SQL and NoSQL Databases: Modeling, Languages,

Security and Architectures for Big Data

Management Michael Kaufmann pdf download

https://ebookmeta.com/product/sql-and-nosql-databases-modeling-
languages-security-and-architectures-for-big-data-management-
michael-kaufmann/

Download more ebook from https://ebookmeta.com

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebookmeta.com
to discover even more!

SQL and NoSQL Databases Modeling Languages Security and

Architectures for Big Data Management 2nd Edition
Michael Kaufmann

https://ebookmeta.com/product/sql-and-nosql-databases-modeling-
languages-security-and-architectures-for-big-data-management-2nd-
edition-michael-kaufmann/

Python Data Persistence With SQL and NOSQL Databases

1st Edition Lathkar

https://ebookmeta.com/product/python-data-persistence-with-sql-
and-nosql-databases-1st-edition-lathkar/

NoSQL and SQL Data Modeling: Bringing Together Data,

Semantics, and Software First Edition Hills

https://ebookmeta.com/product/nosql-and-sql-data-modeling-
bringing-together-data-semantics-and-software-first-edition-
hills/

The Divorce from Hell Margie Majors Middle Aged Vampire

Slayer 2 2nd Edition Dewylde Saranna

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-divorce-from-hell-margie-
majors-middle-aged-vampire-slayer-2-2nd-edition-dewylde-saranna/
Optical Communications in the 5G Era 1st Edition Xiang
Liu

https://ebookmeta.com/product/optical-communications-in-
the-5g-era-1st-edition-xiang-liu/

Deep Waters Frank Waters Remembered in Letters and

Commentary 1st Edition Alan Louis Kishbaugh Alan Louis
Kishbaugh

https://ebookmeta.com/product/deep-waters-frank-waters-
remembered-in-letters-and-commentary-1st-edition-alan-louis-
kishbaugh-alan-louis-kishbaugh/

The Atheist Manifesto 2nd Edition Christopher Hitchens

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-atheist-manifesto-2nd-edition-
christopher-hitchens/

European Revolutions and the Ottoman Balkans

Nationalism Violence and Empire in the Long Nineteenth
Century 1st Edition Dimitris Stamatopoulos

https://ebookmeta.com/product/european-revolutions-and-the-
ottoman-balkans-nationalism-violence-and-empire-in-the-long-
nineteenth-century-1st-edition-dimitris-stamatopoulos/

Monster Girl Safari 3 1st Edition Roland Carlsson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/monster-girl-safari-3-1st-edition-
roland-carlsson/
Loveless Osemanverse 10 1st Edition Alice Oseman

https://ebookmeta.com/product/loveless-osemanverse-10-1st-
edition-alice-oseman/
Michael Kaufmann
Andreas Meier

SQL and NoSQL

Databases
Modeling, Languages, Security
and Architectures for Big Data
Management
Second Edition
SQL and NoSQL Databases
Michael Kaufmann • Andreas Meier

SQL and NoSQL

Databases
Modeling, Languages, Security
and Architectures for Big Data
Management

Second Edition
Michael Kaufmann Andreas Meier
Informatik Institute of Informatics
Hochschule Luzern Universität Fribourg
Rotkreuz, Switzerland Fribourg, Switzerland

ISBN 978-3-031-27907-2 ISBN 978-3-031-27908-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27908-9

# The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland
AG 2023
The first edition of this book was published by Springer Vieweg in 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword

The term database has long since become part of people’s everyday vocabulary, for
managers and clerks as well as students of most subjects. They use it to describe a
logically organized collection of electronically stored data that can be directly
searched and viewed. However, they are generally more than happy to leave the
whys and hows of its inner workings to the experts.
Users of databases are rarely aware of the immaterial and concrete business
values contained in any individual database. This applies as much to a car importer’s
spare parts inventory as the IT solution containing all customer depots at a bank or
the patient information system of a hospital. Yet failure of these systems, or even
cumulative errors, can threaten the very existence of the respective company or
institution. For that reason, it is important for a much larger audience than just the
“database specialists” to be well-informed about what is going on. Anyone involved
with databases should understand what these tools are effectively able to do and
which conditions must be created and maintained for them to do so.
Probably the most important aspect concerning databases involves (a) the dis-
tinction between their administration and the data stored in them (user data) and
(b) the economic magnitude of these two areas. Database administration consists of
various technical and administrative factors, from computers, database systems, and
additional storage to the experts setting up and maintaining all these components—
the aforementioned database specialists. It is crucial to keep in mind that the
administration is by far the smaller part of standard database operation, constituting
only about a quarter of the entire efforts.
Most of the work and expenses concerning databases lie in gathering,
maintaining, and utilizing the user data. This includes the labor costs for all
employees who enter data into the database, revise it, retrieve information from
the database, or create files using this information. In the above examples, this means
warehouse employees, bank tellers, or hospital personnel in a wide variety of
fields—usually for several years.
In order to be able to properly evaluate the importance of the tasks connected with
data maintenance and utilization on the one hand and database administration on the
other hand, it is vital to understand and internalize this difference in the effort
required for each of them. Database administration starts with the design of the
database, which already touches on many specialized topics such as determining the

