Delphine

Delphine is one of the last great novels belonging to the epistolary tradition of the eighteenth century. Madame de Stael is an exception in the literary panorama of that time. In a fictional production that allows easy solutions, she sets the status of this genre at a very high level in defending it against its detractors. Without succeeding to compete with the great models of the past, Delphine is fully entitled to be placed next to two major novels of the day, Aline and Valcour and Oberman, of which it shares the crisis of values and language. The feminine and / or feminist discourse and the discourse of love are far from being a priority; the passion contained in this text is oriented primarily toward the social and political context in terms of legitimacy. Delphine appeals to the anti-Napoleonic opposition and, more generally, to all those who experience dramatically in their country the ostracism of ideas, eternal victims of the conflict between the individual and the prevailing ideology. The undersigned has considered the philological part of the present edition included in Oeuvres Complètes: determination of the original edition, identification of the various editions, textual compilation and study of the alternatives. She has also introduced the volume in three parts: "Delphine et la tradition épistolaire", "Histoire des éditions" and "Etablissement du texte." The interest of this publication resides above all in the fact that it offers the public the true text of Delphine, which the author personally wanted and imagined. The editions of both 18th and 19th centuries circulated different texts. The text which is still today the most known among all was published posthumously by the son of Madame de Staël and comprises many interventions dictated by excessive filial solicitude.