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232 - STAËL (GERMAINE NECKER, MADAME DE). [THE ARREST OF BONAPARTE…
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Estimate €10,000 - €12,000
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STAËL (GERMAINE NECKER, MADAME DE). [THE ARREST OF BONAPARTE DID NOTHING FOR ME... BUT ISN'T IT AWFUL THAT HE FALLS WITH FRANCE..."] Autograph letter to Astolphe de Custine. Château de Coppet [in the Swiss canton of Vaud], 15 August 1815. 4 pp. in-8; last page with trace of glue and tabs with 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 completely failed [although a homosexual, he was courting Albertine, the daughter of Madame de Staël]. 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 the situation in France. I am like a mother to this country and all the faults cannot make me bear its humiliation and misfortune. I say with you that THE ARREST OF BONAP[ARTE] HAS DONE NOTHING TO ME, AND I WOULD HAVE PUNCHED THE SKY FROM 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 staying in Paris]. AH, FRANCE DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH VIRTUES TO MAKE ADVERSITY HONOURABLE. It needed laurels to make it forget everything, now hatred falls heavily on it, now Geneva declares war on it, Switzerland sends its warriors to kill it when it is down, finally everyone is trying against it as against the lion which no longer has either its claws or its teeth. There are provinces with different opinions, and there is no longer any France. In the end, I grieve all day, all day, and now I am 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 going to leave in September 1815 for Italy for nine months]. The plague is preventing me from going to Greece, which is a plague like any other, but perhaps I will 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 am waiting for 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, a work due to appear 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, in other words the ultra-royalists. No matter how much you admire him, he lacks something, and something necessary... I like what you say about identity a hundred times. I thought that mine lay in the memory of my father, and 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). Despite everything, her culture and intelligence attracted the likes of Balzac, Chateaubriand, Chopin, Gautier, Hugo, Lamartine, Sand and Stendhal to her private mansion in the 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 that were much admired by Victor Hugo and Balzac, including La Russie en 1839 (1843), which was critical of the Tsar and earned him a wide reputation.
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About the sale The Empire at Fontainebleau - Second day
Auction location
Auction time 06/21/2026 at 10:30 AM
Pictures credits:
Michel Bury and Henri du Cray
See original version (French)
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