Corinne ou l'Italie

by Madame de Staël

Un roman cosmopolite et européen qui évoque la France, l'Angeleterre et l'Italie à l'aube du romantisme dans la diversité de leurs mœurs et de leurs cultures. L'histoire d'une femme, la poétesse Corinne, qui inaugure le débat sur la condition féminine, sur le droit de la femme à vivre en être indépendant et à exister en tant qu'écrivain. Corinne, c'est Mme de Staël elle-même, «la femme la plus extraordinaire qu'on vit jamais» selon Stendhal, «un être à part, un être supérieur tel qu'il s'en rencontre peut-être un par siècle», disait Benjamin Constant. Napoléon lui-même, qui voyait en Mme de Staël une dangereuse messagère de liberté, déclara un jour : «Il faut reconnaître après tout que c'est une femme d'un très grand talent ; elle restera.»

Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, 19th Century, French Literature, Italy, Romance

640 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1807

About the author

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. She was one of Napoleon's principal opponents. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Fionnuala, who keeps reminding me of the books that formed me in the prehistoric times of my enthusiastic youth!

Corinne is the eternal question of self-defined development in a restrictive environment. It can be read as an early attempt at female creative emancipation, or as a universal story of finding and expressing a powerful self in a dull collective.

It can be read as a love story with a beautiful setting - the object of love being art.

It can be read as a period piece showing a way of life that is both modern and familiar and remotely distant at the same time.

It can be read for the wonderful French prose that flows like clear water in a lively river on a sunny day in the meadows...

It should be read - because it is vintage literature!

If I can find my old, beloved Folio Classique, I will read it again, and the dark Scandinavian November rain will give way, and a fresh clear breeze will make me breathe lightly.

[MihaElla · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Father, let this cup be taken from me?!'

and He did because I got named Mihaela instead of Cora, when godparents changed their roles in the last moment. Can’t even fancy what Cora as name would have meant :D Yet I fondly recall how much I loved Cora in The Last of the Mohicans

Corinne (or Italy) , like her ‘sister’ work, Clarissa (the History of a Young Woman of Quality) , is a work on the side of feeling, tinged with aesthetic philosophy, of study of the archaic and the picturesque illuminated by emotion. In a powerfully singular manner this novel afforded me with rich material for thought. I felt sorry for the unhappy love story of the chief characters -- however oddly and unfashionably presented, yet I felt delighted by the immense historical value of the novel. It opened a large window to show the temper, the aspirations, the ideas, and in a way the manners of a certain time and society. I think this retained my interest strongly, and even interested me far more keenly…

But first I had need I should know what kind of person was its novelist and was much surprised on what I learned about the life and career of Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baroness of Stael-Holstein, in brief Madame de Sael -- a woman of boundless literary and political ambition, whose strongest passion was her love of society. Through her achievements she got a European reputation in her day, also as regarded by contemporary Europe as the personal enemy of Napoleon…

To put it plainly Corinne is a tragic and possibly too melodramatic love story intermixed with a guide book on Italy: a late 18th century romance of high sensibility blended with a glorious manifest of aesthetics and culture. It was a bit difficult for me to remain neutral whilst the author is displaying sensibility so charming and certainly uncontrollable– especially the strange artificial 18th century conception of love which is neither exactly flirtation nor exactly passion, and which sets convention at defiance. Notwithstanding I have enjoyed the manner conceived by the novelist at exhibiting the national differences of English, French and Italian temperaments. If I strive to reflect on what I have read and retrace my impressions, then I would say that I do agree with many of the views presented in the novel…



"But who could doubt the truth of Corinne? Was that peculiar charm she possessed the effect of magic, or of poetical inspiration? Was she an Armida, or a Sappho? Was there any hope of captivating so lofty and brilliant a genius! It was impossible to decide…"



“Sooner or later all rebellious heads must bow to the same yoke.”

"Alone I rose, alone I sank, I am alone even here."

"Pity me not, if you can guess how many pangs the grave hath spared me."

"It is well for me to sleep, still better to be stone; while shame and injustice last: not to see, not to hear, is a great blessing; therefore, disturb me not! speak low!"

[Helynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Madame de Stael's second novel Corinne (1806), which takes place mostly in Italy but also in Scotland, infuriated Napoleon because Stael dared to ignore France and suggest that French writers had something to learn from the artistic milieu of Italy and from an intellectually superior heroine. The Emperor had already banned Stael from Paris for her first novel, Delphine (1802), which dared advocate divorce (forbidden under the Code Napoleon). When Corinne came out, he banned the author from all of France, which temporarily broke her heart, but never her spirit. The title character in Corinne is a gifted, independent woman who is at once actress, dancer, poet and artist. She loves and is loved by a man who ultimately cannot marry her because she is too independent, and after many twists and turns of the plot, marries Corinne's younger half-sister instead. The ending of the novel, which I will not reveal, is a heart-wrenching tribute to both feminism and Romanticism. In typical Romantic fashion, Madame de Stael and Corinne both possess a dual complex--a notion of personal superiority that is coupled with the near-paranoid fear that no one--or at least the people who really matter--would recognize or appreciate this superiority. Corinne was simply ahead of her time, which is why we 21st-century readers may love her even more than did her contemporaries who had to read of this phenomenal heroine on contraband pages and in secret. Great novel with a fascinating history!

[Sincerae Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very basic story line is Corinne who is the consummate artist, intellectual and the toast of Rome goes on an extended "date" with Lord Nelvil the indecisive whom Corinne feels understands her and is her equal. This date is a tour which covers several Italian cities. In the meantime they go to a few parties and fall in love.

Corinne, or Italy is both a romance and a collection of nostalgic ideas about the history of Italy's art, architecture, mythology, history, philosophy, religion, music, and national mindset. Madame de Stael's and other explanatory notes are at the end.

Germaine de Stael was a child of the neo-classical age, the last 1700s and early 1800s and it shows in this novel. During that era, women's attire was modeled after that of the ancient Roman woman. Corinne, or Italy is a reflection of that age when intellectuals reminisced about the glories of ancient Rome and the Renaissance. I can see Corinne in my imagination in the outfit of a neo-classical lady. The cover art is also how I would imagine her.

That the author, Germaine de Stael, was a woman of letters and a historian shows in this novel. Her ideals brought her into conflict with Napoleon, and she had to go into exile. It's written that Napoleon said of her, she "teaches people to think who never thought before, or who had forgotten how to think". Indeed, Corinne is a thinking person's romance and not a quick read.

Looking at the character of Corinne, I see Madame de Stael writing as a proto-feminist. But her type of feminism is totally alien to what is here now. In Corinne, she promotes the idea of a woman attaining a higher self and level of thought through learning, beauty, art, music, history, and philosophy.

I'm very pleased that I fell in love with this book.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

My story of Corinne begins with my college experience of Literary Women, by Ellen Moers, and her dedication of an entire section to DeStael's book, entitled Performing Heroinism: The Myth of Corinne. I've finally, through the miracle of online publishing, been able to see for myself that which was so rigorously discussed in her book.

As a researcher, Moers found Madame DeStael's early-19th-century book to be an essential contribution to the history of western Europe's early female authors. She cites its direct influence over Eliot, Barrett, Chopin, and even American author Beecher, etc; and presents its protagonist as THE archetype of the performing heroine (a female celebrity of talent), influencing many 19th century novels, including: Consuelo,The Song of The Lark, Aurora Leigh, even Uncle Tom's Cabin. Women authors of the time, Moers asserts, found an intriguing and kindred spirit in the character of Corinne - with her overwhelming "need to please, to captivate, to impress", and thus "enchant and subjugate the world".

(As a matter of fact, I'm wondering right now if the precocious and pathetic Maggie, from The Mill on The Floss, was not an Eliot extrapolation - twisted and turned in upon itself - of the character of Corinne, as a woman of genius, if she had grown, only to wither, in the social mores of Britain rather than spending her formative years in her native country of Italy; or if she had actually acted on her impulse to return to live in the country of her father.)

All of Moers' observations come in spite of her own feelings about Corinne, or Italy; she personally finds the book to be overwhelmingly silly and melodramatic and struggles to take it seriously.

So I came to Corinne with a certain amount of prejudice, after spending 25 years with an author who staunchly asserts its surface ridiculousness. I was a bit surprised, then, to have my eyes opened through my own experience with the book. I found it to be, actually, in truth, surprisingly close to the heart. In love. In duty. In thought and in action. In the artistic impulse.

