Stendhal

Stendhal (born January 23, 1783, Grenoble, France—died March 23, 1842, Paris) was one of the most original and complex French writers of the first half of the 19th century, chiefly known for his works of fiction. His finest novels are Le Rouge et le noir (1830; The Red and the Black) and La Chartreuse de Parme (1839; The Charterhouse of Parma).

Life

Stendhal is only one of the many pseudonyms Henri Beyle adopted. His father, Chérubin Beyle, was a barrister in Grenoble’s high court of justice. Henri’s mother died when he was seven, and this loss, which he felt keenly, increased his sense of solitude and his resentment toward his father. But, though he tended throughout his life to stress the dreary and oppressive atmosphere of his home after his mother’s death, there is no reason to believe that he was deprived of affection. As a student he grew interested in literature and mathematics. In 1799 he left for Paris, ostensibly to prepare for the entrance examination to the École Polytechnique, but in reality to escape from Grenoble and from paternal rule.

His secret ambition on arriving in Paris was to become a successful playwright. But some highly placed relatives of his, the Darus, obtained an appointment for him as second lieutenant in the French military forces stationed in Italy. This led him to discover Piedmont, Lombardy, and the delights of Milan. The culture and landscape of Italy were the revelation that was to play a psychologically and thematically determining role in his life and works.

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In 1802 the 19-year-old Henri Beyle was back in Paris and at work on a number of literary projects, none of which he completed. He dreamed of becoming a modern Molière, enrolled in drama classes, worked at ridding himself of his provincial accent, and fell in love with a second-rate actress (Mélanie Louason), whom he followed to Marseille. By then he was keeping a diary (posthumously published as his Journal) and writing other texts dealing with his intimate thoughts.

The year 1806 proved to be a turning point. Count Pierre Daru, having been appointed intendant-general of Napoleon’s army, had his young protégé sent as an adjunct military commissary to the German city of Brunswick. This was the beginning of an administrative career in the French army that allowed Henri Beyle to discover parts of Germany and Austria. His army appointment gave him a direct experience of the Napoleonic regime and of Europe at war. He watched Moscow go up in flames, took part in the French forces’ retreat from Russia, and helped organize the military defense of the province of Dauphiné back in France. In 1814, when the French empire fell, he decided to settle in Italy.

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From the moment he took up residence in Milan, his literary vocation became irreversible. He became friends with Milanese liberals and Carbonari patriots, discovered the Edinburgh Review, studied music and the visual arts, and published his first books: Vies de Haydn, de Mozart et de Métastase (1814; Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio) and Histoire de la peinture en Italie (1817; “History of Painting in Italy”). In these early works Henri Beyle was not always above plagiarism, which was seasoned, however, with brilliant and original insights. His travel book Rome, Naples et Florence en 1817 also appeared (a later version was published in 1826), and this was the first time he used the pseudonym of Stendhal. Stendhal’s stay in Milan ended in deep emotional disappointment: Métilde Dembowski, the woman whose memory was to haunt him for the rest of his life, rejected him as a lover. His political friendships had meanwhile compromised him in the eyes of the Austrian occupying authorities, which finally led him to leave Milan in 1821.

From 1821 to 1830, Stendhal’s social and intellectual life in Paris was very active. He made a name for himself in the salons as a conversationalist and polemicist. His wit and unconventional views were much appreciated, and he had notable friendships and love affairs. In 1822 he published De l’amour (On Love), which claims to study the operations of love dispassionately and objectively, but which can be read as a hidden confession of Stendhal’s emotional experiences and longings. His Racine et Shakespeare (1823, 1825) was one of the first Romantic manifestos to appear in France. In it Stendhal developed the central idea that each historical period has been “romantic” in its own time, that Romanticism is a vital aspect of every cultural period. Stendhal’s literary production during this period was quite varied. In addition to his regular contributions to English journals, he published Vie de Rossini (1823; Life of Rossini); his first novel, Armance (1827); and the travel book Promenades dans Rome (1829). During this period he also wrote one of his two masterpieces, the novel Le Rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black), which appeared in 1830.

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The year 1830, during which the July Revolution brought the constitutional monarch Louis-Philippe to the throne in France, marked a new turning point in Stendhal’s life. He was appointed French consul in the port of Civitavecchia in the Papal States. In this small town, where he felt bored and isolated, Stendhal was occupied by endless administrative chores and found it difficult to write in a sustained manner. He sought distractions in nearby Rome, absenting himself frequently from his official duties. Lonely, aware of age and of failing health, he felt increasingly drawn to autobiography and began Souvenirs d’égotisme (1892; Memoirs of an Egotist) and Vie de Henri Brulard (1890; The Life of Henry Brulard), as well as a new and largely autobiographical novel entitled Lucien Leuwen (1894). All these works remained uncompleted, though they were published posthumously, and are now considered among Stendhal’s finest writings.

During his consulate, Stendhal discovered in Rome unpublished accounts of crimes of passion and grim executions set in the Renaissance. They became the inspiration for stories he later published under the title of Chroniques italiennes (“Italian Chronicles”). But it was only in Paris, where he took up residence again during a prolonged leave (1836–1839), that Stendhal could undertake new major literary work. He composed Mémoires d’un touriste; his second masterpiece, the novel La Chartreuse de Parme (1839; The Charterhouse of Parma); and began work on a new novel, Lamiel (1889), which he did not live long enough to complete. He died in 1842 after suffering a stroke while again on leave in Paris.