v
vi Foreword

consistency checks for data manipulation or regulating data redundancies, which are
as undesirable on the logical level as they are essential on the storage level. The
development of database solutions is always targeted on their later use, so
ill-considered decisions in the development process may have a permanent impact
on everyday operations. Finding ideal solutions, such as the golden mean between
too strict and too flexible when determining consistency conditions, may require
some experience. Unduly strict conditions will interfere with regular operations,
while excessively lax rules will entail a need for repeated expensive data repairs.
To avoid such issues, it is invaluable for anyone concerned with database
development and operation, whether in management or as a database specialist, to
gain systematic insight into this field of computer sciences. The table of contents
gives an overview of the wide variety of topics covered in this book. The title already
shows that, in addition to an in-depth explanation of the field of conventional
databases (relational model, SQL), the book also provides highly educational infor-
mation about current advancements and related fields, the keywords being NoSQL
and Big Data. I am confident that the newest edition of this book will once again be
well-received by both students and professionals—its authors are quite familiar with
both groups.

Professor Emeritus for Databases Carl August Zehnder

ETH Zürich
Zürich, Switzerland
Preface

It is remarkable how stable some concepts are in the field of databases. Information
technology is generally known to be subject to rapid development, bringing forth
new technologies at an unbelievable pace. However, this is only superficially the
case. Many aspects of computer science do not essentially change. This includes not
only the basics, such as the functional principles of universal computing machines,
processors, compilers, operating systems, databases and information systems, and
distributed systems, but also computer language technologies such as C, TCP/IP, or
HTML that are decades old but in many ways provide a stable fundament of the
global, earth-spanning information system known as the World Wide Web. Like-
wise, the SQL language (Structured Query Language) has been in use for almost five
decades and will remain so in the foreseeable future. The theory of relational
database systems was initiated in the 1970s by Codd (relation model) and
Chamberlin and Boyce (SEQUEL). However, these technologies have a major
impact on the practice of data management today. Especially, with the Big Data
revolution and the widespread use of data science methods for decision support,
relational databases and the use of SQL for data analysis are actually becoming more
important. Even though sophisticated statistics and machine learning are enhancing
the possibilities for knowledge extraction from data, many if not most data analyses
for decision support rely on descriptive statistics using SQL for grouped aggrega-
tion. SQL is also used in the field of Big Data with MapReduce technology. In this
sense, although SQL database technology is quite mature, it is more relevant today
than ever.
Nevertheless, the developments in the Big Data ecosystem brought new
technologies into the world of databases, to which we pay enough attention too.
Non-relational database technologies, which find more and more fields of applica-
tion under the generic term NoSQL, differ not only superficially from the classical
relational databases but also in the underlying principles. Relational databases were
developed in the twentieth century with the purpose of tightly organized, operational
forms of data management, which provided stability but limited flexibility. In
contrast, the NoSQL database movement emerged in the beginning of the new
century, focusing on horizontal partitioning, schema flexibility, and index-free
neighborhood with the goal of solving the Big Data problems of volume, variety,
and velocity, especially in Web-scale data systems. This has far-reaching

vii
viii Preface

consequences and leads to a new approach in data management, which deviate

significantly from the previous theories on the basic concept of databases: the way
data is modeled, how data is queried and manipulated, how data consistency is
handled, and how data is stored and made accessible. That is why in all chapters we
compare these two worlds, SQL and NoSQL databases.
In the first five chapters, we analyze in detail the management, modeling,
languages, security, and architecture of SQL databases, graph databases, and, in
the second English edition, new document databases. In Chaps. 6 and 7, we provide
an overview of other SQL- and NoSQL-based database approaches.
In addition to classic concepts such as the entity and relationship model and its
mapping in SQL or NoSQL database schemas, query languages, or transaction
management, we explain aspects for NoSQL databases such as the MapReduce
procedure, distribution options (fragments, replication), or the CAP theorem (con-
sistency, availability, partition tolerance).
In the second English edition, we offer a new in-depth introduction to document
databases with a method for modeling document structures, an overview of the
database language MQL, as well as security and architecture aspects. The new
edition also takes into account new developments in the Cypher language. The
topic of database security is newly introduced as a separate chapter and analyzed
in detail with regard to data protection, integrity, and transactions. Texts on data
management, database programming, and data warehousing and data lakes have
been updated. In addition, the second English edition explains the concepts of JSON,
JSON Schema, BSON, index-free neighborhood, cloud databases, search engines,
and time series databases.
We have launched a Website called sql-nosql.org, where we share teaching and
tutoring materials such as slides, tutorials for SQL and Cypher, case studies, and a
workbench for MySQL and Neo4j, so that language training can be done either with
SQL or with Cypher, the graph-oriented query language of the NoSQL database
Neo4j.
We thank Alexander Denzler and Marcel Wehrle for the development of the
workbench for relational and graph-oriented databases. For the redesign of the
graphics, we were able to work with Thomas Riediker. We thank him for his tireless
efforts. He has succeeded in giving the pictures a modern style and an individual
touch. In the ninth edition, we have tried to keep his style in our new graphics. For
the further development of the tutorials and case studies, which are available on the
website sql-nosql.org, we thank the computer science students Andreas Waldis,
Bettina Willi, Markus Ineichen, and Simon Studer for their contributions to the
tutorial in Cypher, respectively, to the case study Travelblitz with OpenOffice Base
and with Neo4J. For the feedback on the manuscript, we thank Alexander Denzler,
Daniel Fasel, Konrad Marfurt, Thomas Olnhoff, and Stefan Edlich for their willing-
ness to contribute to the quality of our work with reading our manuscript and with
providing valuable feedback. A heartfelt thank you goes out to Michael Kaufmann’s
wife Melody Reymond for proofreading our manuscript. Special thanks to Andy
Preface ix

Oppel of the University of California, Berkeley, for grammatical and technological

review of the English text. A big thank goes to Leonardo Milla of Springer, who has
supported us with patience and expertise.

