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What four kinds of love did Stendhal describe in On Love?
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Stendhal
Stendhal, oil painting by Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy; in the Bibliothèque Municipale de Grenoble, France.
In his 1822 philosophical discourse On Love, the French author Stendhal categorized love into four distinct types:1
- Physical love: A form of love that is purely sexual in scope.1
- Love as a social game: A type of love that is removed from genuine passion.1
- Vanity love: A form of love considered necessary for maintaining high social standing.1
- Passion: Described by Stendhal as the finest form of love, this is the type he idealized and focused on throughout the majority of his work.1