Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle, known by his pen name Stendhal, was a French writer. He was born on January 23, 1783, and died on March 23, 1842. He is best known for two novels: Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) from 1830 and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) from 1839. His books are famous for showing characters' feelings and thoughts clearly. This made him one of the first writers to use a style called realism.

Stendhal also wrote a book called De l'amour (On Love). In it, he talked about strong feelings between people. He introduced an idea called "crystallization," which explains how someone can start to love another person deeply. This book didn’t get much attention at first, but it is now praised as an early and smart look at love.

Because of his deep understanding of people, Stendhal is often seen as a great thinker about human behavior.

Life

Marie-Henri Beyle, called Stendhal, was born on 23 January 1783 in Grenoble, France. He grew up in a comfortable family and was close to his sister Pauline. As a young man, he served in Napoleon’s army and traveled to many places, including Germany and Russia. He later lived in Italy, where he felt happy and inspired.

Stendhal wrote famous novels like The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma. He was good at describing people’s feelings and thoughts. He kept writing until he passed away on 23 March 1842 in Paris.

Pseudonyms

Before he became Stendhal, the writer used many pen names, like "Louis Alexandre Bombet" and "Anastasius Serpière". The only book he used his real name for was The History of Painting in 1817. After this, he started using "M. de Stendhal, officier de cavalerie", a name he took from the German city of Stendal. This city helped travelers move between Berlin and Hanover and was where the famous art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann was born.

Stendhal used many names in his letters and sometimes gave funny or odd names to his friends. He liked using different identities and once said that changing who he was made him very happy.

Works

Stendhal's writing became more famous later. He wrote about characters' feelings and used realism in his stories.

His most famous books are Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) from 1830 and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) from 1839. He also wrote many other novels, short stories, and books about music and travel. Stendhal loved the works of famous composers like Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and he wrote about the composer Gioacchino Rossini.

Novels

• Armance (1827)
• Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830)
• Lucien Leuwen (1835, unfinished, published 1894)
• The Pink and the Green (1837, unfinished)
• La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma)
• Lamiel (1839–1842, unfinished, published 1889)

Novellas

• Vanina Vanini (1829)
• Mina de Vanghel (1830, later published in the Paris periodical La Revue des Deux Mondes)
• Italian Chroniques, 1837–1839
  • Vittoria Accoramboni
  • The Cenci (Les Cenci, 1837)
  • The Duchess of Palliano (La Duchesse de Palliano)
  • The Abbess of Castro (L'Abbesse de Castro, 1832)

Biography

• A Life of Napoleon (1817–1818, published 1929)
• A Life of Rossini (1824)

Autobiography

Stendhal wrote a short memoir called Souvenirs d'Égotisme (Memoirs of an Egotist) after his death in 1892. He also wrote a longer work called the Life of Henry Brulard.

• The Life of Henry Brulard (1835–1836, published 1890)
• Souvenirs d'égotisme (written in 1832 and published in 1892)
• Journal (1801–1817) (The Private Diaries of Stendhal)

Non-fiction

• Rome, Naples et Florence (1817)
• De l'amour (1822)
• Racine et Shakespéare (1823–1825) (Racine and Shakespeare)
• Voyage dans le midi de la France (1838; though first published after his death in 1930) (Travels in the South of France)

His other works include short stories, journalism, travel books (A Roman Journal), essays on Italian painting, and biographies of important people, including Napoleon, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini and Metastasio.

Crystallization

Main article: Crystallization (love)

In his book De l'amour from 1822, Stendhal wrote about how love begins. He used a trip from the city of Bologna to Rome as an example. In Bologna, people do not feel special feelings for someone they might later love. But when they start the journey to Rome, feelings start to grow naturally.

Stendhal described this growth in four simple steps: First, you notice and admire the qualities of the person you like. Next, you feel happy that they seem to like you back. Then, you hope to win their love. Finally, you find joy in thinking they are even more wonderful than they really are. He shared these ideas while visiting the Salzburg salt mine.

Critical appraisal

Many famous writers liked Stendhal's work. Hippolyte Taine and Émile Zola liked how Stendhal described his characters in a real and detailed way. Friedrich Nietzsche called Stendhal "France's last great psychologist."

Ford Madox Ford said Stendhal helped make novels more serious. Erich Auerbach thought Stendhal and Balzac started modern realism in stories. He felt Stendhal's books showed real life in France.

Simone de Beauvoir liked that Stendhal gave women their own stories. But she noticed he still saw women mostly in relation to men.

Other writers had mixed opinions. Vladimir Nabokov did not like Stendhal much. But Michael Dirda admired Stendhal's novels and writing.

Stendhal syndrome

When the writer Stendhal visited Florence in 1817, he felt very overwhelmed by all the beautiful art and history there. He wrote about feeling his heart race and being afraid he might fall over.

Later, in 1979, a psychiatrist named Graziella Magherini noticed that some people visiting Florence for the first time felt similar ways—their hearts raced, they felt sick, or their heads spun. She named this feeling after Stendhal.

To honor him, a train company in Italy called Trenitalia named their night train from Paris to Venice the Stendhal Express.