Rotkreuz, Switzerland Michael Kaufmann

Fribourg, Switzerland Andreas Meier
October 2022
Contents

1 Database Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Information Systems and Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 SQL Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1 Relational Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.2 Structured Query Language SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.3 Relational Database Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Big Data and NoSQL Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.2 NoSQL Database Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Graph Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4.1 Graph-Based Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4.2 Graph Query Language Cypher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5 Document Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5.1 Document Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5.2 Document-Oriented Database Language MQL . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.6 Organization of Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Database Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 From Requirements Analysis to Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 The Entity-Relationship Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.1 Entities and Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.2 Associations and Association Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.3 Generalization and Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 Implementation in the Relational Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.1 Dependencies and Normal Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.2 Mapping Rules for Relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.4 Implementation in the Graph Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.4.1 Graph Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.4.2 Mapping Rules for Graph Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.5 Implementation in the Document Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.5.1 Document-Oriented Database Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

xi
xii Contents

2.5.2 Mapping Rules for Document Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

2.6 Formula for Database Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3 Database Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.1 Interacting with Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2 Relational Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.2.1 Overview of Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.2.2 Set Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.3 Relation Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2.4 Relationally Complete Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.3 Relational Language SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.3.1 Creating and Populating the Database Schema . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.3.2 Relational Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.3.3 Built-In Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.3.4 Null values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.4 Graph-Based Language Cypher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.4.1 Creating and Populating the Database Schema . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.4.2 Relation Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.4.3 Built-In Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.4.4 Graph Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.5 Document-Oriented Language MQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.5.1 Creating and Filling the Database Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.5.2 Relation Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.5.3 Built-In Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.5.4 Null Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.6 Database Programming with Cursors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
3.6.1 Embedding of SQL in Procedural Languages . . . . . . . . . . . 106
3.6.2 Embedding Graph-Based Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
3.6.3 Embedding Document Database Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4 Database Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.1 Security Goals and Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.2 Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.2.1 Authentication and Authorization in SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.2.2 Authentication in Cypher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2.3 Authentication and Authorization in MQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.3 Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4.3.1 Relational Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3.2 Integrity Constraints for Graphs in Cypher . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.3.3 Integrity Constraints in Document Databases with MQL . . . 132
4.4 Transaction Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
4.4.1 Multi-user Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
4.4.2 ACID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Contents xiii

4.4.3 Serializability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

4.4.4 Pessimistic Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.4.5 Optimistic Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.4.6 Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
4.5 Soft Consistency in Massive Distributed Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.5.1 BASE and the CAP Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.5.2 Nuanced Consistency Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
4.5.3 Vector Clocks for the Serialization of Distributed
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.5.4 Comparing ACID and BASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
4.6 Transaction Control Language Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.6.1 Transaction Control in SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.6.2 Transaction Management in the Graph Database Neo4J
and in the Cypher Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4.6.3 Transaction Management in MongoDB and MQL . . . . . . . 155
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5 System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.1 Processing of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Data . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.2 Storage and Access Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.2.1 Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.2.2 Tree Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.2.3 Hashing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.2.4 Consistent Hashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
5.2.5 Multi-dimensional Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
5.2.6 Binary JavaScript Object Notation BSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.2.7 Index-Free Adjacency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
5.3 Translation and Optimization of Relational Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.3.1 Creation of Query Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.3.2 Optimization by Algebraic Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
5.3.3 Calculation of Join Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
5.3.4 Cost-Based Optimization of Access Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.4 Parallel Processing with MapReduce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5.5 Layered Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
5.6 Use of Different Storage Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
5.7 Cloud Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
6 Post-relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
6.1 The Limits of SQL and What Lies Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
6.2 Federated Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
6.3 Temporal Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
6.4 Multi-dimensional Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
6.5 Data Warehouse and Data Lake Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
6.6 Object-Relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
6.7 Knowledge Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
xiv Contents

6.8 Fuzzy Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
7 NoSQL Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.1 Development of Non-relational Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.2 Key-Value Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
7.3 Column-Family Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
7.4 Document Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.5 XML Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
7.6 Graph Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
7.7 Search Engine Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
7.8 Time Series Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Database Management
1

1.1 Information Systems and Databases

The evolution from the industrial society via the service society to the information
and knowledge society is represented by the assessment of information as a factor in
production. The following characteristics distinguish information from material
goods:

• Representation: Information is specified by data (signs, signals, messages, or

language elements).
• Processing: Information can be transmitted, stored, categorized, found, or
converted into other representation formats using algorithms and data structures
(calculation rules).
• Combination: Information can be freely combined. The origin of individual parts
cannot be traced. Manipulation is possible at any point.
• Age: Information is not subject to physical aging processes.
• Original: Information can be copied without limit and does not distinguish
between original and copy.
• Vagueness: Information can be imprecise and of differing validity (quality).
• Medium: Information does not require a fixed medium and is therefore indepen-
dent of location.

