Wislawa Szymborska's book review of Ten Years of Exile first appeared in the Polish journal Zycie Literackie ("Literary Life"). It was later included in a collection of her reviews published as Lektury nadobowiazkowe ("Optional Reading"). At about the same time Anthony West's Mortal Wounds (1973) appeared in press. He is an English essayist; she is a Polish poet and laureate of the 1996 Nobel Prize for literature. Her book review and his essay refer to the French Romantic writer Madame de Staël (1766-1817). Their treatment of her is entirely contradictory and they reach opposite extremes in their conclusions. In his behavioral approach, West betrays strong misogynous sentiments; her treatment of de Staël is brief and concise, yet most admiring. A comparison of their works reveals, as will be seen, that Szymborska, who claims not to be a "feminist," is very much on target with some feminist concerns. On the contrary, Anthony West emerges as a misogynist whose behavioral study remains an example of unrelentingly hostile antifeminist criticism. In this essay, I propose to explore the ideas and literary devices that lead West and Szymborska to express such diverse attitudes toward Madame de Staël and her archenemy Napoleon, and to show that, even though Szymborska is not a feminist, she can avoid the pitfalls of misogyny/misandry because of her poetic sensitivity.

In Mortal Wounds, Anthony West studies three French women. He is obviously obsessed by Mme de Staël to whom he dedicates 180 pages compared to 87 devoted to George Sand and 28 to Mme de Charrière. Mme de Staël was initially impressed by Napoleon, but later became disappointed. Her confrontations with him constitute an important aspect of the essay. In support of his faultfinding comments, West selects incidents in de Staël’s life that accentuate her physical imperfections and, presumably, her intellectual inferiority; he attributes the physical and mental flaws to her gender. Napoleon seemed intent on crushing her spirit as often as circumstances allowed and he sometimes succeeded, for example, at a meeting that took place at the house of General Berthier. Madame de Staël had prepared herself for a brilliant exchange of ideas. He on the contrary gazed "down the depth of her décolletage" and remarked: "I’ve no doubt you nursed your children yourself?" (West 65). According to West, she remained speechless. From his point of view, Napoleon’s hostility had its roots in "his conviction that she was self-seeking, foolish, irresponsible, and a dangerous meddler in affairs that she did not understand" (3-4). Such a view, West argues, is "usually attributed to reactionary male prejudice" (4), and justly so in this case. Another of West's arguments is that Napoleon was "a man of quite unusual intelligence and perception, and that he may have been right about a woman who had at once enjoyed the privileges that go with enormous wealth and the handicaps that go with being the spoiled child of ill-assorted parents" who "did not very much care for each other" (4). Indeed, West sees her as a rich and spoiled girl raised in what today might be called a dysfunctional family. The mother, in his opinion, was "a formidable artist in the realm of emotional blackmail" (11). Since mothers often mold their daughters, West implies that Mme Necker passed on to Germaine a tendency to emotionally blackmail the many men in her life.

Dwelling at length on Madame de Staël's physical imperfection, West first points out "her eccentricities in dress," then her "exhibitionist habit of displaying her charms" (22). Later in life, at forty-five, she had a "poor skin" and a "yellowish complexion." Her size had increased and made her look "gross" (159). She had "buck teeth," a "weakly greedy mouth," a "bulbous nose," and "protuberant eyes" (159). As for her figure, she had a "deteriorating stomach," "beefy thighs" and "tremendously wide hips" (159). Her outward appearance and mannerisms lead West to conclude that she was a woman of self-doubt. This assumption goes against the grain of such testimonies as that of Madame de Boufflers whom he quotes as saying that de Staël was "imperious and strong-willed to excess" and that "she had self assurance" (15). Madame de Charrière, who was no friend of Madame de Staël, said that "this young woman has so much charm that she makes you believe that she is beautiful . . . " (41). Benjamin Constant also ascertained in the early days of their relationship that she presented a combination of "amazing and attractive qualities," and that she "is a superior being", who combines brilliance with good sense, kindness, generosity, and politeness in society (42-43).

