This is the powerful memoir of Germaine de Staël, the most politically outspoken woman of the Napoleonic era. During the French Revolution, Mme. de Staël's salon was visited by the most brilliant politicians and intellectuals. Staël herself helped to introduce Napoleon to French society, yet like other liberals, she soon opposed the politic of Buonaparte. He, in turn, banished her from Paris in 1803. During the Russian campaign, Staël was forced to flee through Austria, Poland, Russian, and Britain. Her memoirs of these times are full of dangerous situations and penetrating insights into the Napoleonic society. As a well-read intellectual and a friend of Talleyrand, Schiller, and Goethe, she draws the reader with the depth of thought and the delicacy of literary style.