These properties clearly show that digital goods (information, software, multime-
dia, etc.), i.e., data, are vastly different from material goods in both handling and
economic or legal evaluation. A good example is the loss in value that physical
products often experience when they are used—the shared use of information, on the
other hand, may increase its value. Another difference lies in the potentially high
production costs for material goods, while information can be multiplied easily and
at significantly lower costs (only computing power and storage medium). This
causes difficulties in determining property rights and ownership, even though digital
watermarks and other privacy and security measures are available.

# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

M. Kaufmann, A. Meier, SQL and NoSQL Databases,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27908-9_1
2 1 Database Management

Information System

Communication
Database System Application Software network
or WWW

User
 User guidance
Database  Dialog design Request
Management
 Business logic
 Data querying Response
 Data manipulation
Database  Access permissions
Storage  Data protection

Fig. 1.1 Architecture and components of information systems

Considering data as the basis of information as a production factor in a company

has significant consequences:

• Basis for decision-making: Data allows well-informed decisions, making it vital

for all organizational functions.
• Quality level: Data can be available from different sources; information quality
depends on the availability, correctness, and completeness of the data.
• Need for investments: Data gathering, storage, and processing cause work and
expenses.
• Degree of integration: Fields and holders of duties within any organization are
connected by informational relations, meaning that the fulfillment of the said
duties largely depends on the degree of data integration.

Once data is viewed as a factor in production, it must be planned, governed,

monitored, and controlled. This makes it necessary to see data management as a task
for the executive level, inducing a major change within the company. In addition to
the technical function of operating the information and communication infrastructure
(production), planning and design of data flows (application portfolio) is crucial.
As shown in Fig. 1.1, an information system enables users to store and connect
information interactively, to ask questions, and to get answers. Depending on the
type of information system, the acceptable questions may be limited. There are,
however, open information systems and online platforms in the World Wide Web
that use search engines to process arbitrary queries.
The computer-based information system in Fig. 1.1 is connected to a communi-
cation network such as the World Wide Web in order to allow for online interaction
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Corinne; or,
Italy
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Corinne; or, Italy

Author: Madame de Staël

Translator: Isabel Hill

L. E. L.

Release date: May 16, 2016 [eBook #52077]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Dagny and Marc D'Hooghe (Images

generously made available by the Internet Archive.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CORINNE; OR,

ITALY ***
CORINNE;
OR,
 ITALY.
—"Udrallo il bel paese,
Ch' Apennin parte, e 'l mar circonda e l'Alpe."
PETRARCA.

BY
 MADAME DE STAËL
TRANSLATED BY ISABEL HILL;

WITH

METRICAL VERSIONS OF THE ODES BY L. E. LANDON

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,

(SUCCESSOR TO HENRY COLBURN).

1833

Contents
 Translator's Preface.

Whatever defects may exist in my attempt at rendering "Corinne"

into English, be it remembered, that we have many words for one
meaning—in French there are several significations for the same
word. Repetition, an elegance in French, is a barbarism in English.
Thus I had to contend with a tautology almost unmanageable, and
even a reiteration of the same sentiments. Sentences, harmonious in
French, lost all agreeable cadence, until entirely reconstructed.
Madame de Staël's diffuse manner obliged me also to transpose
pretty freely. I found, in so doing, many self-contradictions, some of
which I could not efface. Her boldness of condensation, too, and
love of vague, mysterious sublimity, often left me in doubt as to
what might be hidden beneath the dazzling veil of her eloquence. It
may appear profanation to have altered a syllable; but, having been
accustomed to consult the taste of my own country, I could not
outrage it by being more literal. I have taken the liberty of making
British peasants and children speak their native idiom, and have
added a few explanatory notes; occasionally availing myself of
quotations from more recent authorities than that of the Baroness.
Lest I should unconsciously have committed any great mistake, be it
known that the printers of her "eighth corrected and revised edition"
gave Corinne a military instead of a literary career, and made the
Roman mob throw handfuls of bon mots into the carriages during
the carnival.
Miss Landon had kindly undertaken to render the lyric portions of
the work; but we feared for awhile, that our own Improvisatrice
would be prevented by circumstances from gracing the volume by
her name. I, therefore, translated Corinne's compositions into
rhyme. Only one of my essays, however, "The Fragment of Corinne's
Thoughts," was required. I am conscious of its imperfect regularity;
but, having no poetical reputation at stake, I throw myself on the
mercy of my judges.
ISABEL HILL.
6, CECIL STREET, STRAND.

MADAME DE STAËL.

Madame de Staël—Her Infancy and Education—Her Marriage—Her

Personal Appearance—The Revolution—Her First Meeting and
Conversation with Bonaparte—Interview with Josephine—Her
Portrait and Character—Her Repartees—Exile—Delphine—Auguste de
Staël and Napoleon—Private Theatricals—Corinne—Police
Interference—Travels in Foreign Countries—Her Illness and Death—
Effect of Napoleon's Persecution upon the Literary Position of
Madame de Staël.

