Volume 42, Number 20 · December 21, 1995
Call Me Madame
By P.N. Furbank
Delphine
by Germaine de Staël, translated and with an introduction by Avriel H. Goldberger
Northern Illinois University Press, 468 pp., $50.00; $22.95 (paper)
Let me summarize the opening chapter of Mme de Staël's Corinne: or Italy, which was published in 1807 and became one of the most celebrated novels of the earlier nineteenth century. In this chapter we are introduced to Oswald, Lord Nelvil, a peer of Scotland who, late in the year 1794, has taken ship for Italy for reasons of health. He is a noble and beautiful young man with an independent fortune, but is borne down by a secret sorrow, caused by his father's recent death and the remorse and some 'delicate scruples'[1] connected with it. His regrets have robbed him of all enjoyment of life. No one could be more prompt to serve his friends, but even beneficence gives him no pleasure, and he half reproaches himself for leaving his native Scotland: for perhaps ghosts, like his father's, are only permitted to roam in the places where their ashes lie. Once or twice, as they cross the North Sea, the weather grows stormy, whereupon Lord Nelvil gives helpful advice to the sailors, calms the fears of the other passengers, and eventually takes over the handling of the ship himself—all his actions exhibiting a skill and vigor 'which should not be considered simply the effect of suppleness and agility of body, for the soul also plays its part in these things.' As he leaves the ship, the sailors, as one man, cry 'My dear Sir, would that you were more happy!'
Review, 3371 words
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