As for her intelligence, West sees Madame de Staël as a "brilliantly trained performer" (11) who remained "profoundly ignorant" in many areas. She "was making one fantastic blunder after another" (23). He describes her political activities as ludicrous (64), as meddling and as irresponsible "mischief-making"; her plan to place Bernadotte on the French throne in the name of moderation is nothing else than a "nebulous plot" (62). While he describes Napoleon as "a dedicated chess player," Madame de Staël, in contrast, plays the role of "a child who cannot bear to see a board set up for a game without overturning it" (63). In fact, his Napoleon emerges as a benevolent father figure with no intentions of treating the "child", meaning Madame de Staël, harshly. Her gestures when resisting Napoleon have, in West's opinion, an "infantile" character (83). It is nonetheless true that Napoleon, who, according to West, was only "irritated" by her meddling and considered her only a "trivial nuisance", gave orders on October 13 (1803) requesting Madame de Staël to remove herself at least 110 miles from Paris (76).

West admits to having some difficulty in understanding Napoleon's obsession with Madame de Staël, or why he thought De l'Allemagne was a threat to him. This book, according to West, has a "scatter-witted structure" and was a piece of propaganda for German culture. De l'Allemagne was, in his opinion, "a manifestation of intellectual overconfidence on the part of an undereducated woman with an undisciplined mind" (152). Finally, he reduces Madame de Staël's life to a desire for "vengeance on the entire male sex for her father’s crime of abandoning her and leaving her defenseless in the hands of her frozen-hearted and coldly self-regarding mother" (180). The entire essay centers on the idea of gender confrontation: "that she was a woman and that Napoleon was a man is . . . a matter that has done her no harm" (1). West dwells on her disabilities as a woman, such as, for example, her father fixation.

Forcefully written and richly documented, with irony bursting at every page, the book leaves the reader with mixed impressions. One admires the style but regrets the excessive irony, the overemphasis on de Staël's physical shortcomings and the factual distortions. The essay remains, nonetheless, deeply imbedded in the reader's mind.

In the fall of 1996, during a sabbatical leave at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, I was deeply absorbed in research on Octave Mirbeau and E.M. Cioran, and their brush with anti-Semitism. When the investigation reached an impasse I changed gears and read, for personal pleasure, the works of Wislawa Szymborska who had just received the 1996 Nobel Prize for literature. I was in one of the finest libraries in the world with all of Szymborska's works at my fingertips, including a collection of her book reviews. Published over twenty-five years ago, they now shed light on Szymborska's intellectual background. While reading the reviews during a sabbatical leave seemed like the quintessence of frivolity, all feeling of guilt vanished when I came upon her review of the translation from French into Polish of de Staël's Ten Years of Exile. The book is part autobiography and travelogue, part social study of Europe and political memoir, part pamphlet against Napoleon. But Szymborska's treatment of Germaine de Staël is so very unlike West's that when the reader confronts the two works for the first time, he/she cannot feel other than greatly surprised. The review fills a newspaper column roughly equivalent to three double-spaced typewritten pages; it paints a flattering and laudatory portrait of Madame de Staël. The extremely compact space of a newspaper column and the density of the style leave room only for a rigorous assessment of de Staël's intellectual competence and savoir-faire in politics.