Jacques Necker, the father of Madame de Staël, a Genevese and a

Protestant, was at the birth of his daughter Annie-Louise-Germaine
Necker, in 1766, a clerk in a banking-house at Paris. He had married
M'lle Curchod, a Swiss like himself, and who had, some years before,
been the object of the first and last love of Gibbon the historian.
Madame Necker undertook the education of Louise, plied her with
books and tasks, and introduced her, even in infancy, to her own
circle of brilliant and accomplished men. "At the age of eleven,"
writes a lady who was at the time her companion, "she spoke with a
warmth and facility which were already eloquent. In society she
talked but little, but so animated was her face that she appeared to
converse with all. Every guest at her mother's house addressed her
with some compliment or polite speech; she replied with ease and
grace." She was encouraged to write, and her youthful productions
were read in public, and some of them were even printed. This
process of education, while it rendered the subject of it rather
brilliant than profound, and encouraged vanity and a love of display,
broke down her health, and the physicians ordered her to retire to
the country, and to renounce all mental application. Her mother,
disappointed and discouraged, ceased to take the same interest in
her talents and progress; this indifference led Louise to attach
herself more closely to her father, and developed in her what
became through life her ruling passion—filial affection.
In 1776, Necker, who had in the meantime become the partner of
his late employer, and had attracted attention by an essay on the
corn laws, was considered by the masses as the only person capable
of saving the country from bankruptcy. He was, therefore, appointed
to control the finances, being the first Protestant who had held office
since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. One of his acts, five
years afterward, having excited clamor among the royalists, an
anonymous pamphlet appeared, in which his defence was warmly
espoused and the propriety of his conduct successfully asserted.
Necker detected his daughter's style in this production, and she
acknowledged its authorship, being then fifteen years old. Necker
resigned office, and retreated with his family to Coppet, on the
borders of the Lake of Geneva.
Madame de Genlis saw M'lle Necker for the first time, when the
latter was sixteen. She thus speaks of her in her memoirs: "This
young lady was not pretty; her manner was very animated, and she
talked a great deal, too much indeed, though always with wit and
discernment. I remember that I read one of my juvenile plays to
Madame Necker, her daughter being present. I cannot describe the
enthusiasm and the demonstrations of M'lle Louise, while I was
reading. She wept, she uttered exclamations at every page, and
constantly kissed my hands. Her mother had done wrong in allowing
her to pass three-quarters of her time with the throng of wits who
continually surrounded her, and who held dissertations with her
upon love and the passions."[1]
At the age of twenty, Louise married Baron de Staël-Holstein, the
Swedish ambassador at the court of France. She sought neither a
lover nor a friend in her husband; she treated marriage as a
convenience, and became a wife in order to obtain that liberty and
independence which were denied her as a young lady. She required
that her husband should be noble and a Protestant, and as in
addition to these essentials Baron de Staël was an agreeable and an
honorable man, and engaged never to compel her to follow him to
Sweden, she consented to marry him. In the same year, 1786, a
failure of the crops, and the consequent distress of the poorer
classes, compelled the king to recall Necker to the administration of
the finances.
Madame de Staël is thus described, at the age of twenty-five, by a
writer who, to justify the peculiar and oriental extravagance of his
style, assumed the character of a Greek poet: "Zulmé advances; her
large dark eyes sparkle with genius; her hair, black as ebony, falls on
her shoulders in wavy ringlets; her features are more striking than
delicate, and express superiority to her sex. 'There she is,' all
exclaim when she appears, and at once become breathless. When
she sings, she extemporizes the words of her song, the ecstasy of
improvisation animates her face, and holds the audience in rapt
attention. When the song ceases, she talks of the great truths of
nature, the immortality of the soul, the love of liberty, of the
fascination and danger of the passions. Her features meanwhile
wear an expression superior to beauty; her physiognomy is full of
play and variety. When she ceases, a murmur of approbation thrills
through the room; she looks down modestly; her long lashes sink
over her flashing eyes, and the sun is clouded over."
The Revolution now advanced with rapid steps. Necker, whose
capabilities as a financier have been generally acknowledged, was
totally deficient in the higher qualities of the statesman. He sought
to assume a middle position between the court and the people, but
failing of success, was in consequence dismissed on the 11th of July,
1789. Paris rose in insurrection when this event became known, and
on the 14th, the Bastille was in the hands of the people. The king
was forced to send an order to recall Necker, who had left the
country; this overtook him at Frankfort. "What a period of
happiness," writes Madame de Staël, "was our journey back to Paris!
I do not believe that a similar ovation was ever extended to a man
not the sovereign of the country. Women, afar off in the fields, threw
themselves on their knees, as the carriage passed: the most
prominent citizens acted as postilions, and in many towns people
detached the horses and dragged the carriage themselves. Oh,
nothing can equal the emotions of a woman who hears the name of
a beloved parent repeated with eulogy by a whole people!" This
triumph was of short duration. In a little more than a year, Necker,
who had opposed some of the more radical measures of reform in
