The Birth Of European Romanticism

The modern term 'Romantic' coined in Germany reached Europe and America through Stael's best-seller De l'Allemagne. Stael here transforms her eclectic source material into a sweeping Romantic manifesto, a weapon offering Napoleonic Europe an alternative to everything he stood for. Napoleon tried to destroy the book in 1810; republished as he fell, it revealed a new universe which helped to bury the neo-Classical past and to shape the nineteenth century. In this ground-breaking work, Dr. Isbell analyses Stael's vast agenda, covering Classical and Romantic divides in Western art, philosophy, religion and society from 1789 to 1815. This investigation sheds new light on the two revolutions that created modern Europe, seen here by a leader of both.

It was through Stael's bestseller, De l'Allemagne, that the term "Romanticism," coined in Germany, reached Europe and America. Around this term, Stael built a new and universal agenda: her manifesto offered Napoleon's Europe an alternative to everything he stood for. In this ground-breaking work, John Claiborne Isbell reasserts Stael's place in history and analyzes her vast agenda, which covers every Classical and Romantic divide in art, philosophy, religion and society from 1789 to 1815. This investigation sheds new light on the two different revolutions that created modern Europe, as seen here by a leader of both.