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{{short description|1813 book by Germaine de Staël}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Germaine de Staël - De l'Allemagne.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page from the first volume (London, 1813)]]
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==Summary==
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]].
Staël writes in favour of literature rooted in [[Christian culture]], which is defined by its preference for the internal life, as practised in the [[Confession (religion)|confession]]. She opposes [[neoclassicism]], which focuses more on action and is prone to use external rules, like those in [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' and [[Horace]]'s ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]''. She places Christian belief in opposition to the pagan notion of [[Destiny|fate]], which she rejects. Romantic poetry, she says, is more relatable than classical imitations, because Christian culture is native to the French people, whereas classical culture is not. She also promotes the use of native French subjects to ensure that literature is relatable.{{sfn|Halsall|2004|p=266}}
==Publication==
A first edition of 10,000 copies was printed in Paris in 1810. [[Napoleon]], however, ordered 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}}
==Legacy==
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===Citations===
{{reflist}}
===Sources===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Isbell |first=John Claiborne |year=1994 |title=The Birth of European Romanticism: Truth and propaganda in Staël's 'De l'Allemagne', 1810–1813 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43359-4 }}
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|indent=yes}}
▲: {{cite journal |last=Furst |first=Lilian R. |year=1976 |title=Mme. de Staël's De L'Allemagne: a Misleading lntermediary |journal=Orbis Litterarum |volume=31 |issue=1 |pp=43–58 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0730.1976.tb00514.x }}
{{Refend}}
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[[Category:1810 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1813 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:French non-fiction books]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Christian literature]]
[[Category:Books about Germany]]
[[Category:Books of literary criticism]]
[[Category:Books by Germaine de Staël]]
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