Considerations of the Principal Events of the French Revolution (review)

Given the number of intellectual interests of Germaine de Staël, it is not surprising that she has received attention from scholars across a variety of disciplines. Yet not all of her pursuits have received equal attention. It is necessary to admit that Staël the novelist, critic and even personality has generally eclipsed Staël the political thinker. To some extent, Staël herself is responsible for this oversight. One of her most important political works, Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution, was, by her own admission, begun merely as "an examination of the political actions and writings" of her father, Jacques Necker, who served as France's finance minister in the waning days of the Old Regime (5). But Aurelian Craiutu, the editor of an updated translation of the Considerations, hopes not only to encourage interest in Staël's political thought, but also to place her in relation to the other influential political thinkers of the nineteenth century.

The Considerations is in large measure a history of the French Revolution, tracking events from the last days of the Old Regime to the end of Napoleon. For Staël, Necker was the tragic hero of the story, a contemporary Cassandra who was able to foresee France's mistakes and failures but who was ultimately ignored—and even scorned—by both the public and France's leaders. Yet the Considerations should not be dismissed as simply an eloquent defense of Necker. Staël used the events of the Revolution, as well as an extended discussion of English constitutionalism at the end of the work, to make a reasoned plea for constitutional, representative government in France. More importantly, Staël argued that France had been moving toward this goal long before the Revolution.

In Craiutu's useful introduction, he notes the number of similarities between Staël's political ideas and other moderate Restoration liberals. He draws particular attention to Alexis de Tocqueville, who shared Staël's emphasis on the continuities between the changes of revolutionary France and processes that had begun much earlier. The primary advantage to Craiutu's updated translation is his commitment to placing Staël in the context of nineteenth-century liberalism. In addition to his fine introduction, which provides as an overview of Staël's political ideas and some of the key issues regarding Staël's life and works, Craiutu's footnotes frequently make comparisons between Staël's ideas and her contemporaries across the political spectrum, including Benjamin Constant, François Guizot and Edmund Burke. More generally, Craiutu's extensive footnotes help make the work more accessible to scholars interested in Staël's liberalism. Her intimate familiarity with the Revolution, which resulted in frequent references to the most minor players and events from those turbulent years, can be an obstacle to non-specialists of the Revolution. But the footnotes explain these references, allowing her political ideas to emerge from beneath the events that she narrates.

This sorely needed revised translation updates the 1818 English translation that appeared at the same time as the first French edition. Until now, this earlier version was the only complete text available to English-speaking readers. Most of the changes that Craiutu makes are subtle, designed to fashion a text better suited to a twenty-first-century audience. Archaic grammar and spelling have been updated. But Craiutu was also careful to compare the 1818 English edition with the French text, correcting the occasional liberties taken by the original translator. For example, when Staël alludes to her father's fall from grace, the 1818 edition translates Staël's original "l'ingratitude dans les jugemens des hommes" as "ingratitude in the bosoms of mankind." Craiutu's revision hews closer to the original, reading "ingratitude in the judgment of the people" (57).

Craiutu's introduction could have perhaps benefitted from a discussion...