Marie d'Agoult

Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Comtesse d' Agoult married ( born December 31, 1805 in Frankfurt am Main, † March 5, 1876 in Paris) was alive under the pseudonym Daniel Stern known as a writer. Their " History of the Revolution of 1848 " is still regarded as the best that has been written about it. In the present, however, it is known mainly because of her affair with Franz Liszt. Their daughter Cosima married Liszt's pupil, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow later and finally the composer Richard Wagner. Marie d' Agoult had relationships with many important figures of the 19th century, defied social constraints of their time and developed as a journalist despite their aristocratic origin a critical attitude. It can be considered as an early example of the emancipation of women today.

Life

Marie de Flavigny was born in Frankfurt, the daughter of the emigrant French aristocrat Alexander Victor François de Flavigny (1770-1819) and his wife Maria Elisabeth Bethmann ( 1772-1847 ). Their education they received, among others in a French convent school, which was run by the Dames du Sacre -Coeur in Paris. They married on May 16, 1827 Charles Louis Constant d' Agoult, Comte d' Agoult ( 1790-1875 ) and thus became the Comtesse d' Agoult. The couple d' Agoult had two daughters, Louise, who died at the age of six years (1828-1834) and Claire ( 1830-1912 ). In December 1832, she met in a house concert of the Marquise Le Vayer in Paris know the 21 -year-old acclaimed piano virtuoso Franz Liszt and was fascinated by his personality. She became his mistress. In June 1835 she left her husband and daughter and traveled to Basel, where they expected Liszt. From there they traveled through Switzerland and finally settled in Geneva. On December 18, 1835 gave birth to a daughter, Blandine Liszt. In Geneva, a friendship with George Sand, which had been already friends with Liszt began. The relationship of the two women was difficult over the years.

In October 1836 Marie returned with Liszt returned to Paris. She founded there a literary salon, where not only great writers, but also musicians, philosophers, historians, painters and politicians met. Even George Sand was some time at her guest. This retaliated with an invitation to her estate Nohant, where the couple spent three months. Frédéric Chopin devoted Marie d' Agoult in 1837 published his Etudes, opus 25, which he had composed in the years 1832-1836. It is reported that Marie had considerable skills in piano playing.

In July 1837, the couple broke from there to a journey through Lyon and Geneva to Italy, where Marie the important buildings and works of art, especially in Como, Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome met. The highly talented woman wrote travel reports and music reviews ( this partly under Liszt's name), and there developed her skills as a journalist.

While Liszt was expanding its tremendous career as a virtuoso pianist in Europe, which was incompatible with a "normal " middle-class life, Marie returned to Paris. In April 1844 they finally broke off the relationship with Liszt. Nevertheless, there were further meetings.

You saw her determination in writing and chose it for her son Daniel as a pseudonym the name of Daniel Stern. In its newly established Salon in Paris, she gathered people who played a role not only in literature and art, but also in politics or should play later. It became apparent that the times of the monarchy monarchy in France (Louis -Philippe ) inclined towards the end. Marie learned so some people who played a role in the run-up to the 1848 revolution, personally. This is what her most famous work founded as a historian.

A special influence had an encounter with Georg Herwegh who had moved with his wife Emma Herwegh and Arnold Ruge, 1843 by Germany into exile in Paris. Marie, alias Daniel Stern, wrote two articles about Herwegh. Despite various political attitudes, the two were probably close in person; because Marie felt " free" after the separation of Liszt.

Probably by Emma Marie Herwegh learned the freedom movement in Italy know that eventually led to the Risorgimento. It maintained a correspondence with Giuseppe Mazzini, whose letters were sometimes read in her salon.

From the relationship with Liszt two younger children came by Blandine Cosima de Flavigny (1837 -1930 Bellagio Bayreuth ) and Daniel Liszt (born 1839 in Rome). The latter died at the age of 20 years.

Blandine (1835-1862) later married the French statesman Émile Ollivier, Cosima was married from 1857 with Hans von Bülow and from 1870 with Richard Wagner.

Liszt insisted that his children not in Paris by her mother ( Marie d' Agoult ) should be educated, but from his mother. For a long time could Marie have no contact with their children.

. Marie d' Agoult describes her relationship with Liszt in her autobiographical novel Nélida ( an anagram of her pseudonym Daniel ) 1846 Honoré de Balzac set - hardly encrypted - in his novel Beatrix dar. He had been intimate information about Marie by George Sand; this led to a falling out between the two rival " girlfriends ". Marie looked at negatively and denounced.

Marie d' Agoult was an important writer of political liberalism in France. Revolutions looked at critically, as the then Catholic Church. In her early years she was hanging on the royalism. Later it was transformed to a Republican. However, their attitude was idealistic. Educated, capable people should lead society serving.

Marie d' Agoult wrote numerous newspaper articles on cultural and political issues, from December 12, 1841 under the name of Daniel Stern. She made many trips to Europe and often changed their homes.

She died in Paris on March 5, 1876 and was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Work

Getting stories from 1845 Her best-known work, the History of the Revolution of 1848 (French: Histoire de la Révolution de 1848). Appeared under the pseudonym Daniel Stern from 1851 to 1853 in three volumes. Other works are: Esquisses morales (1849 ), Trois Journées de la vie de Marie Stuart (1856 ), Florence et Turin ( 1862), Histoire des comme cements de la république aux Pays -Bas (1872 ), and Mes souvenirs (1877, posthumous appeared ). As a political writer, she wrote Lettres Républicaines (1848 ); Esquisses Moral and Political (1849, German 1862).

• Essai sur la liberté considérée comme principe et fin de l' activité humaine, Paris, Michel Lévy, 1863; texte en ligne sur Gallica
• Dante et Goethe, Paris, Didier, 1866; texte en ligne sur Gallica
• Histoire des comme cements de la république aux Pays- bas, Paris, M. Lévy frères, 1872; texte en ligne sur Gallica

• Marcel Herwegh, Au Printemps des Dieux, inédite correspondance de la Comtesse Marie d' Agoult et du poète Herwegh Georges, Paris, Gallimard, 1929.
• Correspondence avec Liszt, ed. D. Ollivier, 2 volumes, Paris 1933-1935.
• Franz Liszt, Marie Countess d' Agoult letters to, Ed Daniel Ollivier, Fischer, Berlin, 1933.
• Mes souvenirs, 1806-1833, Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1880; texte en ligne sur Gallica
• Correspondance avec Marie d' Agoult, Franz Liszt, edited by Serge Gut and Jacqueline Bellas, Fayard, Paris, 2001. ISBN 2-213-61010- X
• Correspondance générale 1821 - 1836, edited by Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol 1, Champion, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-7453-0860-2.
• Correspondance générale, 1837 - octobre 1839, ed Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol 2, Champion, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7453-0972-2.
• Correspondance générale, Novembre 1839 - 1841, edited by Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol 3, Champion, Paris 2005 ISBN 2 - 7453-1081 -X.
• Correspondance générale, 1842 - mai 1844 et suppléments 1830-1841, edited by Charles F. Dupêchez, Vol 4, Champion, Paris 2012 ISBN 978-2-7453-2357-6.
• Marie d' Agoult Correspondance et George Sand, eds Charles F. Dupêchez, Bartillat, Paris 1995. ISBN 2-84-100045-1