Portrait of Madame de Staël

Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker (1766–1817), known as Madame de Staël, was a Genevan and French novelist, letter-writer and philosopher.
Born into a wealthy Protestant family, she was the daughter of Jacques Necker, Louis XVI’s Minister of Finance. Having become Baroness de Staël through marriage, she led a turbulent intellectual and romantic life. Initially a supporter of the French Revolution and the ideals of 1789, she adopted a critical position from 1791 onwards and was forced to seek refuge in Switzerland on several occasions. Napoleon Bonaparte, who feared her wit and influence, banned her from French soil.
A woman of Letters, she wrote novels and popularised the works of German-language authors in France, thereby paving the way for French Romanticism, which drew inspiration from them. Her major works of fiction (Delphine or Corinne) depict women as victims of the social constraints that bind them.