Madame de Stael, Oeuvres complètes, Des circonstances actuelles et autres essais politiques sous la Révolution

This volume contains works published during the author’s lifetime, unpublished works and posthumous ones. It is a critical edition which involves the variants between the different versions edited by the author and the autograph corrections of the unpublished texts. It also includes an accurate critical apparatus. As regards the unpublished works, dating has been difficult for want of precise records. This volume presents the development of Mme de Staël’s political thought, from her first juvenile essays to her treatise Des circonstances actuelles. It shows her republican beliefs, her liberalism, and her crucial role in defining the notions of modern democracy and of “avant la lettre”-European culture. By collecting all her known political works, it helps value this role, which she was only belatedly acknowledged. Prominent historians such as B. Baczko e L. Jaume have contributed to the revaluation of the author as a main representative of the political thought of the Directoire and Thermidor period. My edition of Circonstances actuelles, also revised in the light of some unpublished texts, makes it a typical text of liberal thought.