Marie d'Agoult

Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Vicomtesse de Flavigny (December 31, 1805 - March 5, 1876), was a French author, known also by her married name and title, Marie, Comtesse d'Agoult, and by her pen name, Daniel Stern.

She was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the daughter of Alexander Victor François de Flavigny (1770-1819), a footloose emigré French aristocrat, and his wife Maria-Elisabeth Bethmann (1772-1847), a Jewish German banker's daughter whose family had converted to Catholicism. The young Marie spent her early years in Germany and completed her education in a French convent after the Bourbon Restoration. She entered into an early marriage of convenience with Charles Louis Constant d’Agoult, Comte d'Agoult (1790-1875) on May 16, 1827, thereby becoming the Comtesse d'Agoult. They had two daughters, Louise (1828-1834) and Claire (1830-1912). They were divorced on August 19, 1835.

From 1835 to 1839 she lived with virtuoso pianist and composer Franz Liszt, who was five years younger, and was a rising concert star. D'Agoult had three children with Liszt, but they did not marry, maintaining their independent views and other differences, while Liszt was busy composing and touring throughout Europe. Their children were Blandine (1835-1862), who was the first wife of Émile Ollivier but died at the age of 28; Cosima (1837-1930) (who married Richard Wagner, the second marriage for them both); and Daniel (1839-1859), who was already a promising pianist and gifted scholar when he died of tuberculosis at age 20. Chopin dedicated his second set of piano etudes to Marie d'Agoult.

She died in Paris, and was buried in Division 54 of Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Her life

Marie d'Agoult was raised in an aristocratic culture during the period just before the French Revolution. This was a time when society began to shift, especially concerning the rights of women. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, which stimulated many women, including Marie, to consider the life she was living.

Philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau had written that women were notably different creatures than men and should be educated for only one job, marriage and motherhood, where the husband was absolute ruler over his family. The emancipation of women, especially those of Marie's social class, would have to begin with maternal and property rights.

Marriage and motherhood did not fulfill her enough and she began to study many different topics of interest including art, philosophy, and politics. Marie began to examine the writings of the thinkers of this period and thus developed a critical mind and opinions about various topics. Through her self-education she became a respected critical thinker among her friends.

Franz Liszt, the great love of her life

Marie met Franz Liszt in 1833 in Paris. He was an upcoming composer and musician, a man below her social standing. Their friendship developed based on books that they shared and discussed together beginning with the Bible, Shakespeare, Goethe, Chateaubriand, Balzac, Nerval and George Sand. She shared her newest interests: Volupté, by Sainte-Beuve and Oberman, by Senancour.

While Liszt was somewhat uncultured and not as intellectual, Marie tried to educate him and they shared exciting discussions which brought them closer together. They exchanged many letters over the time of their relationship and some have remained.

Liszt, actually, was an Utopian, who studied the Sainte-Simonian socialist thinkers, which he introduced to Marie. She was unaware of the great physical misery experienced by the common people who lived outside of her limited aristocratic world. She was moved by the force, clear thoughts and justice taught by Eugene Rodriguez, and Pierre Leroux. In this area Liszt became her teacher and through this exchange of ideas, Marie's intellectual horizons expanded. Liszt's egalitarian views fed Marie's romanticism and they fell in love.

Liszt believed that, "The artist is the living expression of God, of nature, and of humanity." Through art, one could experience God. Marie, longed for fulfillment through love and Liszt began to become the object of her passions and thoughts.

In the spring of 1833, Marie's family moved to Croissy and could not see Liszt. Only their letters kept their relationship alive. The emotions expressed in their letters were high hope and passion and deepest despair. They longed to be together yet were blocked by her marriage and social standing.

She wrote to him,

...whatever my future sufferings you need not cry over them, because you have done me more good than you can ever do me harm. You have managed to break all the lines that still attach me to the world [of high society], and you have awakened in me by the feelings of my own personal unhappiness, which I was offering ceaselessly to God as a sacrifice, believing that resignation was the only virtue possible for me.

She later feared never seeing him again, and she wrote, "I am alone, alone with one great thought, and that thought is you. I love you with all my heart." In the autumn of 1834 her family returned to Paris and they became lovers.

Works

Her first stories (Hervé, Julien, Valentia, Nélida) were published in 1841-1845. Her best-known work (written as "Daniel Stern") is the Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 (appearing from 1850-53, in 3 volumes). D'Agoult's other works include Lettres Républicaines in Esquisses morales et politiques (1849, collected articles), Trois journées de la vie de Marie Stuart (1856), Florence et Turin (1862), Histoire des commencements de la république aux Pays-Bas (1872), and Mes souvenirs (1877, posthumously).

She also helped her lover, Franz Liszt, write several works under his name. Their friend, Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, also aided in one or two revisions in Liszt's last years.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cronin, Vincent. Four Women in Pursuit of an Ideal. London: Collins, 1965; also published as The Romantic Way. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. ASIN B0000CMPJS
• d'Agoult, Marie. Nélida, State University of New York Press, 1846, 2003 edition. ISBN 0-7914-5912-8
• Stern, Daniel (Marie d'Agoult). Histoire de la révolution de 1848, Balland, 1851, 1985 edition. ISBN 2-7158-0500-4
• _____________. Esquisses morales; pensées, réflexions et maximes, J. Techener, 1859.
• Stock-Morton, Phyllis. The life of Marie d'Agoult, alias Daniel Stern. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8018-6313-9.
• Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years 1811-1847. Cornell University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8014-9421-4

External Links

• Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions www.ohiou.edu Retrieved June 19, 2008.

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