Corinne, or Italy (1807) is both the story of a love affair and Madame de Stael's homage to the landscape, literature, and art of Italy. The Scottish peer Lord Nelvil is torn between his passion for the beautiful Italian poetess Corinne and respect for his dead father's wish that he should marry Lucile, a traditionally dutiful English girl. His choice leads to tragedy for Corinne and a seared conscience for himself. Madame de Stael weaves discreet French Revolutionary allusion and allegory into her novel. It stands at the birth of modern nationalism and is also one of the first works to put a woman's creativity centre stage. Sylvia Raphael's new translation preserves the natural character of the French original and is complemented by notes and an introduction which sets an extraordinary work of European Romanticism in its historical context.