Is the setup forced? Yeah. Is the dialogue unnatural? Yeah, sometimes. Corinne's continuous rambling discourse to Oswald about everything Italian, national history to national psychology to national politics, becomes wearing after a while - even though I understand this setup is to reinforce the concept of "naturalness" and "darkness" of Corinne and Italy, in opposition to the stifling social atmosphere of Britain at the same time. De Stael is not the only author, we know, to have gone to that well, in contrasting rainy, monotone England as-a-whole, to the sun-drenched, colorful Italy as-a-whole. It also shows off the depth of knowledge that DeStael must have had about both countries (she was incredibly educated, especially for a woman of her time).

The story, in the end, was especially unsettling for me, in how much of the Corinne/Oswald tragedy resulted from mis-communication... from things not said (or said WAY too late); from motivations misunderstood and never clarified through explanation.

This is the greatest preventable tragedy of all, in my own personal book of observation and experience. So these kinds of stories affect me the most.

Corinne, ultimately, was that kind of story. And De Stael nailed it perfectly, despite the melodrama and the staging, and despite the lapse of 200 years between her writing the story and my reading it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tragic tale of a genius whose brilliance expires when she's forsaken for a hot blonde.

*shakes fist at men*

Corrine's correct about the English. Their culture is a coffin.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the idea behind this novel seeming to be interesting, I simply couldn't make myself really care about the characters to invest much effort with this one. A story of Oswald, choosing the safe choice of submissive, malleable less passionate woman over the sensitive, creative, energy consuming independent thinking woman who he really loves. Too much emotion and not enough real living for my tastes.

[Georgina Koutrouditsou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ένα αριστούργημα του 19ου αιώνα,δυνατό με το λόγο και τις σκέψεις/απόψεις του ακόμη και σήμερα!Έντονες ανθρώπινες σχέσεις,καταστάσεις συμφερόντων,θυσίες και όλα αυτά με φόντο μια μαγική Ιταλία!
Εξαιρετική μετάφραση και πλούσιο επίμετρο!

[Richard Seltzer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The French is easy to read, but there is no story. It's all sizzle.
I was curious because Madame de Stael was admired and alluded to by authors I admire.
I was disappointed because after setting the stage for love affair between a wealthy melancholy Englishman and a brilliant and talented Italian woman, the author delivers what amounts to little more than a travelogue of Rome.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Potential readers beware: the first 200-300 pages of Corinne are basically just a long travel guide to Italy, and particularly Rome. If you enjoy reading about all the antiquities of that fabled land, you may enjoy the long descriptions of columns and ruins and paintings and sculptures. But I think most readers find these pages pretty boring.

If you persist through, them, though, you will happen upon one of the most remarkable novels of the nineteenth century. Corinne, the heroine, is a woman of a power and force that you will struggle to find elsewhere in nineteenth-century fiction. Her passions, as she says herself, are volcanic:

... il se passe tant de choses au fond de l'âme, que nous ne pouvons ni prévoir, ni diriger ...
(... so many things pass in the depths of the soul, that we have no power to predict or control ...)

La campagne de Naples est l'image des passions humaines: sulfureuse et féconde, ses dangers et ses plaisirs semblent naître de ces volcans enflammés qui donnent à l'air tant de charmes, et font gronder la foudre sous nos pas.
(The Neapolitan landscape is the image of the human passions: sulfurous and fecund, its dangers and its pleasures seem born of these inflamed volcanos, which give to the air so many charms, and make thunder clap beneath our steps.)

Compared to Emma Woodhouse, Dorothea Brooke, Anna Karenina, or even Jane Eyre, Corinne is a titan. Among the nineteenth-century books I've read, the only figure who matches her is Catherine Earnshaw. (Though perhaps Lady Delacour or Adeline Mowbray come close.) But there are important differences. Corinne is a symbol of beauty and sublimity. Her fiery deeds symbolise the highest hopes and possibilities of the human frame: "Qu'est-ce donc que le bonheur, me disais-je, si ce n'est pas le développement de nos facultés." ("What then is happiness, I say to myself, if it isn't the development of our faculties?") Cathy is an impressive symbol of human power, but is not a symbol of human goodness in the way Corinne is.

The novel, as I say, starts very slowly. Corinne has an air of mystery that starts to propel the narrative, and by the time she and her lover Oswald go to Naples, the story has begun to fly forward with all the energy you could wish.

In an age of rampant populism and ugly nationalism, this is a necessary book. It disproves all the stupid and shallow arguments against cosmopolitanism that you read in opinion columns. It portrays human nature in all its grandeur and pettiness. It is replete with the most beautiful, indeed the only kind, of liberalism: the determination "ni le blâmer, ni l'absoudre" ("neither to blame him, nor absolve him"). You need to read this brilliant thing to learn who is the object of De Staël's tolerance.

