8vo. [4], 88pp. Uncut, stitched into later marbled paper wrappers. Extremities marked and chipped, wrapper separating from text-block. Contemporary inked annotation and later ink-stamp of crown motif with initials 'H. A.' to title, several lines of p.7 deleted in ink (bled through to p.8-9), lightly spotted.

The first work by Swiss-born French woman of letters Anne Louise Germaine de Stael-Holstein (1766-1817), a succinct biography of Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), published in the same decade as the first printing of his Confessions. The daughter of Jacques Necker, Stael-Holstein was educated according to the principles of Rousseau, whose views on personal and political freedom were evidently well received.