On this date in 1766, Germaine Necker, later known as “Mme. de Stael,” was born in France. Her mother was pious but her father, who was director-general of finance under King Louis XVI, was more liberal. Germaine started writing political essays at 15. She married the Swedish ambassador, the Baron de Stael, in 1786. They separated after a few years.
De Stael wrote “Sophie,” a drama, in 1786, studied Rousseau and left Paris in 1792 for long periods of both self-imposed and Napoleon-imposed exiles. During her travels, she wrote a four-volume novel, Delphine, published in 1802. Although the Revolution cooled some of her Voltairean views, she continued to reject Christianity. D. 1817.
