In her lifetime it was widely said that there were three political powers in Europe?Britain, Russia, and Madame de Stäel. Byron described her as ''the first female writer of this, perhaps of any age,'' Germaine de Stäel was certainly the most remarkable woman of her time and she remains unique?both 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 Stäel 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 Stäel was driven to disregard dangers and conventions alike, often at great cost.