the National Assembly, lost the confidence of the people, resigned,
and again withdrew to Switzerland. He was now accompanied by the
revilings and maledictions of the populace, and even narrowly
escaped with his life.
Madame de Staël remained at Paris, and speedily became involved in
the intrigues of the day. Her salon was the rendezvous of the
royalists and Girondins, and the scene of ardent political discussions.
In the midst of the sanguinary excesses of '92, she fearlessly used
her influence to shelter and save her friends. She took them to her
own house, which, being the residence of an ambassador, she
presumed would be inviolable. But one night the police appeared at
the gate, and required that the doors be opened for a rigid search.
Madame de Staël met them at the threshold, spoke to them of the
rights of ambassadors and of the vengeance of Sweden, and by dint
of wit, argument and intrepidity, persuaded them to abandon their
designs. She was soon compelled to flee, however, and take refuge
with her father at Coppet. Here she wrote and published an appeal
in behalf of Marie Antoinette, and "Reflections on the Peace of
1783." The fall of Robespierre, in July, 1794, enabled her to return to
Paris, whither she hastened, upon the news of his execution.
Her residence in the capital formed an event in the annals of society
at that period. The most distinguished foreigners and the best men
in France flocked around her. She gave her influence to the
government of the Directory, being desirous of the establishment of
some guaranty for the preservation of order and of individual
security.
"Madame de Staël," says de Goncourt, "was a man of genius as
early as the year 1795. It was by her hand, that France signed a
treaty of alliance with existing institutions, and for a period accepted
the Directory. Who obtained her the victory? Herself, with the aid of
a friend who was the scribe of her dictation, the aid-de-camp and
the notary-public of her thought, Benjamin Constant. The daughter
of Necker forbade France to recall its line of kings: she retained the
republic: she condemned the throne. She agitated victoriously in
behalf of the maintenance of the representative system. The human
right of victory was equivalent, with her, to the divine right of birth."
[2]
The appearance of Bonaparte upon the stage of action produced a
violent change in her life, pursuits and pleasures. She disliked and
distrusted him from the first, and her drawing-room became an
opposition club, or, as Napoleon himself described it, an arsenal of
hostility. He, in turn, was vexed at her intellectual supremacy, and
dreaded her influence. They first met at a ball given to Josephine,
toward the close of the year 1797. She had long hunted him from
place to place, for she was desirous of subjecting him, if possible, to
the fascinations of her conversation, and he, avoiding the interview
with consummate address, had always escaped her importunities. At
the ball in question, he saw retreat to be impossible, and boldly
seated himself in a vacant chair by her side. The following
conversation, attributed to them, contains, in a concise form, the
best of the authenticated sallies and repartees perpetrated by the
illustrious interlocutors. After the usual preliminaries, the dialogue
proceeded thus:
MADAME DE STAËL. Madame Bonaparte is a charming lady.
BONAPARTE. Any compliment passing through your lips, madame,
acquires additional value.
ST.Ah! then you appreciate my opinion and my approbation? But
you have doubted my capacity, you have thought me frivolous;
nevertheless, my studies in diplomacy, in the history of courts——
BON. I implore Madame de Staël not to drag the Graces to the pillory
of politics.
ST. I assure you, General, that your mythological compliment is
totally lost upon me: I should prefer that you judge me worthy to
talk reason with you.
BON. The right of your sex is to make us lose our reason: do not
despise so excellent a privilege.
ST. General, I beg of you not to play with me as with a doll: I desire
to be treated as a man.
BON. Then you would like to have me put on petticoats.
ST.—TO A GENTLEMAN INTERRUPTING HER.—Sir, be good enough to
understand that I desire no assistance, though certainly my
adversary is sufficiently powerful to render assistance necessary.
BON. Madame, it was to my aid that he was coming; my danger
appalls him, and he was seeking to relieve me.
ST.In any case, I owe him small thanks for his tardy aid, since you
confess that my victory seemed certain. He is a true friend,
however; he stands by those he likes, even in their absence, when,
usually, friendship slumbers.
BON. In that, friendship imitates its cousin—love.
ST.—NERVING HERSELF FOR AN EFFORT.—By what means, General, can
an ordinary woman, without literary reputation, without superior
genius, be sustained in the affection of a man she loves when
separated from him by distance or a period of years? Memory,
reduced to recalling her charms only, becomes gradually dim, and at
last forgets, especially when the lover is a great man. But when the
latter has had the good fortune to meet with a strong-minded
woman, one worthy of sharing his laurels, and herself enjoying a
high reputation, then the distance of time and space disappears, for
it is the renown of both which serves as messenger between them,
and it is through the hundred mouths of fame that each receives
intelligence of the other.
BON. Madame, in what chapter of the work you are about to publish
shall we read this brilliant passage?
ST. It has been the constant illusion of my soul.
BON. Ah, I understand; it is your hobby, after the manner of Sterne.
So you are seeking the philosopher's stone?
ST. One would think, to hear you talk, that it is impossible to find it.
BON. There are two illusions in this world, though both flow from the
same error; that of physical and that of moral alchemy. This idealistic
philosophy leads to an abyss.
ST. One, nevertheless, which wit and sagacity may illumine with the
rays of genius to its inmost recesses. Do you never build castles in
