Germaine de Staël

Delphine is the first novel by Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, published in 1802. The book is written in epistolary form (as a series of letters) and examines the limits of women's freedom in an aristocratic society. Although Madame de Staël denied political intent the book was controversial enough for Napoleon to exile the author.

"Corinne, or Italy (1807). A romantic novel by Mme de Staël. Oswald Nevil, and English lord, recuperating in Rome, meets the famous poetess Corinne, who, half-English and half-Italian, has exiled herself from her native England. They fall in love, and Nevil wishes to marry Corinne, but she hesitates, fearing the rigidity of the English life she once knew; her present unconventional life is too dear to her. Oswald, forced to return to England, later gives in to the pressures of his social ilieu and marries the wholly English Lucile, half sister of Corinne. When she learns of the marriage, Corinne dies of grief. idealistic and passionate, Corinne is a psychological study of two tormented souls and is a celebrated description of Italian civilization and mores." - - from Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition

"Now available for the first time in English, this unabridged edition is based on the definitive French text prepared by Simone Balaye and Mariella Bonifacio. It tells the full story of Mme de Stael's flight across Europe to Moscow, just ahead of Napoleon's advancing armies. In exile, she continued to resist Napoleon, and her memoir is laced with scathing political commentary as well as acute observations on the times."--BOOK JACKET.