Beschreibung:

STAËL-HOLSTEIN, Anne-Louise-Germaine, Baronne de (1776-1817). Autograph manuscript of De l'Allemagne , n.p. [Coppet], n.d. [1808-1809], the first draft of her most important work, inscribed in autograph in the upper margin of the first page, '1ère section Lettres sur l'Allemagne'; the subtitle, 'De l'Allemagne et des allemands Observations générales', and the first 28 lines of text written in the hand of an amanuensis with autograph corrections; the remainder of the manuscript entirely in autograph; including Madame de Staël's original chapter numberings and headings, and corrections, cancellations, revisions and numerous variants of the later manuscripts and the published text; written in ink on recto and verso in 18 gatherings ( cahiers ), 6 on light blue and 12 on ivory laid and watermarked paper, altogether approximately 1330 pages written on half-sheet 4to ( sizes 230 x 180mm - 160 x 200mm ), blank leaves (a few leaves cut away). THE MANUSCRIPT OF MADAME DE STAËL'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, IN WHICH SHE INTRODUCED GERMAN ROMANTICISM TO THE FRENCH There are three manuscripts of De l'Allemagne . A critical edition based upon the manuscripts and including variants was published in 5 volumes in 1958-1960, by Comtesse Jean de Pange, with the assistance of Simone Balayé. The manuscripts are designated by Madame de Pange as A, B and C. Manuscript A, probably the earliest, is entirely in autograph. Manuscript B, also in autograph, is a revised version of A. Manuscript C is a copy of B (in the hand of Madame de Staël's amanuensis, Fanny Randall), including numerous autograph corrections and revisions. Both A and B are in 18 cahiers of unequal length and paper size, and there are numerous variants between the three manuscripts and between C and the published text. Ten of the cahiers in the present manuscript (listed below as 1-6, 8 and 10-12) are from Manuscipt A. The remaining eight (listed as 7, 9 and 13-18) include variant chapter headings and numberings identified by Madame de Pange as Manuscript B. A list of the contents of each cahier is given below. The manuscript is written in Madame de Staël's often difficult hand, sometimes small and regular, elsewhere dense and sprawling. There is a frequent absence of capitals, accents or punctuation, and on some pages long revisions are inserted between lines of writing. Most of the chapters have headings and her original numberings. Provenance . By descent to the present owner. Anne-Louise-Germaine de Staël, daughter of the Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who became minister and Director-General of Finance to Louis XVI, was precocious from early childhood. Formidably well read and heiress to one of the greatest fortunes in Europe, she was familiar from her mother's salon with the intellectual and social luminaries of the French capital. She was briefly and unhappily married to the Swedish ambassador to Paris, Baron Eric Magnus Staël von Holstein (d. 1802), by whom she had three children, but she followed Necker to his estate at Coppet outside Geneva on his resignation in 1790. During the early years of the Revolutionary period and the Directorate she was sometimes in France, sometimes in Switzerland, and in 1793 spent five months in England at Juniper Hall, presiding over a distinguished group of emigrés. She became increasingly influential through her writings and the brilliance of her salon in Paris, where Benjamin Constant was among the most frequent guests, and soon became her lover. As her early expectations that Napoleon would show himself a liberal were disappointed, and her disenchantment became increasingly ill-concealed, the First Consul began to perceive her as a dangerous intriguer, and in 1803 she was banished from within forty leagues of Paris. Paradoxically, her exile from the capital was to inspire her most influential work, by prompting her journeys in 1803-1804 to Frankfurt, Weimar and Berlin, and in 1807-1808 to Munich and Vienna. In 1797 Madame de Staël knew no Germ