Staël-Holstein, Anne, French author and philosopher (1766-1817). Autograph letter.

Frankfurt, 26. XI. 1803.

8vo. 3 pp.

 4.000,00

In French, to an unnamed friend: "It's been two weeks, my dear friend, since I last got a line from you, although I need your friendship more than I ever did before. My daughter has had a fever for a week, and here I am, among strangers, surrounded by German doctors in an inn, and well, I feel quite miserable. Thank God, she hasn't been in danger so far; if she were, I couldn't survive it. I wrote to you from Metz when I left, and from here too, to offer you my [apartment]. How is it that I didn't get at least a note from you? You know quite well that all I know about life, I have learned from you and it's all the more true now that I live abroad. Have you seen Villers? Tell him that one must be mad to live anywhere else than in France when one is French. The Germans are quite kind to me, though, and I already have a chest full of poems and notes. I have been writing down some of my reflections about all that, which might be of interest if ever see my friends again, since nothing will ever make me publish one line for any other public than the French. Please do write to me; consider that if you spent five minutes at it every night, the result would be a week of relief for me. But I have never been able to give you an idea of how much your letters please me; you would not be so sparing with them if you knew. Kindly remember me to all those who care for me".

Madame de Staël wrote this letter at the beginning of her exile. Her duel with Napoleon, stemming from her recalcitrance to his influence, had led to his orders that she was not to reside within forty leagues of Paris. This occurred in the fall of 1803. After considerable delay she decided to go to Germany. She travelled in the company of Benjamin Constant, by Metz and Frankfurt to Weimar, arriving there in December. She stayed in Weimar during the winter, and then went on to Berlin.

Art.-Nr.: BN#44240 Schlagwort: