Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution

by Germaine de Staël, Aurelian Craiutu (Editor)

Overview

Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution was a winner in the Scholarly/Reference category at the Chicago Book Clinic’s 2009 Book & Media Show.

Germaine de Staël’s voice, which Napoleon Bonaparte tried to silence by censorship and banishment, is a unique and important contribution to revolutionary historiography.

Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution, considered Madame de Staël’s magnum opus, became a classic of liberal thinking, making a deeply original contribution to an ongoing political and historical debate in early nineteenth-century France and Europe.

Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) rose to fame as a novelist, critic, political thinker, sociologist of literature, and autobiographer.

Aurelian Craiutu is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614872320
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/19/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	834
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Note on the Present Edition xxv

Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution 1
 
Select Bibliography on Madame de Stael  757

Index 769

Editorial Reviews

In Craiutu's useful introduction, he notes the number of similarities between Staël's political ideas and other moderate Restoration liberals. . . .The primary advantage to Craiutu's updated translation is his commitment to placing Staël in the context of nineteenth-century liberalism. In addition t his fine introduction, which provides as an overview of Stael's political ideas and some of the key issues regarding Staël's life and works, Craiutu's footnotes frequently make comparisions between Staël's ideas and her contemporaries across the political spectrum, including Benjamin Constant, FranNormal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4çois Guizot and Edmund Burke. . . .This sorely needed revised translation updates the 1818 English translation that appeared at the same time as the first French edition. Until now, this earlier version was the only complete text available to English-speaking readers. . . .Also included with the translation is a helpful bibliography of print and online sources for Staël and the French Revolution.

Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4Nineteenth-Century French Studies
Spring-Summer 2011

Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution was a winner in the Scholarly/Reference category at the Chicago Book Clinic's 2009 Book & Media Show.

Madame de Stael is remembered today mostly for her Salons and amorous life. In her own time, however, she was celebrated and respected for her intelligence and acute political insight. In this beautiful, annotated translation of her personal view of the French Revolution, Craiutu (political science, Indiana University) presents Germaine de Stael in her element, making personal comments on other intellectuals ("he was irreligious in the way that priests are bigoted") and giving her take on the events of her time. This is not a dry history of events but a lively, passionate running commentary by a woman who knew Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Lafayette. She was personally and philosophically repelled by Napoleon whom she described in terms that would today indicate that he was a sociopath. Her ideal government was a constitutional monarchy with England as her model. She also owned property in the new United States and corresponded with Jefferson. Even those who have no interest in revolutions will be enchanted by this book.

Reference & Research Book News
May 2009

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