Germaine de Staël - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Mme de Staël has been referred to on at least two occasions in the writings of Judith Martin, writing as syndicated etiquette columnist Miss Manners.
• Mme de Staël is mentioned in The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson.
• Republican activist Victor Gold quoted Madame de Staël when characterizing American Vice President Dick Cheney, "Men do not change, they unmask themselves."
• De Stael is credited in Tolstoy's epilogue to War and Peace as a factor of the 'influential forces' which historians say led to the movement of humanity in that era.
• Mme de Staël is quoted by Meadow Soprano in Season 2, Episode 7 of The Sopranos when she tells her parents, 'Madam de Staël says, in life one must choose between boredom and suffering.'
• Mme de Stael is cited by Auguste Comte in his first major work, Cours de Philosophie Positive, and in his Calendar of Great Men, and in Frederic Harrison's book with the same name.
• Mme de Stael is referenced in "I Want It All" from Baby by Maltby & Shire
• Mme de Stael is used several times to characterize Mme de Grandet in Stendhal's Lucien Leuwen.
• Mme de Stael is mentioned several times, always approvingly, by Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin.