Quotes from book
Delphine

Name: Delphine
Author: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël

Anne Louise Germaine de StaëlOriginal title Delphine (French, 1802)

Delphine is the first novel by Germaine de Staël, published in 1802. The book is written in epistolary form and examines the limits of women's freedom in an aristocratic society. Although de Staël denied political intent, the book was controversial enough for Napoleon to exile the author.

“A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.”

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Delphine

Un homme doit savoir braver l'opinion; une femme s'y soumettre.
Delphine (1802), epigraph
The epigraph is taken from the writings of de Staël's mother, Suzanne Necker.

“It seems to me that life's circumstances, being ephemeral, teach us less about durable truths than the fictions based on those truths; and that the best lessons of delicacy and self-respect are to be found in novels where the feelings are so naturally portrayed that you fancy you are witnessing real life as you read.”

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Delphine

Delphine (1802), Preface