Staël, Romanticism and Revolution

John Claiborne Isbell is a scholar, educator, and poet. He has published in French and English on Staël and on European Romanticism, starting in 1994 with The Birth of European Romanticism: Truth and Propaganda in Staël's De l'Allemagne (Cambridge University Press). His most recent monograph is An Outline of Romanticism in the West (2022).

• 1. The Painful Birth of the Romantic Heroine: Staël as Political Animal, 1786–1821; 2. Revolution and the Private Sphere: Lettres sur Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Zulma, Recueil de morceaux détachés, 1786–1795; 3. Mme de Staël, Minister for War? Narbonne's 'English' Program under the Assemblée législative; 4. The Social Contract for Staël and Constant, or Does Liberty Have a Sex?; 5. When the Light of Reason Fails: De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations, 1796; 6. Imaginary Europe: De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales; 7. Suicide, Meaning, and Power in the 'Querelle de Delphine'; 8. My Father, Myself: Staël and the Manuscrits de M. Necker; 9. Italy, or Corinne; 10. Interlude: In Search of Romantic Theater; 11. Napoleon Pulps His Enemies: Censors, Police, and De l'Allemagne's Lost 1810 Edition; 12. The Napoleon Apocalypse; 13. Romantic Spain and National Resistance: Staël, Rocca, and the Mémoires sur la guerre des Français en Espagne; 14. A. W. Schlegel, Staël, and Sismondi in 1814: The Groupe de Coppet and the Confédération romantique; 15. The Italian Romantics and Mme de Staël: Art, Society, and Nationhood; 16. Inventing the French Revolution: Staël Considers National Credit, 1789–1818; 17. Voices Lost? Staël and Slavery, 1786–1830; La Vie dans l'œuvre.

'Beautifully written and impeccably researched, [this book] is a satisfyingly thorough examination of a popular author's work, and it becomes an indispensable addition to the understanding of Staël's literary career in the panorama of nineteenth-century Europe by confidently demonstrating the long-lasting repercussions of her oeuvre.' Carmen Casaliggi, European Romantic Review