In a recent interview, Szymborska claimed not to be a feminist. The following quote seems to support her position: "In an interview with Ms. Chmiel in Ex Libris in 1994, Ms. Szymborska scoffed at the idea that there should be anything like 'womanly' poetry. 'I think that dividing literature into women's and men's poetry is starting to sound absurd,'she said. 'Perhaps there was a time when a woman's world did exist, separated from certain issues and problems, but at present there are no things that would not concern women and men at the same time. We do not live in the boudoir anymore'" (Perlez C5). We must grant her the courtesy of believing her when she admits that she is not a feminist, for she belongs to the happy few who know what they want to say and how they want to say it. Yet, even if we accept the idea that she is not a feminist, nothing prevents us from speculating about why she feels this way. To be sure, she is first and foremost a poet in the broadest sense. This means that she does not speak exclusively for a group of people of a single nation (i.e.: Poland), a specific race (Black or White) or gender (women, men or children). Some see her poetry as a metaphysical abyss (Kaminski 8), others as conceptualist or intellectualist poetry (Czerniawski xii). Perlez in The New York Times called her the Mozart of poetry (C5). Her mature work is marked by "a consideration of man's [and woman's] situation in the universe at large" (Krynski/Maguire 5). It often moves from the particular to the general, and the opposite is also true, from the general to the particular. She reaches out to a more general audience, one "pertaining to the universe." The latter includes feminism and feminists. They are very much a part of the universe and of Szymborska's poetic landscape. Even though Szymborska claims not to be a feminist one may argue that feminist concerns are present in poems such as "Lot's Wife," "Coloratura," "In Praise of My Sister", and still others, but they do not overshadow other issues. Her poems are intended for a more inclusive audience than one strictly linked to feminism.

Szymborska's review of Ten Years of Exile has two major components. After examining the review as a whole, the first part appears to be a long introduction that eventually leads her to reappraise in the second half the role that Germaine de Staël once played in politics. In a neutral tone, one free from any antagonistic feelings towards either men or women, in the introduction she first reviews the situations women have faced in the past and perhaps still face today. She begins by portraying Napoleon as a model of male power. He had an aversion for women who meddled in politics, she tells us, and suggests at the same time that he probably owed a great deal to such women. According to her, the politically influential lionesses of the nineteenth-century Parisian salons, including the most influential salon hosted by Madame de Staël, helped Napoleon reach his goal faster than if he had had to do it on his own. She admits that he, no doubt, would have succeeded just the same, but to reach his goal would have taken much longer. On the other hand, to ensure success, speed was crucial in this instance. Once he was able to secure his hold on power, he immediately proceeded to limit the influence of the women whose meddling in politics had worked to his advantage. He showed himself to be most ungrateful and uncivil by repaying their help, and that of Mme de Staël, with scorn and condescension.

Szymborska uses the example of Napoleon as an illustration of [negative] male power in action. He eagerly used the influence of women to advance his cause, and later bypassed gratitude. Instead of recognizing their talent, he set out to limit their power. Having shown Napoleon's unthankful attitude toward the salon hostesses who helped him climb to the top, Szymborska moves on to discuss the double standard according to which actions and moral traits are valued and appraised differently depending on whether they apply to men or women. She proposes several examples such as, "męzczyzna miał poglady – kobieta nadal tylko widzimisie (A man had opinions, views or notions;" a woman continued to have "mere shifting mood-of-the-moment whims;" my translation). "Męzczyznę zwano zdolnym taktykiem, kobieta pozoztawała intrygantka" (A man was called a competent tactician; a woman remained a "meddler" or "schemer").

Using irony, Szymborska goes on to say that the French Revolution of 1789 brought a very brief respite in the unequal treatment that the sexes had received until then. They became equal mainly on the scaffold of the guillotine where French aristocrats were executed without regard to gender. Although she does not provide any examples to illustrate her point because the limited space of her newspaper column does not permit it, Marie Antoinette, the most famous aristocrat, immediately comes to mind. The French queen may well serve to illustrate a case in point. She met the same fate as the king. They were both decapitated. And yet, the crimes attributed to her husband may have been worse than hers because as a male he had access to a better education, one reserved for young men. He may have been better prepared for making discerning decisions. She, on the other hand, as a woman, was no doubt perceived at the time as "the gentler sex." As a woman, she may have had less education and less preparation for meeting her responsibilities in life. However, the physical or intellectual differences, for once, were not taken into account as mitigating factors. Death was meted out equally to men and women. Szymborska concludes her argument by conceding that so far (she writes in the early 1970s) not enough progress has been made in the way women are treated by society, and that militant feminists (wojujace feministki) have an ungrateful and demanding job ahead of them. By comparing the efforts deployed and the success they have achieved, Szymborska suggests that they have made little headway. Indeed, according to her, the feminists have expanded overall much effort and scored few victories. A giant battle remains to be waged, one for which she does not envy militant feminists ["uchowajcie mnie bogowie od takiego losu" - May the Gods spare me from a fate like theirs]. This is perhaps an opportune moment to point out that Szymborska is writing a book review, that her comments so far have little to do with the book she is reviewing, or have only a remote relationship to it. Her main purpose is to prepare the way for a reappraisal of Madame de Staël.

