On Love

by Stendhal

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 236

Read online EPUB Download Save

About this book

Love becomes a subject for close observation in Stendhal's essay, which links private feeling with education, freedom and social custom. The translators' introduction presents his ideal as a shared life between two free people, sustained by intellectual sympathy. It also explains his defence of women's education and the plain, sometimes abrupt manner of his argument. Philip Sidney Woolf and Cecil N. Sidney Woolf provide the English translation, introduction and notes.

Stendhal tests his ideas through comparisons between countries. In his discussion of England, France and Italy, manners, fashion, pride and money all enter the account of how people behave toward those they love. His national judgments are sweeping and personal, giving the essay a disputing voice alongside its analytical purpose. Readers interested in the history of relationships will find a study of the pressures that social expectations place upon affection.

About the 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.