French author and political philosopher (died 1817)

Germaine de Staël

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a prominent French novelist, woman of letters, philosopher, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles. She was the daughter of banker and French finance minister Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, a respected salonist and writer. Throughout her life, she held a moderate stance during the tumultuous periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, persisting until the time of the French Restoration.