In the shorter second half of her review Szymborska finally concentrates on the French writer as a woman who illustrates well-educated and well-read intelligent women with a keen interest in politics. In approximately ten tightly compacted sentences Madame de Staël emerges as a woman of superior knowledge in political savoir-faire, something West denies her.

Szymborska sees de Staël as a woman who possessed two main attributes that were seen as flaws in her time. She had an extremely keen sense of politics along with a brilliant mind to support it. She was first a talented novelist and an original essayist whose books sold out as soon as they were published. She was also a Parisian salon lioness endowed with a gift for brilliant conversation, and was very vocal in her opinions. At first, like many of her contemporaries, she was impressed with Napoleon, but her enthusiasm lasted only briefly. According to Szymborska, de Staël was the first to ferret out and unmask Napoleon's ambitious motives, which lead him to ruthlessly destroy everything that might have prevented him from achieving his hold on power. Szymborska leaves no room for doubts about de Staël's extraordinary intellectual capacity and discerning judgment. She evaluated the future Emperor of France for what he was, a man of unbounded ambitions. She did so ahead and independently of her contemporaries. This explains her subsequent opposition to him. He, on the other hand, feared her influence and her hold on politics and tried to limit her power. He first harassed her. Her meeting with the First Consul at the house of General Berthier cited earlier, and Napoleon's remark "I have no doubt you nursed your children yourself" (65) illustrate what we would now call sexual harassment. When that proved ineffective, he exiled her. Napoleon's fear of Mme de Staël culminated in the ten-year-long banishment that she called "ten years of exile." For her, Paris probably had an appeal equal to the Garden of Eden. Once she was expelled from paradise, she became one of the most traveled of women, always one step ahead of Napoleon in his conquest of Europe and his pursuit of her as his most feared enemy. As she was well received in high social circles [a fact played down by West] she probably did more harm to Napoleon in her wandering lifestyle than she would had she remained confined to Paris.

Szymborska concedes that Madame de Staël was the target of some negative criticism in her time. According to some of her contemporaries, and some of her later critics, including West, she acted out of spite the way a disappointed woman might do, a woman who has failed to achieve her ambition as Napoleon's mentor and has failed in fulfilling her dream of becoming his Egeria, his "friend and allied collaborator" (West 65). She does not deny nor reject this version, nor the antagonism that de Staël justifiably or otherwise might have felt toward Napoleon. In a non-militant attitude, one free of any spirit of misogyny/misandry, she concedes that there could be some truth to it. But even if we accept as true such a negative image of Madame de Staël, it does not weaken, according to Szymborska, the fact that she was considered to be Napoleon's enemy number one, and was far ahead of the critical thinking of her contemporaries about him: "a ponieważ nie wiele osób wypowiadało sie równie otwarcie jak ona, zyskała sobie sławę przeciwniczki Napoleona nr.1" ("and since not many people expressed themselves as openly, she earned for herself the fame of Napoleon's enemy number one"). De Staël's sharp mind served her well for she was first to appraise Napoleon much as some historians see him today, as an ambitious political careerist with an eye to absolute power: "De Staël wcześniej od innych dojrzała w Napoleonie cynicznego acz genialnego karierowicza" (ahead of others de Staël saw in Napoleon a cynical though genial careerist"). This alone speaks volumes in her favor as a perspicacious and politically savvy woman who was keenly aware of Napoleon's shortcomings and ambitions. In this, according to Szymborska, she was far ahead of her contemporaries.

