Crossing Poland An underrated part of Germaine de Staël’s exile

Having a hard time bearing the police surveillance she’s subject to, Germaine de Staël flees Coppet in May 1812. Her escape is the starting point of a journey that brings her to England throughout Poland, Russia and Sweden. While poorly explored by the critics, Staël’s journey through Poland as told in Dix années d’exil leads to a rich geopolitical analysis. This paper intends to explore this analysis and further the genre of the travel narrative as shaped in Dix années d’exil.