Les « ruines illustres » de Coppet selon Genlis et Chateaubriand

Germaine de Staël was criticised on several occasions by Félicité de Genlis for her style and especially for her ideas. In the context of post-revolutionary anti-modernism, this article compares the novel Athénaïs ou le Château de Coppet en 1807 by Genlis, written for Juliette Récamier, with the account of a visit to Coppet in Chateaubriand’s Mémoires d’outre-tombe, to show how the authors reacted to Staël’s death and the dissolution of her group. In their tombeaux of Germaine de Staël, Genlis and Chateaubriand celebrate the deceased author in an ambiguous manner, and without abandoning completely their anti-modern postures.