a memoir of women in paris

ok, so i finished my book this day....true pleasures by lucinda holdforth......or rather....my second read, for i have read sena jeter nasland's book about marie antoinette in between my first and second readings....and i marveled at the last women featured....germaine de stael a liberal mind when so few women had the gumption to have minds of their own, let alone put it all down on paper.....there is a marker on rue de varenne that not only points out tallyrand's home, but also the place at which napoleon and madame de stael began their mutual hostility....wow...mutual hostility......she had her own salon, and had great sway when it came to public opinion.....and she was against napoleon's totalitarian tendencies....and wrote not only pamphlets about her views, but also novels. The first, Delphine was described as politics disguised as literature, and was a best seller. British tourists were reportedly holed up in their rooms for days when it came out, passing it amongst themselves until all had finished it. The book so infuriated napoleon that he expelled her from france.......only for her to write an even more political novel called Corinne or Italy (blatantly anti-empire) while she was in exile.....amazing that she was a comtemporary of jane austen, and wrote wildly successful novels under her own name when jane was using a false name.......a fascinating woman.....who i had never heard of before reading this book......

the best quote about paris comes not from germaine, however, but from gertrude stein....another brilliant saloniere......she said "it's not what Paris gave you but what it didn't take from you that was important"......wow......