Germaine De Staël is not as famous anymore as she should be. She was herself a Corinne, a woman whose wealth, charisma, intelligence and education allowed her to lead a truly free life such as few women of her time were able to. Like Corinne, she suffered exile, and was tossed about Europe on the high winds of history. She shocked and inspired her contemporaries, much in the way her great friend Byron or her great enemy Napoleon did. Corinne: ou l'Italie is a powerful expression of her powerful personality.

[Franziska Grech · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually give 5 stars to a book unless it speaks to me and has something remarkable about it. And this book gave me both. Madame de Stael's writing can go to different lengths. From portraying with extreme the character's inner turmoil to describing a monument or place with extreme detail in such a way that even your emotions towards the monument are evoked. Moreover her beauty in her writing also lies in her great wisdom of life, inserting passages in her story of great moral thought so much so that one does not feel they are deviating or delaying from the story but rather supporting the story and bring the story to a universal level. Truly excellent !

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, sumptuous, dripping with equal parts irony and Romanticism. I wish I'd had this book to console me during my first breakup.

[Ivey Netsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75⭐️

[Rita]

Kommer nog inte läsa klart denna heller. Albert hatade den dessutom

[emelie · Rating 2 out of 5]

get this away from me immediately

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful, beautiful read.

If you enjoy Virgil, if you enjoy a good picturesque view and if you care about the stories of talented, poetic women forsaken by the men they loved because of their superiority, I assure you, you will love this novel.

It is gorgeously written.

Mme de Staël’s talent was profound. She had a mind for literary theory and this novel is as much an essay about Italy as it is a story about two Europeans, wondering through the country, delighting in the views, as well as in the depth of their feelings.

It reminded me of every sunset I’ve ever seen, it reminded me of the self aware earnestness of Before Sunrise. Inspired by Rousseau, she writes her two lovers at the center of an ethical and artistic manifesto. They represent the two ends of a spectrum and, as such, are fated to part.

Oswald, an austere Englishman, falls for Corinne, a brilliant, independent and mysterious poet. She endeavours to show him Italy, its complex beauty and its breathtaking ruins. They walk through time and the landscapes they seek echo with their feelings and prelude to their separation.

In those moments, Oswald is like Aeneas, led by the Sibyl of Cumae. Later on, he will be that same Aeneas, leaving Dido behind and seeking instead the love of the fair, silent and subdued Lavinia.

All of classical literature is woven in this novel, clueing us in and leading us to a dismal and somber ending. Corinne, poetry itself, is likened to Dante, to Petrarch but also to Sappho. Brilliant, beautiful in spirit, she fails to reassure a severe and unfeeling mind. Unable to comply, she is punished for it and denied love.

Madam de Staël’s pessimism is clear. She paints a picture of her time and puts literature on the stand, quoting Shakespeare, Virgil, Racine and Tasso, lamenting society’s inability to welcome women amidst the ranks of those who can prize beauty passionately and walk unscathed for it.

A complex object, this novel packs meaning in all of its corners. Corinne’s fate is tragic and her story is a political stance inhabited by Madame de Staël.

It is also an allegory, an ode to beauty and a vivid depiction of time passing.

There is always one summer past in Italy we all long for. There is always someone lost. Most of the time, we lack the courage of our convictions.

Honesty made beautiful, that’s poetry. Poetry made insightful, that can be a really, really good novel.

And it is.

[Laura McNeal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Eat, Pray, Love of the Regency period. Go to Italy, it says, to be warm, to be healed, to fall in love. Fortunately, one of the people to whom it said that was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who read it in 1832, when she was a 26-year-old invalid whose only true intellectual companion was an old blind Greek scholar who treated her so badly that he needs to be played by John Malkovich. To him she wrote, "I have read Corinne for the third time and admire it more than ever . . . it deserves to be read 3 score and ten times!" I doubt that many contemporary readers could read it even once --it presumes an understanding of art and classical literature that makes it perfect for anyone wanting an artistic tour of Rome or a thorough understanding of the evolution of literary styles but imperfect for anyone wanting a Jane Austen-ish escape.

[Corinne McNab]

I bought this book purely out of vanity (My name is on the cover). I tried to read it, but nearly dislocated my jaw yawning. If anything, this was great for my insomnia. Maybe I'll pick it up again when I'm a little bit older, more of an intellectual, or just plan out of anything else to read.

[Alessia · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book didn’t have to be that long! loved the setting (italy)! but honestly where do men find the audacity??? oswald is the most unbearable character ever. corinne is such an icon, but he literally ruined her!

[Albert Nygren · Rating 1 out of 5]

italyyy

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corinne was an interesting book in that it could be read in many ways: as a tragic love story, a feminist treatise, or a travel guide to Italy and Italian art. Sections of the text were given over to the characters visiting famous sites in Italian towns, including art galleries, and long descriptions were provided of what they saw, which was fascinating for me, since it interests me, but it would probably be a little dull for readers without such interest. The story itself took a while to get going, but when it did I mostly enjoyed it, even though I could see how things were going to play out far ahead of reaching that point in the narrative. I don't want to say too much about the plot and risk spoilers, but I think it's far to comment that I would have enjoyed seeing things end differently for Corinne, but that it was obvious all along what would happen to her. Corinne initially comes across as a strong female character, though, and I liked her in the early stages of the book, before she became maudlin. If you enjoy late 18th/early 19th century books, then you are sure to find something worthwhile in Corinne. However, if you are new to this period of literature, this may not be the best work to start with. From me, it gets four stars.

[Frank Polak · Rating 4 out of 5]

600 sidor Italien utan ett enda ord om mat: sjukt, men också uppfriskande!

Romantiskt apogeum om Europa, konsten, den kvinnliga intellektuellas roll i samhället. Sena 1700- och tidiga 1800-talens brillianta författare skrev ju inte för brödfödan och hade således inget behov av redaktörer, vilket ibland märks…

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too melodramatic for my taste. Corrine apparently is femme-pays of Italy. It is semi autobiographical and Lord Nelvil is Constant, who had a long running affair with Germaine. Madame Stael's lifestory is really interesting and so may be next I will read her letters and Adolphe by Constant.

[anna carlson]

aj ///////3 <333333

[Malin Nordbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow vilken bok! Hur en kvinna går från att vara berömd, begåvad och självständig till att bli dödssjuk och deprimerad ”bara” för kärlekens skull. Läs, läs, läs!!!

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corinne mon amour dans ta prochaine vie ne t’approche pas des HOMMES

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corinne girl you can do sooo much better

[Anna Varna]

Very impressed and touched by this book. I read it in Greek translation. I think that the most important thing about it is how a woman of the early 19th century managed to write a novel where the protagonist is such an extraordinary woman. The only other examples I know of that era, are the English novels of Austen and the Brontes and their heroines, no matter how powerful they are, do not enjoy even the least of freedom Corinna does.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

after 49 weeks i finished this monster. thanks to everyone who followed my updates and got inspired to want to read this after a weekend at the red sea !!!

[DianeBai · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Il en coûte davantage pour quitter sa patrie quand il faut traverser la mer pour s'en éloigner; tout est solennel dans un voyage dont l'Océan marque les premiers pas: il semble qu'un abîme s'entrouvre derrière vous, et que le retour pourrait devenir à jamais impossible".

Ce roman c'est celui de la rencontre de l'anglais Lord Nelvil avec la belle italienne Corinne, une poétesse aux talents multiples qui revendique sa liberté et son indépendance.
Elle met un point d'honneur à s'épanouir à travers l'art, à exprimer et cultiver ses talents, et à renoncer ainsi au bonheur domestique acquis par le mariage.

Le caractère féministe et fort de cette italienne adulée par tous ne va pas laisser Lord Nelvil indifférent, malgré les attentes de la société quant aux critères de l'épouse modèle.
Toutefois, il n'est pas toujours évident de faire l'impasse sur le poids de la société et du qu'en-dira-t-on, surtout à cette époque...

Madame de Staël présente les mœurs italiennes et anglaises de l'époque à travers ses personnages qui en sont les archétypes;
Ainsi, Corinne représente l'amour passion "à l'italienne", où les sentiments sont magnifiés et célébrés, contrairement à Lord Nelvil dont l'amour est davantage régi par la raison et la pudeur propre aux anglais.

J'ai adoré me plonger dans cette histoire pleine de sensibilité qui m'a transportée en Italie, et qui m'a permis, un temps, de déambuler dans les rues de Rome, Vienne et Naples!