In her review of Ten Years of Exile Szymborska makes no reference, as one might expect, to the quality of the Polish translation, nor the translator's competence or experience. She passes over the contents of the book, says nothing about Madame de Staël's travels in Russia or the way de Staël portrays Talleyrand and other key political players and events of her time. In her review, two figures stand out, Madame de Staël and Napoleon. He appears disrespectful and condescending in his treatment of an exceptionally talented woman who, contrary to West's argument, was well read and well educated for her time. Szymborska values and admires her ability to judge prominent politicians such as Napoleon.

Her appraisal of Madame de Staël contrasts radically with and departs from that of Anthony West's in Mortal Wounds. In two different parts of Europe, and almost concurrently, two intellectuals, both fascinated by Madame de Staël, made known their divergent views on this politically active woman. West requires 180 pages to express his limited esteem of her as a woman, as a writer and as a political player. His condescending attitude will no doubt alienate today’s readers who seek a more feminist interpretation, a more sensitive one that leads to a better comprehension of women by exploring their intellectual, artistic and political achievements rather than insisting on their physical shortcomings. Szymborska's review is short and succinct. She speaks of de Staël in a language that is enthusiastic, elevated and dignified: de Staël was "an outstanding writer" with a "true genius" for politics ("miała prawdziwy nerw to polityki"). Her language is never demeaning or scornful. As an attentive reader and a demanding writer, she chooses her words carefully for maximum effect. "Szukam slowa" ("I Seek the Word") was the title of her first poem in 1945. The words she chooses sharpen the reader's impression of the early 19th-century French writer who exercised considerable influence on the politics and the literature of her time. Madame de Staël's books no doubt deserve to be reread today in more modern translations.

To compare a substantial essay and a short book review may seem unwise. The question arises whether one can treat on even terms the long essay of a seasoned scholar and researcher like West, whose use of irony shows de Staël at a disadvantage, and then compare it to the much shorter essay of a distinguished Nobel Prize "poet" who once wrote and possibly still writes book reviews that reflect Szymborska's feelings on important issues. I would argue that such a comparison is productive and revealing in Szymborska's case. West's satirical and misogynous treatment on the one hand and Szymborska's uncompromising expression of admiration on the other provide two contrasting perceptions of de Staël. Such opposites stimulate our curiosity and critical thinking. They encourage further inquiry into the psychological and intellectual depths of a courageous woman who was born into a society when women were not meant to intellectually shine: "In pre-Revolutionary France, a certain amount of intelligence, or, more precisely, intellectualism was not only tolerated in women, but even prized. Brilliant women were, after all, necessary to the proper ornamentation or direction of the most eminent salons. Women were expected to shine —just not in public" (Lewis 416).

Szymborska's main premise, articulated in the 1970s, that Madame de Staël had great talent for and understanding of politics and that she was among the first to ferret out Napoleon’s ambitions and grandiose plans, is strongly articulated in the latest book/novel on de Staël. According to Victoria D. Schmidt, the author of Triumph in Exile (2002), de Staël had not only irritated Napoleon, she actually contributed to his Waterloo. Today she is perceived by many as an extraordinary woman who played a prominent and conspicuous role in the Europe of her time. The thriving Société des études staëliennes, responsible for editing Cahiers staëliens, promotes the study of Germaine de Staël's influence on her friends at Coppet and her contributions to European politics and literature.

Finally, reaching beyond the Szymborska/West representation of two modern views of de Staël's personality and intellect, the naïve, undereducated meddler in the game of Napoleon's politics, and the sophisticated and brilliant student of political reality, a reading of Szymborska's reviews is enlightening for reasons other than admiration for de Staël. The reviews not only shed light on Szymborska's intellectual background, they also invite us to study their poetic elements, stylistic density and the manifestation of her personal vision of the world. The poet often reaches conclusions that transcend the boundaries of the book under review. Within the genre of poetry lies the sub-genre of prose poetry. Within this "sub-genre," Szymborska may have created a category of prose poems that take book reviews as their point of departure. Of course, any claim that Szymborska's poetic sensitivity endows her reviews with a poetic dimension approaching the form of prose poems and that she may have created a new literary genre remains to be investigated and proven. At this point, the most obvious value of the reviews is that they serve as a key, like Baudelaire's correspondence, that opens the door onto Szymborska's sharply articulated intellectual and poetic landscapes.

