"Germaine de Staël Revisited" is a delightful and very interesting book about an unusually prolific author, hostess of sparkling salons, and controversial political person. She was a perceptive observer of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Years, and about culture and life in Italy and Germany.The forthright and sometimes fiery style of this long-dead author of non-fiction books, plays, poetry, fiction, and scholarly articles led to remarkably large sales of some of her 47 publications within a few days of their appearances.

The mother of five children, with four different men, Mme. de Staël was criticized emphatically by many of her contemporaries and also by some modern scholars. Her busy 51-year life and accomplishments began when this only child of wealthy and prominent parents was an observer in her mother's Parisian salon. The family affluence, which she astutely managed after her father's death in 1804, made it possible for her to defy the disapproval of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to travel in Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, and England. Her book Considérations sur les principaux événements de la Révolution française "...is a series of philosophical , political and subjective reflections marshaled in the service of a thesis... [It] expanded into an overview of French history from Charlemagne to Louis XVIII, with emphasis on the scourge of tyranny in every form... The 60,000 copies of Considérations that appeared in 1818 were sold out within a few days. A second edition came out immediately, a third in 1820... [It] was reprinted in 1820 ... 1836 and 1838; three further editions came out in 1843, 1862, and 1881... [H]er son-in-law Victor de Broglie, a spokesman for her liberal principles, was appointed prime minister [of France] by Louis-Philippe in 1835 [18 years after her death]."

Both before and after leaving Paris Anne-Louise-Germaine de Staël's primary residence was the Château de Coppet, Switzerland. Her father had purchased this property in 1784. After her death in 1817 her children burned all of their mother's private correspondence, but published and republished her finished works.

Gretchen Rous Besser is a second generation feminist (by her own description). She has written a book that has appeal far beyond the range of academic studies of French literature and modern women's writings.

Prof. Besser's admiring reappraisal does include some forthright criticisms of the prejudices and elitism of "...an early superwoman who not only juggled marriage and children with a career but [also] produced a significant and enduring body of work. She stood fast in a period of political turmoil; more important, she channeled her beliefs into action. She had an extraordinary effect on her contemporaries and a lasting influence on posterity. While a true precursor of feminist consciousness, Staël is too protean to be confined within any single classification ... she may incarnate, generations ahead of her time, [Simone de] Beauvoir's impossible dream of a woman who 'has taken the weight of the world upon her shoulders'?" sent by "a reader in Belmont, MA." [Please do NOT disclose my AOL E-dress.] [Disclosure: I have known Prof. Besser and her husband since their marriage many years ago. And I share with her a distaste of the once-popular 1958 book "Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël."]