MADAME DE STAEL AND THE GRAND-DUCHESS LOUISE. A Selection from the Unpublished Correspondence of Madame de Stael and the Grand-Duchess Louise of Saxe-Weimar, from 1800 to 1817. Together with a Letter to Bonaparte, First Consul; and Another to Napoleon, Emperor.; By the Author of "Souvenirs of Madame Recamier."
London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., 1862. 8vo; xxiii, 223 pp. Bound by Riviere & Son in green calf, with gilt-decorated spine and five raised bands, gilt borders, all edges gilt. A very good copy. With tipped-in autograph letter dated 8 August 1825 from French writer and politician Benjamin Constant to poet Maurice de Guerin. An interesting association of a literary and political salon in 19th-century France. Item #57163
Amelie Lenormant was the niece and adopted daughter of Juliette Recamier, the great friend of Madame de Stael. Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (1767-1830) was a French political philosopher and intimate of Madame de Stael. Their collaboration made them a fierce intellectual pair. Constant was also the author of one novel --"Adolphe" -- a work in the sentimental tradition about a young man's disastrous love affair with an older mistress. French poet Maurice de Guerin (1810-1839) was probably more celebrated for his prose than his poetry. Its charm arises from de Guerin's absorbing passion for nature. According to Sainte-Beuve "no French poet or painter has rendered so well the feeling for nature -- the feeling not so much for details as for the ensemble and the divine universality, the feeling for the origin of things and the sovereign principle of life."
Price: $500.00