nantes, 82

Pierre, 134

BC in,

David, Jacques-Louis, 107

Edinburgh,

Decazes, Elie, Due, 270—271, 277

Edinburgh University,

Declaration of the Rights of Man, 195

BC

at,

Des (Constant),

Effets de la Terreur,

168, 283

Devonshire, Duke

of,

Emigres: in Britain, 73;

list of, 81,

101; reformers, 72; rescued

272

Diable amoureux, Le (Cazotte), 193

9—10,

Diderot, Denis, 40

7 2 , 73> 83

Directoire, 3; banishment of GS, 85, 99; ties to, 75, 87, 88, 99, 102;

con-

Enclos, Ninon de

Due

1 ,’

141

87—88, 99; coup of 18 Brumaire, 102,

England: Anglomania, 36, 56;

120— 122; coup of 18 Fructidor, 103—

292; emigres

factions, 70; financial

GS

phine,

1 5 1

;

outlawing

53,

of,

51

;

under

in,

in,

242, 272

237-239, 264;

238, 239, 273;

war

with France, 73

92; in Del1

in, 27, 73, 101,

in, 27, 36, 63, 101,

Enlightenment,

occupation, 108

BC

restoration of monarchy, 118;

95—96;

surveillance of GS, 71—72; and Swiss

Divorce: of BC, 24, 28,

174

Regency society

jeunesse doree during, 71; and mili19; social laxity under,

d,’

46, 50—51, 271—273; constitution,

speculation under, 70—71, 79;

1

71—

Emile ou Veducation (Rousseau), 35

Enghien,

and

82,

by GS,

15, 31, 57; ultraroyalists,

spiracy charges against GS, 83-86,

tary,

78,

103

Desportes, Felix, 87, 88

105, 106;

47—48,

189, 238

Delphine (Stael), 62, 65, 148—151, 153,

BC’s

51

3, 7, 34, 55, 133,

288;

Scottish, 47, 48, 49

Enquiry Concerning PoliticalJustice and

~» 332 ~343'^-

de (“Belle”)

“The protagonists’ unique romantic and intellectual partnership, set against the backdrop of one of history’s most dramatic eras, is enriched by Winegarten’s characteristically succinct prose and subtle judgments.”

BROOKE ALLEN,

author of Twentieth Century Attitudes

"Renee Winegarten provides a lucid account of the complex relation between two major actors on the intellectual and political scene in the wake of the French Revolution. A swiftly paced, well informed study of two independent minds.”

VICTOR BROMBERT,

Princeton University

"A thoroughly researched and engaging dual biography of two of Europe’s most distinguished writers. Winegarten's case for the

importance and appeal of these two figures

is

forcefully argued

and completely convincing.”

WILLIAM

C.

CARTER, author

of Pro not in Love

V\LE UNIVERSITY PRESS

New Haven

lonexdn

yalebooks.com

www.yalebooks.co.uk

ISBN 978-0-300-11925-1

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9

780300

19251

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