Delphine (review)

This volume, the second to appear in the re-edition of Staël's Œuvres completes, has been expertly edited by the same editorial team which produced the 1987 Droz edition of Delphine (see FS, XLII (1988), 478–79). Like its earlier counterpart, this edition of the novel includes not only the text of Delphine (based on the first Madran edition of the novel from 1802), but also the 'Avertissement pour la quatrième édition', the 'Deuxième dénouement' and 'Quelques réflexions sur le but moral de Delphine'. The death of Simone Balayé before the completion of the volume has inevitably had certain repercussions on the content. These are particularly evident in the introduction, which includes sections on the genesis of Delphine, the epistolary tradition, critical reception and a presentation of the various editions of the novel; the projected sections on 'les clés du roman' and 'la politique' have been abandoned, and the material which Balayé left has instead been incorporated into the notes. Whilst the decision to use Balayé's material in this way allows the reader to benefit from her vast knowledge of Staël's work, it does also mean that the introduction gives little sense of the work's literary or political significance. One is therefore likely to prefer the more substantial introduction to the earlier Droz edition. In other respects, however, this new edition improves on its precursors by offering a more complete and extremely useful 'chronologie interne' for the novel, as well as more extensive textual annotations which provide not only helpful factual information, but also include illuminating references to other works by Staël and her contemporaries. Moreover, the editors are able to draw on the novel's 'avant-texte', published as the second volume of the Droz edition, to highlight in the footnotes the major changes which Staël effected in the course of the writing of Delphine, and give insights into the creative process. For those interested in the corrections made by the author, a list of the most important 'variantes' is given after the text, though again one must turn to the Droz edition for a study of the nature of the changes wrought by the author between the three principal editions of the novel. The Droz edition of Delphine was always going to be a hard act to follow; this new edition complements it, but does not offer enough that is new or original to displace it as the main reference text.