STAËL (GERMAINE NECKER, MADAME DE). [THE ARREST OF BONAPARTE - Lot 232

Lot n° 232
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STAËL (GERMAINE NECKER, MADAME DE). [THE ARREST OF BONAPARTE - Lot 232
STAËL (GERMAINE NECKER, MADAME DE). [THE ARREST OF BONAPARTE DID NOTHING FOR ME... BUT ISN'T IT AWFUL THAT HE SHOULD FALL WITH FRANCE..."] Autograph letter to Astolphe de Custine. Château de Coppet [in the Swiss canton of Vaud], August 15, 1815. 4 pp. in-8; last page with trace of glue and tabs and small tear in upper margin. "I didn't know where you were, my dear Astolphe, and I was sorry to see that your plan to travel here had totally failed [although a homosexual, he was courting Albertine, Madame de Staël's daughter]. I still think you won't come, but at least I know where you are. You ask me what I think of current events, I know only one thing in the world, and that is the pain of France's situation. I am for this country like a mother and all the faults cannot make me bear its humiliation and misfortune. I say with you that THE ARRESTATION OF BONAP[ARTE] HAS DONE NOTHING TO ME AND I WOULD HAVE HIT THE SKY WITH MY FRONT IF IT HAD ARRIVED IN ANOTHER TIME - BUT IS IT NOT AFFREUX THAT HE FELL WITH FRANCE and that we have in common with his supporters to date our tears from the same day [Madame de Staël was at first a great admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, a little in love, but her wholehearted character and liberal ideas led to her being banned from Paris]. AH, FRANCE DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH VIRTUES TO MAKE ADVERSITY HONORABLE. Now Geneva declares war on her, Switzerland sends its warriors to kill her when she's down, and everyone tries to take her on as if she were a lion without claws or teeth. There are provinces of different opinions, and there is no longer any France. Finally, I'm sorry all day, every day, and now I'm burdening you with my complaints. The feeling is so strong that I cannot bring myself to go to Paris in spite of everything, which reminds me of it, and I PROPOSE TO LEAVE IN SIX WEEKS FOR ITALY and to stay there until the departure of the foreigners if they ever leave [while France was occupied by the Allies, it was to leave in September 1815 for Italy for nine months]. The plague prevents me from going to Greece, which is a plague like any other, but perhaps I'll go as far as Sicily because of Richard the Lionheart's stay there. What you tell me about your health worries me, and if I were a doctor, I would order you to Italy. Tell me what you will do, my son has left for Paris and I await news of him and of my affairs. WHILE I'M WAITING, I'M WRITING MY WORK ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE [Considérations sur les principaux événements de la Révolution française, to be published posthumously in 1818]. If it weren't for occupation, one would devour oneself by dint of thinking. It is said that Alexis de Noailles refused to be Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and sided with the white and green cockade, that is, the ultra-royalists. As much as you admire him, he's missing something, and something necessary... I like what you say about identity a hundred times over. I thought mine was the memory of my father; that's the only way I'm worth resurrecting." TRAVELLING WRITER AND HOMOSEXUAL DANDY, ASTOLPHE DE CUSTINE (1790-1857) was the son of the revolutionary general guillotined in 1793 and Delphine de Sabran, whose beauty and intelligence inspired love in Chateaubriand and admiration in Madame de Staël - she drew inspiration from her for her novel Delphine (1802). In spite of everything, her culture and intelligence attracted the likes of Balzac, Chateaubriand, Chopin, Gautier, Hugo, Lamartine, Sand and Stendhal to her mansion on rue La Rochefoucauld and her château in Saint-Gratien... WITH MADAME DE STAËL, HE WAS ONE OF THE INTRODUCERS OF GERMAN ROMANTISM IN FRANCE, and published novels and travelogues much admired by Victor Hugo and Balzac, including La Russie en 1839 (1843), a critique of the Czar that won him wide acclaim.
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