the air, General? Do you never go and dwell in them? Do you never
dream, to charm away the monotony of life?
BON. I leave dreams to sleep, and retain reason for my waking
hours.
ST.Then you can never be either amused or surprised! You have a
scouting party stationed to watch that outpost, the imagination?
BON. Wisdom counsels me to do so, and makes it my duty.
ST.—AFTER A MOMENT'S REFLECTION.—General, who, in your opinion, is
the greatest of women?
BON. She who bears the most children.[3]
Madame de Staël turned slightly pale at this reply, and said no more.
The General rose, bowed, and quitted the room. Both carried away
from the interview the elements of mutual dislike and food for a life-
long hostility. "Doubtless," says Lacretelle, "this last question was
suggested by the vanity of the inquirer." And Bonaparte, eager to
deprive the lady of the tribute she expected in his reply, made
answer as we have described. "Certainly," adds Lacretelle, "it was
impossible to rebuff a courtesy with greater rudeness and less
discernment, for Madame de Staël was one of the powers of the
day."[4]
One evening, early in the Consulate, Josephine met Madame de
Staël at the house of Madame de Montesson. Bonaparte was to
come somewhat later. Josephine, knowing his aversion for her, or
fearing her seductions if she were successful in obtaining his
attention, received her, as she advanced, in a manner so markedly
cold, if not rude, that Madame de Staël recoiled without speaking,
and retreated to the extremity of the room, where she dropped into
a chair.
She remained for some time apart and alone. The pretty women
took a malicious pleasure in the mortification of one of their own
sex, while the gentlemen indulged in impertinent and unmanly
remarks. At this moment, a young girl of extreme beauty and light
airy step, with blond hair and blue eyes, and dressed entirely in
white, left the group that had collected in the vicinity of Josephine,
crossed the salon, and sat down by Madame de Staël. The latter,
whose heart was as quick as her wit was ready, said to her, "You are
as good as you are beautiful, my child."
"In what, pray, madame?" asked the young lady.
"In what?" returned Madame de Staël. "You ask me why I think you
as kind as you are fair? Because you crossed this immense and
deserted salon to come and sit by me. Upon my word, you are more
courageous than I should have been."
"And yet, madame, I am naturally so timid that I should not dare to
tell you my fears and trepidation: you would laugh at me, I am
sure."
"Laugh at you!" exclaimed Madame de Staël, with moistened eyes
and trembling voice; "laugh at you! never! never! I am your sister,
henceforth, my dear, dear young friend! Will you tell me your
Christian name?"
"Delphine, madame."
"Delphine! What a pretty name! I am very glad of it, for it will suit
my purpose exactly. You must know, love, that I am writing a novel;
and I mean it to bear your name. You shall be its god-mother; and
you will find something in it which will remind you of to-day and of
our acquaintance."
Madame de Staël kept her promise, and the passage in the novel of
Delphine, in which the heroine, abandoned, is under similar
circumstances relieved and sustained by Madame de R., was written
in commemoration of this little domestic scene.[5]
Bonaparte soon entered the room, and ignorant of the treatment
Madame de Staël had undergone from Josephine, accosted her
graciously, and indeed took evident pains to restrain, during their
conversation, his intuitive dislike of the petticoat politician.
Madame de Staël was now at the apogee of her talent and influence.
Her conversation was not what is usually understood by the term.
She did not require so much an interlocutor as a listener. Her
improvisations were long and sustained pleas, if her object was to
convince, or discursive though brilliant harangues, if she sought to
display her wealth of thought and of words. Those that were
accustomed to her ways rarely answered her, even if, in the heat of
argument, she addressed them a question; well aware that it was
rather to operate a diversion than to elicit a reply. She required the
excitement of an audience, and her eloquence became richer and
more rapid as the circle of her listeners widened. She preferred
contradiction and dissent to a blind acceptance of her opinions, and
the surest method of pleasing her was to adduce arguments that she
might refute them, and which might suggest in her mind new trains
of ideas. Controversy was her peculiar element, and she sometimes
resorted to the charlatanical process of advocating two opposite
opinions on the same occasion, in order to show the flexibility of her
mind and the pliancy of her logic. In the season of foliage, she
invariably carried in her hand a twig of poplar, which, when talking,
she would turn and twist between her fingers; the crackling of this,
she said, stimulated her brain. During the season when the poplar
produces no leaves, she substituted for the twig a piece of rolled
paper with which she was forced to be content, till the return of
verdure. In winter, her flatterers and admirers always had a supply
of these papers prepared, and presented her a quantity, on her
arrival at a fête or a conversazione, that she might select her sceptre
for the evening.[6] The famous twig of poplar is introduced in
Gérard's portrait of Madame de Staël.[7]
She was never handsome, and without the extraordinary depth and
brilliancy of her eyes, would have been a plain, if not an ugly
woman. Her nose and mouth were homely, and only redeemed by
her ever-varying expression. Her complexion was rough, her form
massive rather than graceful, and indicated indolence rather than
vivacity. Her hands were beautiful, and ill-natured people asserted
that the poplar twig was a mere pretext for keeping them constantly
in view. She dressed at all times without taste, and this defect
became more conspicuous as she advanced in years, for at the age
of forty-five she wore the colors and ornaments which would befit a