NOTES:

[1] Staël-Holstein, Anne Louise Germaine Necker, baronne de, 1766-1817. In October of 1816 she became Madame Necker de Rocca.

[2] In a very ironic and somewhat condescending tone, West points out that today (meaning 1973) feminism is referred to as women's liberation: "Generations of women conscious of their disabilities as women have included her in the list of those who by their record of achievement made an outstanding contribution to the course of what used to be called feminism, but which is now known as Women's Liberation" (West 3).

[3] A brief digression on a personal note will provide a rationale for this rather eccentric research project which has taken many years to complete. In 1991, facing the prospect of rigorous chemotherapy, I prepared a list of reading materials that were meant to boost the immune system and avert depression. My carefully chosen list of books featured Mortal Wounds. The book had been part of my personal collection for almost twenty years, but it was never read. Now that I was facing a very uncertain future, the title did not augur well, certainly not as therapeutic reading. Little did I suspect that once I opened it, the book would provide valuable information, prove to be entertaining and make me laugh as well. West's book is well documented, the style is lively and the satire engaging and crisp.

Had I read the book some twenty years earlier, my impression would have been quite different and I may have found the book offensive. Since 1973, however, several decades of feminist criticism have changed our way of looking at women and their achievements. Women with a strong self-esteem will savor reading literary criticism that depicts them as sex objects endowed with questionable intellectual faculties. Such readings are informative and reveal more about the attitude and thinking of the writer/critic than the object/subject under scrutiny.

In 1996, when I read Szymborska's book review of Ten Years of Exile, I discovered that, unlike West, she speaks of Madame de Staël with unconditional admiration.

[4] Charrière, Isabella Agnéta (van Tuyll van Serooskerken van Zuylen) Madame de (1740-1805); George Sand (1804-1876), pseudonym of Aurore Dupin, Baroness Dudevant.

[5] Peter Gay provides a different version: "for some time she boldly curried favor with him. Too boldly, it seems: when she hinted that the two might be equal partners, ruling France, Bonaparte would have none of it. He needed no partners, and certainly not a forward woman. By 1800, after he had become First Consul, the two were enemies; Madame de Staël found herself reduced to placating him. This was not a role she enjoyed since she could not play it while retaining her own self-respect" (xxiii).

[6] Her lovers were many as Peter Gay points out. "The roster of the men in her life reads like a Who's Who of the age: Her father, Jacques Necker, The Baron de Staël-Holstein, the Count de Guibert, the statesman Talleyrand (later Prince de Benevento), whom she met in 1788-1789 in Paris; Louis de Narbonne, Benjamin Constant, Jean-Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Dom Pedro, Prosper de Barante, Graf Moritz O'Donnel von Tyreonnel, Albert-Jean Michel Rocca (her husband as of October 1816)" (xxi).

[7] One of the most vivid and enthusiastic, most expressive and animated portraits of Madame de Staël is to be found in E.M. Cioran's collection of his favorite portraits in Anthologie du portrait de Saint-Simon à Tocqueville, Paris, Gallimard, 1996.

[8] In their critical edition of Ten Years of Exile, Balayé and Bonifaccio have made a special effort to: "chercher si Madame de Staël commet des erreurs et de mesurer d'éventuelles déformations des faits visant à aggraver les charges qu'elle fait peser sur Napoléon. Très bien informée, elle se trompe rarement. C'est dans l'interprétation qu'on peut trouver matière à discussion. Très opposée à l'empereur, elle n'accorde pas d'excuses à sa conduite. Elle ne lui passe rien, ignore les bienfaits éventuels pour mettre en relief le mal accompli. Le guerrier romantique a fait place au tyran. La paix s'est effacée devant la guerre et la conquête. La liberté a disparu et ne reviendra que par la défaite du conquérant et celle de la France avec laquelle elle se confond momentanément" (40-41).

