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Chapter 9 - Italy, or Corinne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2023

John Claiborne Isbell
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
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Summary

Chapter 9 argues that Staël saw a Faustian bargain in Corinne ou l’Italie, took it, and paid the price; its triumphs and failures thus stand or fall together. What Staël gained was mythic power; what she lost was the ability to control its fate. Corinne’s political impact in Europe and America, standing as it does at the birth of modern nationalism, is both real and unquantifiable – witness the coinage nationalité, part of the larger impact of Staël’s ideas on national genius, reflected in Blackwood’s praise of her in 1818 as the creator of the science of nations. The novel’s esthetic impact on a century of readers is both fascinating and somewhat easier to assess, an invitation to future study already made in 1825 by Stendhal in a remark from Racine et Shakespeare: “Je ne vois réellement que Corinne qui ait acquis une gloire impérissable sans se modeler sur les anciens.”

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Chapter
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Staël, Romanticism and Revolution
The Life and Times of the First European
, pp. 89 - 99
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Italy, or Corinne
  • John Claiborne Isbell, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
  • Book: Staël, Romanticism and Revolution
  • Online publication: 03 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009362719.011
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  • Italy, or Corinne
  • John Claiborne Isbell, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
  • Book: Staël, Romanticism and Revolution
  • Online publication: 03 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009362719.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Italy, or Corinne
  • John Claiborne Isbell, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
  • Book: Staël, Romanticism and Revolution
  • Online publication: 03 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009362719.011
Available formats
×