young lady of twenty. Her coiffure was usually a turban, though this
was not the prevailing fashion. Her partisans denied that there was
any exaggeration in her toilet, though they allowed that she sought
to be picturesque rather than fashionable.
Biography has preserved examples almost innumerable of the
readiness of her wit and the profundity of her observation. The love
of truth was one of her prominent characteristics. "I saw," she said
"that Bonaparte was declining, when he no longer sought for the
truth." She held long arguments on equality, and said on one
occasion, "I would not refuse the opinion of the lowest of my
domestics, if the slightest of my own impressions tended to justify
his." Her respect for justice and moderation was evinced in her reply
to the remark of a Bourbon after Napoleon's fall, to the effect that
Bonaparte had neither talent nor courage: "It is degrading France
and Europe too much, sir, to pretend that for fifteen years they have
been subject to a simpleton and a poltroon!" She despised
affectation, and said that she could not converse with an affected
man or woman on account of the constant interruptions of a tedious
third person—their unnatural and affected character. Of individuals
accustomed to exaggerate, she said: "To put 100 for 10, why, there's
no imagination in that." Her faith was sincere and unostentatious,
and she would remark, after listening to lofty metaphysical
discourses, "Well, I like the Lord's Prayer better than that." One of
her best replies was made to Canning, in the Tuileries, after the exile
of Napoleon: "Well, Madame de Staël, we have conquered you
French, you see!" "If you have, sir, it was because you had the
Russians and the whole continent on your side. Give us a tête-à-
tête, and you will see!"
Madame de Staël's conduct as a wife was not irreproachable.
Talleyrand was one of the first, though by no means the last, of her
lovers. It was after his rupture with Madame de Staël that he
entered upon his liaison with Madame Grandt, and it was this
circumstance that led Madame de Staël to ask him the most
unfortunate question of her life, for it gave him the opportunity of
making the most comprehensive reply of his: "If Madame Grandt
and I were to fall into the water, Talleyrand," she inquired, "which of
us would you save first?" "Oh, madame," returned the minister,
"YOU SWIM SO WELL!" She was revenged on him by drawing—
though not very delicately—his character as a diplomatist: "He is so
double-faced," she said, "that if you kick him behind, he will smile in
front."
Bonaparte, early in the Consulate, sought through his brother
Joseph, to attach Madame de Staël to his government; he might
have done so, had he cared to conciliate her by expressing, or even
feigning, deference to her talents and opinions. But he did not
pursue the negotiation, and she continued her political discussions at
her house, devoting her days to intrigues, and her evenings to
epigrams; until Bonaparte, whose patience was exhausted, and who
did not consider his power as yet fully established, directed his
minister of police to banish her from Paris. She was ordered not to
return within forty leagues of the city. He is said to have remarked,
"I leave the whole world open to Madame de Staël, except Paris;
that I reserve to myself." It was urged, too, that she had small
claims to consideration; she was, though born in France, hardly a
Frenchwoman, being the daughter of a Swiss and the wife of a
Swede.
During a period of years, Madame de Staël remained under the ban
of Bonaparte's displeasure, though, during a short interval, the
intercessions of her father obtained permission for her to inhabit the
capital. In 1803, she published her "Delphine," a work so immoral in
its tendency that it incurred the censure of the critics and the public,
and compelled the authoress to put forth a species of apology, which
in its turn was considered lame and inconclusive. The character of
Madame de Vernon, in "Delphine," was said to have been intended
for Talleyrand, clothed in female garb.
Unable to endure the deprivation of her Parisian friends, Madame de
Staël soon established herself at the distance of thirty miles from
Paris. Bonaparte was told that her residence was crowded with
visitors from the capital. "She affects," he said, "to speak neither of
public affairs nor of me; yet it invariably happens that every one
comes out of her house less attached to me than when he went in."
An order for her departure was soon served upon her, and she set
forth upon a pilgrimage through Germany.
In the last week of December, 1807, Napoleon, returning from Italy,
stopped at the post-house of Chambéry, in Sardinia, for a fresh relay
of horses. He was told that a young man of seventeen years, named
Auguste de Staël, desired to speak with him. "What have I to do
with these refugees of Geneva?" said Napoleon, tartly. He ordered
him to be admitted, however. "Where is your mother?" said
Napoleon, opening the conversation. "She is at Vienna, sire." "Ah,
she must be satisfied now; she will have fine opportunities for
learning German." "Sire, your majesty cannot suppose that my
mother can be satisfied anywhere, separated from her friends and
driven from her country. If your majesty would condescend to glance
at these private letters, written by my mother, you would see, sire,
what unhappiness her exile causes her." "Oh, pooh! that's the way
with your mother. I do not say she is a bad woman; but her mind is
insubordinate and rebellious. She was brought up in the chaos of a
falling monarchy, and of a revolution running riot, and it has turned
her head. If I were to allow her to return, six months would not pass
before I should be obliged to shut her up in Bedlam, or put her
under lock and key at the Temple. I should be sorry to do it, for it
would make scandal, and injure me in public opinion. Tell your
mother my mind is made up. As long as I live, she shall not again
set foot in Paris."
"Sire, I am so sure that my mother would conduct herself with
propriety that I pray you to grant her a trial, if it be only for six