Few women, indeed few people, have had a greater hand in shaping their culture than the 18th century aristocrat Germaine de Staël. And few have done so in more spectacular fashion. For twenty years the Swiss-born Parisienne, the daughter of Jacques Necker, Louis XVI’s finance minister, held sway over French society. Her reign spanned both the final days of Louis and the Napoleonic period. A prolific writer and notorious séductrice, she enjoyed whirlwind affairs with some of the most influential men of her time. Always attracting controversy, a staunch defender of constitutional rule, she was demonized by Napoleon for her forthrightness, her powerful intellect, and her prestigious salon, a hothouse of subversive ideas and sexual intrigue. The Emperor exiled her, on and off, for the last two decades of her life. To the end she was a force to reckon with: Lord Byron was among those who attended her in her final years.

Madame de Staël—force of nature, exuberant idealist, and ultimate enthusiast—waged a lifelong struggle against all that was tyrannical, cynical, or passionless in her time, and left a legacy of enlightened liberalism that radiated throughout Europe during the nineteenth century.