The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate and describe the literary life of Madame de Staël, during the period of the French Revolution and the time shortly after. My intention is to do research on her impact and influence. I also want to examine her effect on Swedish literary society, with special references to Swedish authors. The method used is a qualitative one, where I have studied nonfiction and fiction connected with the field, for example Mme de Staëls own writings, which I make use of to illustrate the phenomena. During this period the society was dominated by patriarchical values and patterns of life. This was challenged by Mme de Staël and other female writers which occur in this study, who struggled for emancipation and better circumstances for women. Thus I considered it fruitful to apply a perspective strongly influenced by feminist and gender theory. The results of the study show that Mme de Staël, despite womens subordinated situation, had an influential role in European society; through her literature, but also through her well-known salon and concern for political affairs. The study also shows, that Swedish literary society was affected by her activity, as were female authors in their future production and work for womens liberation.