Author: Stendhal

Stendhal, born Henri Marie Beyle in Grenoble in 1783, turned experience of Napoleonic Europe and a lasting attachment to Italy into sharply observed fiction. He followed military campaigns as a government official, later served as French consul at Civitavecchia, and defended Romantic literature in essays as well as novels. The Red and the Black A Chronicle traces the ambitions of Julien Sorel through class, politics, and private calculation in Restoration France. The Charterhouse of Parma follows Fabrice del Dongo from youthful enthusiasm for Napoleon into the intrigues of the Parmese court. The Chartreuse of Parma is an alternative English title for that same 1839 French novel, La Chartreuse de Parme, rather than a different work. Across these books, Stendhal joins quick narrative movement to close attention to motive, vanity, love, and self-deception. His reputation grew substantially after his death in Paris in 1842.