SOURCE: “The Painful Birth of the Romantic Heroine: Staël as Political Animal, 1786-1818,” in Romanic Review, Vol. 87, No. 1, January, 1996, pp. 59-66.

In the following essay, Isbell argues that de Staël chose to produce literary art in response to her exclusion from politics as a woman.

1. On a raison d’exclure les femmes des affaires politiques et civilies. Staël, 1810.

2. Depuis la Révolution, les hommes ont pensé qu’il était politiquement et moralement utile de réduire les femmes à la plus absurde médiocrité. Staël, 1800¹.

One author, two verdicts. What is going on? This paper argues that Staël chose art only when banned by men from politics, under Napoleon in particular. The “Romantic heroine” her life and works handed to posterity was a fallback position, used by a woman exiled from the Revolutionary stage. Staël's complete works make this clear, splitting into four...