[9] Charles-Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was born at Pau (1763-1844), in southwestern France. He distinguished himself in the wars of the French Revolution of 1789 and during Napoleon's Empire. He became marshal of the Empire in 1804 and Prince de Pontecorvo in 1806. In 1810, King Charles XII of Sweden adopted him as his son and rightful heir to the throne of Sweden. Bernadotte fought Napoleon during the Russian campaign, and also at Leipzig. In 1818, he succeeded Charles XII and founded the present branch of the royal family of Sweden. In Le Petit Larousse illustré 1983, page 1227. My translation.

[10] In retrospect, if we look at the past after the events have taken place, we form a different vision of them than if we saw the events unfold before our eyes one day at a time. Napoleon feared Madame de Staël. Taking a retrospective glance, West finds his fear hard to justify or to understand. But in his time, Napoleon lacked the benefit of hindsight vision. He was a major player, so was Mme de Staël. He feared her because her opinion counted. On the checkerboard of Europe, he was the usurper of a throne, not its rightful occupant. Her opinion mattered because she kept reminding the world of it.

[11] Avriel H. Goldberger provides a different opinion of Germaine's education: "The education her mother designed for her gifted daughter was radical at the time, particularly for a girl. Impressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau's pedagogical theories for male children in his treatise Emile of 1762, she applied them to Germaine, whom she taught to think independently, to trust her conscience, to make her own moral judgments, and to be natural" (xiv).

[12] Published as Gruzinska, Aleksandra, "[Anti]-Semitism 1890s/1990s: Octave Mirbeau and E.M. Cioran." The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55:1 (Spring 2001): 13-28. Also in Rocky Mountain E-Review of language and Literature 55:1 (Spring 2001): 1-14 [rmmla@rmmla.wsu.edu].

[13] The moment was right for learning more about a Polish poet who is also a fervent Francophile and a translator of two French poets, de Musset and Baudelaire.

[14] The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris has one of the rare copies of Lektury Nadobowiazkowe (Optional Reading) containing Szymborska's review of Ten Years of Exile. The book is not readily available, in particular the 1981 edition. Szymborska's article is very short, and the absence of page references for the Polish citations [missing from my notes] should not cause undue problems. I am indebted to the Zaklad Informacji Narodowej in Poland for verifying valuable bibliographical information about Lektury Nadobowiazkowe included below in the bibliography.

[15] "(She) was the most intelligent woman of her time. She was also the most interesting" (Gay xix).

[16] Using irony and humor, Szymborska says that: " Pani de Staël . . . miala dwa powazne w swoich czasach felery: byla wybitna pisarka i miala prawdziwy nerw do polityki" ("Madame de Staël . . . had in her time two serious flaws: she was a distinguished writer and she was eminently skilled in politics," my translation.)

[17] During the Directory in France (1795-1799), and during portions of the Consulate (i.e.: 1799-1802), Madame de Staël was a Bonapartist. In 1802, Napoleon was nominated Consul for life.

[18] In Triumph in Exile, Victoria D. Schmidt suggests that Mme de Staël had some help from Sieyès (one of the three consuls from 1800 to 1804) before she made up her mind about Napoleon.

[19] West, on the contrary claims that Napoleon's intentions were evident (to all those who attended the public events) that "the First Consul was embarked on an attempt to found a dynasty" (67).

[20] Other women mentioned in Mortal Wounds fare no better in the treatment they receive from West. At one point Mademoiselle Clairon is referred to as "an old harpy" and the beautiful Madame Récamier as "an ageless goose."

[21] André Lagarde and Laurent Michard see some shortcomings in Mme de Staël 's works. "Her knowledge is extensive," they admit, "but her cosmopolitanism tends to be superficial." They quickly add that this "is also true of other writers who practiced it" (14; my translation). They agree that her influence was "considérable" (important). Her works helped Romanticism "à prendre conscience de lui-même." Her approach to literary criticism is marked by enthusiasm and her work appeared at opportune moments to exert a maximum effect.

