Season One: On beauty

What might it mean to speak not of a beautiful body, but of the beauty of bodily form? This is the question that Diotima’s second step asks us to answer. And to do so, Dalia and Simon discuss a novel that - as Simon sees it - is one of the best novels he’d ever read. But until this episode, he’d never heard of it.

Germaine de Staël’s Corinne, or Italy, published in 1807, was a best-seller in its time. It takes on big philosophical questions concerning love, truth, and goodness - but also beauty and its many forms. Corinne takes Oswald (her love interest) on a tour of Italy - and it is a tour of beauty. A gifted improvisational poet, Corinne also challenges the stifling forms that her life and art are forced into, while also finding new ways to express and live in beauty. 

You’re going to want to read this novel. Look for: The Oxford World’s Classics edition of de Staël’s, Corinne, or Italy.