{"title":"Maria Fairweather","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"madame-de-stael-book-maria-fairweather-9781841198163","title":"Madame De Stael","description":"The influence of the salons of Paris on the thought and culture of the eighteenth century would be difficult to overstate. They were both intellectual powerhouses and also assemblies where the latest and most extreme fashion was displayed. 'Young gallants...wearing silk waistcoats embroidered with Chinese pagodas, making love to ladies reclining negligently against the cushions...or accepting small cups of chocolate from the hands of Negro pages', thus Harold Nicolson describes the drawings of the time in his book The Age of Reason. These meeting places for the vanguard of society were presided over by a succession of brilliantly clever women, the salonieres, and the most brilliant and clever of all of them was Madame de Stael. Although the died at the age of 51 she filled her life to the brim, and enjoyed a hugely influential role among the great names of the day. Born Germaine Necker, in Paris on 22 April 1766, her father was a powerful banker and her mother a Swiss pastor's daughter who never got over her good fortune in marrying a rich man. In 1786 Germaine was married to a secretary in the Swedish embassy called de Stael, but although she thought him 'a perfect gentleman' she","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49511703216401,"sku":"GOR003875177","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49886593679633,"sku":"GOR007738678","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1841198161.jpg?v=1750865716"},{"product_id":"pilgrim-princess-book-maria-fairweather-9781841192413","title":"The Pilgrim Princess","description":"This biography brings to life, through its subject's vibrant personality, a romantic period of enduring fascination.  Princess Zinaida Volkonsky was a member of one of Russia's oldest families, became a maid of honour to the Dowager Empress and at court was soon noticed by Tsar Alexander I whose mistress she became and with whom she maintained a deep and lifelong friendship. Married to one of the Tsar's aides-de-camp, she travelled across Europe during the German and French campaigns, when she met Goethe. In the 1820s as the hostess of one of the most influential literary and musical salons in Moscow, where Alexander Pushkin was a leading guest, Zinaida became the glamorous hostess who later inspired Tolstoy. Zinaida inherited a strong tendency to depression. A lifelong search for spiritual answers eventually brought her to the Roman Catholic church and to a new life in Rome. Here, she at first created another salon, entertaining among many Stendhal, Rossini, Donizetti, Glinka and Sir Walter Scott. It was in her garden that Nikolai Gogol, worked on part of his great novel, Dead Souls.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49528088264977,"sku":"GOR001815937","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52150925295889,"sku":"NLS9781841192413","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1841192414.jpg?v=1751431730"},{"product_id":"pilgrim-princess-book-maria-fairweather-9780786708314","title":"Pilgrim Princess","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49569635696913,"sku":"GOR008767730","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50264696684817,"sku":"CIN078670831XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/078670831X.jpg?v=1751296386"},{"product_id":"madame-de-stael-book-maria-fairweather-9781845292270","title":"Madame de Stael","description":"The influence of the salons of Paris on the thought and culture of the eighteenth century would be difficult to overstate. They were both intellectual powerhouses and also assemblies where the latest and most extreme fashion was displayed.   'Young gallants...wearing silk waistcoats embroidered with Chinese pagodas, making love to ladies reclining negligently against the cushions...or accepting small cups of chocolate from the hands of Negro pages', thus Harold Nicolson describes the drawings of the time in his book \"The Age of Reason\". These meeting places for the vanguard of society were presided over by a succession of brilliantly clever women, the salonieres, and the most brilliant and clever of all of them was Madame de Stael.   Although she died at the age of 51 she filled her life to the brim, and enjoyed a hugely influential role among the great names of the day. Born Germaine Necker, in Paris on 22 April 1766, her father was a powerful banker and her mother a Swiss pastor's daughter who never got over her good fortune in marrying a rich man. In 1786 Germaine was married to a secretary in the Swedish embassy called de Stael, but although she thought him 'a perfect gentleman' she also found him dull and clumsy. She began to take lovers - the Vicomte de Narbonne and possibly Talleyrand - and then Benjamin Constant, in whom she at last met her intellectual equal.   In 1806 her novel \"Delphine\" was published. It was an instant success and praised by Goethe and Byron, among others. Her salon thronged with glittering visitors including The Tsar, Talleyrand,and Wellington. Maria Fairweather gives an entrancing account of this vanished world, so merciless to outsiders, but for those of the inner circle incomparably glamorous and exciting.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570537767185,"sku":"GOR003347719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49614918156561,"sku":"GOR003777301","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50937568526609,"sku":"GOR010734071","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50995797819665,"sku":"GOR003546680","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845292278.jpg?v=1751444796"},{"product_id":"pilgrim-princess-book-maria-fairweather-9780094800403","title":"The Pilgrim Princess","description":"Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna Volkonsky was born in 1789. A beautiful, talented woman of noble background, she became a maid of honour at court, where she met the most important man in her life, Tsar Alexander I.'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622647308561,"sku":"GOR003845595","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49948400189713,"sku":"GOR013821105","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50555380597009,"sku":"GOR007135485","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0094800405.jpg?v=1750876263"},{"product_id":"madame-de-stael-book-maria-fairweather-9780786717057","title":"Madame De Stael","description":"In her lifetime it was widely said that there were three political powers in EuropeBritain, Russia, and Madame de Stel.  Byron described her as \"the first female writer of this, perhaps of any age,\" Germaine de Stel was certainly the most remarkable woman of her time and she remains uniqueboth for the scope of her artistic and intellectual achievements, and the force of her political influence which helped to bring down Napoleon.  Born in Paris in 1766, the daughter of Jacques Necker, Louis XVI's influential and reforming finance minister, Germaine de Stel was brought up in her mother's salon, amidst the philosophers of the French Enlightenment.  A prodigious and disciplined intellect, a need for love and a love of liberty, together with remarkable courage in both public and private life, de Stel was driven to disregard dangers and conventions alike, often at great cost.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51535166767377,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51535167029521,"sku":"CIN078671705XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/078671705X.jpg?v=1751011158"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-maria-fairweather.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}