On Germany: Difference between revisions

'''''On Germany''''' ({{lang-fr|De l'Allemagne}}), also known in English as '''''Germany''''', is a book about German culture and in particular [[German Romanticism]], written by the French writer [[Germaine de Staël]]. It promotes [[Romanticism|Romantic]] literature, introducing that term to readers in France and other parts of Europe. The book was published in 1813, after the first edition of 10 ,000 copies, printed in 1810, had been destroyed by order from [[Napoleon]]. The book had a major impact on Romanticism in France and elsewhere.

The book is divided into four parts: "On Germany and German Customs", "On Literature and the Arts", "On Philosophy and Morals" and "Religion and Enthusiasm".{{sfn|Halsall|2004|p=266}} It surveys modern German literature and philosophy, praising writers like [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]], [[Jean Paul]] and [[Friedrich Schiller]]. It introduces French readers to the German concept of [[Romanticism|Romantic]] literature, a term derived from the [[chivalric romance]]s of [[medieval Europe]]. Like [[Friedrich Schlegel]], Staël views Romantic literature as modern, because its roots are in the [[Chivalry|chivalric]] culture of the [[Middle Ages]], and not in the classical models of [[ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]].

A first edition of 10 ,000 copies was printed in Paris in 1810. [[Napoleon]], however, orderordered the entire edition to be destroyed; the preferences for Christian and medieval culture over the neoclassicism of the [[Napoleonic era]], and for German thinkers like Schlegel over French philosophers like [[Voltaire]], were seen as politically subversive, and a possible threat to the established order. A new edition had to be printed in London and was published there in 1813.{{sfn|Halsall|2004|p=266}} A commercial success throughout the 19th century, the book was published in 25 French editions alone.{{sfn|Isbell|1994|p=220}} An English translation was published by [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] in 1813 under the title ''Germany''. Segments have been translated by [[Vivian Folkenflik]] and published by [[Columbia University Press]] in ''An Extraordinary Woman: Selected Writings of Germaine de Staël'' (1987), where the English title is ''On Germany''.{{sfn|Folkenflik|1987}}

''On Germany'' had a greater influence than any of Staël's other works. Along with ''[[The Genius of Christianity]]'' (1802) by [[François-René de Chateaubriand]], it pointed out the direction that French Romanticism would follow. The recommendation to express the inner life, like in the Christian confession, led the way for a tradition of French [[Confessional writing|confessional literature]].{{sfn|Halsall|2004|p=266}} The book also had significant impact elsewhere, including the United Kingdom and the United States, where it was the work that introduced the term ''Romanticism''. The scholar John Claiborne Isbell compares its impact to that of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[Hernani (drama)|Hernani]]'' (1830), which was seen as a "triumph of Romantic art",{{sfn|Isbell|1994|p=220}} writing: "Romanticism outside Germany dates its conscious existence from ''De l'Allemagne'': recognising its pivotal role will give France back twenty stolen years of literary history, and restore the missing origin of this Europe-wide transformation of art and society. Hugo, [[Giacomo Leopardi|Leopardi]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]] do not come before, they come after: they are a ''second'' generation."{{sfn|Isbell|1994|p=221}}

:* {{cite book |last=Halsall |first=A. W. |year=2004 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GS8DWMLRYEC&pg=PA266 |chapter=De l'Allemagne (On Germany) 1810 |editor-last=Murray |editor-first=Christopher John |title=Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850 |location=New York |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn |pppages=266–267 |isbn=1-57958-361-X }}

:* {{cite book |last=IsbellStaël |first=JohnGermaine Claibornede |year=19941987 |title=TheAn BirthExtraordinary of European RomanticismWoman: TruthSelected andWritings propagandaof Germaine inde Staël's 'De|translator-last=Folkenflik l'Allemagne', 1810–1813|translator-first=Vivian |location=CambridgeNew York |publisher=CambridgeColumbia University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43359-40231513186 |ref=CITEREFFolkenflik1987 }}

:* {{cite book |last=Blennerhassett |first=Charlotte |authorlinkauthor-link=Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett |translator-last=Cumming |translator-first=Jane Eliza Gordon |year=1889 |title=Madame de Staël: Her Friends, and Her Influence in Politics and Literature |location=London |publisher=Chapman and Hall }}

[[Category:1813 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:RomanticismRomantic publications]]