In his very concise introduction to Ten Years of Exile, Peter Gay summarizes some of Madame de Staël's contributions: [De l' Allemagne] "put German thought and German Literature on the map of Europe, and it popularized the distinction between Classical and Romantic that was still little known, or largely confined to the intellectual circles around the Schlegels. In this instance, as in so many others, Madame de Staël's quick perception made use of whom she knew rather than what she knew. And once again literature became political. By praising Germany, Madame de Staël was covertly criticizing France; De l'Allemagne stands in the great Enlightenment tradition of Montesquieu's Persian Letters and Voltaire's English Letters, two masterly attacks on the Old Regime in France. Both depended on the favorable presentation of foreign institutions, and the naïve comments on France by foreign visitors for their effectiveness. Madame de Staël was suggesting that France needed foreign ideas and needed freedom. The political application of these hints would not be lost on Napoleon Bonaparte" (xxvii-xxviii). According to Peter Gay, Ten Years of Exile is "a valuable political document" (xviii).

[22] Simone Balayé has recently published a critical edition of Madame de Staël's Ten Years of Exile, expertly translated by Avriel H. Goldberger.

I would like to acknowledge at this point my indebtedness to Dr. Jennifer Parchesky (English Department) and Dr. Ann Hibner Koblitz (Women's Studies) at Arizona State University for reading the paper and their helpful comments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gay, Peter. "Introduction." In Staël, Madame de. Ten Years of Exile. Translated by Doris Beik. With an introduction by Peter Gay. New York:
Saturday Review Press, 1972.

Gruzinska, Aleksandra. "Victoria D. Schmidt. Triumph in Exile." New York: Chaucer Press, 2002. The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 57:1 (2003): 90-93.

Kaminski, Piotr. "Introduction." In Szymborska, Wislawa. De la mort sans exagérer. Traduit du polonais par Piotr Kaminski. Paris: Arthème Fayard,
1966.

Lagarde, André and Michard, Laurent. XIXe siècle. Les Grands Auteurs français du programme. Paris: Les Editions Bordas, 1969.

Lewis, Tess. "Madame de Staël: The Inveterate Idealist." The Hudson Review 54:3 (Autumn 2001): 416-426.

The Hudson Review: http://www.hudsonreview.com/lewis.html

Perlez, Jane. "Polish Poet, Observing Daily Life, Wins Nobel." The New York Times (October 4, 1996): C5.

Schmidt, Victoria D. Triumph in Exile. New York: Chaucer Press, 2002.

Staël, Madame de. Ten Years of Exile. Translated by Doris Beik. With an introduction by Peter Gay. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972.

Staël, Madame de. Dix Années d'exil. Edition critique par Simone Balayé et Mariella Vianello Bonifaccio. Ouvrage publié avec le concours de Pro Helvetia. Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1996.

Staël, Madame de. Ten Years of Exile. Translated by Avriel H. Goldberger [the Simone Balayé and Mariella Vianello Bonifaccio 1996 edition]. Dekalb: Northen Illinois University Press, 2000.

Szymborska, Wislawa. "Germaine de Staël: Dziesiec lat wygnania. Przeklad Elzbiety Wassongowej, wstep i przypisy Barbary Grochulskiej. Czytelnik, Warszawa, 1973." In Lektury nadobowiazkowe [Optional Reading]. Czesc Druga. Ilustracja Szymona Kobylinskiego. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1981: 25-26. [Several editions exist: 1973, 1981, 1992 and 1996. To the best of my knowledge only the 1981 edition contains Szymborska's book review of Ten Years of Exile.]

Szymborska, Wislawa. People on a Bridge. Poems. Introduced and translated by Adam Czerniawski. London, Boston: Forest Books, 1990.

Szymborska, Wislawa. De la mort sans exagérer. Traduit du polonais par Piotr Kaminski. Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1996. [Poems written in 1957, 62, 67, 72, 76, 86, 93]

Szymborska, Wislawa. Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts. Seventy Poems by Wislawa Szymborska. Translated and Inroduced by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

West, Anthony. "Madame de Staël." In Mortal Wounds. New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973: 1-180.

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