Why was Hippolyte Taine among the first critics to admire Stendhal’s psychological insight?

Hippolyte Taine was among the first critics to admire Stendhal’s psychological insight because Taine’s own critical methodology was deeply rooted in positivism and the application of scientific methods to the study of the humanities.1

Taine sought to understand an author's work by analyzing their psychology, which he believed was determined by specific conditioning factors: la race (inherited personality), le milieu (social, political, and geographical background), and le moment (the historical situation). Because Stendhal’s novels—such as The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma—featured complex characters who were not defined by fixed traits but were instead depicted in a process of becoming, they aligned with Taine’s interest in the physiological and psychological determinants of human behavior.12

Taine’s appreciation for Stendhal, expressed in his Nouveaux essais de critique et d’histoire (1865), reflected his broader belief that literature should contribute to a scientific understanding of human nature.1