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Parisian
Salons
~Background
~Salons of
Enlightenment
~Madame de Stäel
~Salons
of the Restoration
~The Salons
of Victor Hugo
Influence
of Printed Materials
~Pre-Revolutionary
Timeline
~Post-Revolutionary Timeline
~Memoires
Defining
the Parisians
~Parisians
Viewed by Foreigners
~Parisians Viewed by
Themselves
~Paris Fashion
Bibliography
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Here
in the salon of Mme. de Stäel, Jean Jacques Rousseau's
doctrines with his emphasis on the rights of the individuals were
discussed and admired. In 1788, at the young age of
twenty, Mme. de S published her first book, Letters on the
Character and Writings of J.J. Rousseau, revealing her high
regard for Rousseau and her developed skill as a writer. Regardless
of her love and passion for liberty, she still went on striving
to salvage the remains of the old régime as she "hated
to part with the ceremonial and glitter of her palmy days" (Watson,
107).
In Sept 1790, Mme.
de Stäel's father took his final fall from power within the
National Assembly. He was considered "a symbol of reform within
the government," calling for a limited constitutional monarchy
like that of Great Britain (Wright, 45).
Mme. de S continued on with her salon. Her situation allowed
her to witness all the secret movements that were working to "agitate
the very foundations of civil order in France" (Child,
27).
Being
the incredibly politically minded woman that Mme.
de
Stäel was, she bravely:
- observed
the violent removal of the king to Paris on Oct. 6th , 1790
- attended
the first meeting of the National Convention listening to the
words of Honoré Gabriel Riquetti Mirabeau and Antoine
Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave
- processed
to Nôtre Dame to hear Louis XIV "swear to a constitution
that virtually dethroned him"(Child,
28)
- became
intimate friends with various popular leaders of the Revolution
such as Charles Maurice de Talleyrand and Louis de Narbonne
- offered
shelter at her home to those popular leaders who needed to hide
from the police as her dwelling would unlikely be searched since
her husband was a foreign ambassador
Gossip began to spring
up about her private life and her intimacy with Talleyrand and
Narbonne. There was a claim that Mme. de S once visited Narbonne's
camp, dressed in male attire! Young, handsome, and immoral Narbonne
was a widower and a spirited supporter of the Revolution, although
a member of the army. He could often be seen visiting Mme. de
S at her salon, where they both talked of democracy but
were still royalists at heart. Mme. de Stäel herself stood
for the monarchy as long as it lasted, but when it fell, she did
not believe it should be restored.
Thrilled by the excitement
of life in Paris and her need to be in a capital where she could
remain moving, she refused to accompany her family to their château
in Coppet, Switzerland. She disliked its "infernal quietude" (Watson,
109). However, when the Tuileries was stormed and the king
and queen were seized, she realized it was time to leave her beloved
Paris. On August 10th, 1792, after risking her life to save any
remaining friends, she escaped to Switzerland. Much as she hated
the quietude of Coppet, it was in her best interest to be there
and not in Paris during the Reign of Terror, when the guillotine
was having its daily victims.
Figure
1.7 The facade of Mme. de Stäel's
Château de Coppet in Switzerland
Madame
de Stäel's Salon of the Directoire
In April 1795, two
months after her husband's arrival, Mme. de Stäel returned
to Paris with her new lover, Benjamin Constant, who would later
become known as a writer and statesman. Back in her dear capital,
Mme. de S worked to bring about a reconciliation between the conflicting
parties which had arisen within the Directoire. Her
salon served as a "resort for all the restless politicians
of the day and she was once denounced to the Convention as a person
dangerous to the state" (Child,
35). Every ten days she hosted a dinner inviting people of
all varying opinions and on particular days she "entertained separately
the leaders of the various cliques" (Watson,
115).
During
all her years of deep political involvement, it should be noted
that Mme. de S never stopped writing. Whether her works were directed
towards questions of government and administration or just an
imaginative piece of fiction, Mme. de S never let her pen lie
idle. She was known as "an authoress who always wrote
with the blood of her heart" (Hall, 131).
Rarely stopping to review what she wrote, she was continuously
recording down on paper how she felt and was said to have written
"in all places and at all times" (Hall,
131). Her remarkable book, De la Littérature
in Coppet, which reviewed the relation of society to literature
and of literature to society from the time of Homer to the year
1789, was published in 1798. De la Littérature was
considered the first serious effort to introduce France to the
underlying characteristics of German and English literature. Upon
completion of the book, Mme. de S returned to Paris on November
9th, 1799, "the very day that placed the destiny of France in
the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte" (Child,
39).
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Click
here to learn about the meeting of Mme. de Stäel and Napoleon
and Napoleon's efforts to destroy her democratic ambitions in her
writing and salons.
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