Stendhal
Full Name: Stendhal
Nickname/Alias: born Marie-Henri Beyle
Achievements: Novels, travel books and journalism.
Born: January 23, 1783; Grenoble, France
Died: March 23, 1842; Paris, France (Aged 59)
Field & Discipline: Literature; Writer
Language: French
Father: Cherubin-Joseph Beyle
Mother: Henriette Gagnon
Siblings: Pauline; Zenaide-Caroline
Spouse: None
Children: None
Education: Private tutors; Central School, Grenoble
Major Work:
"The Black and the Red" (1830)
"The Charterhouse of Parma" (1839)
Life & Times:
Henri left for Paris in November 1799, arriving the day after Napoleon became Chief of State. During the first few weeks, Henri fell ill with severe influenza and was rescued by his grandfather's aristocratic cousins, the Daru family.
Following his recovery, Pierre Daru employed him as a clerk at the Ministry of War in Paris for three months. In May 1800, he left for Italy and joined the army.
In 1802, he was living in Paris again and was planning to become a playwright, having resigned his commission in the army. He read widely, socialized, met actors and actresses and worked at losing his Grenoble accent.
He enrolled for acting classes in 1804, when he met Melanie Guilbert, an actress with whom he immediately fell in love. When she left to take up an engagement in Marseilles in 1805, he followed her and took a job as a clerk. In 1806, he was rescued from the affair by Pierre Daru, now a Count and Intendant-General in Napoleon's army. Pierre wangled him the post of provisional deputy to the Commissariat of War in Brunswick.
Henri applied himself to his work as an administrator and was promoted to deputy in 1807, then made Intendant of the Emperor's domains in Ocker, Germany in 1808. One of the towns in the region was called Stendal, from which Henri took his pen-name in later life. He spent his spare time hunting and shooting and reading, engaging an English tutor so that he could read Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding's novel "Tom Jones" in their original language.
In 1811, he took leave and returned to Italy, annoying his cousin by spending his time with his mistress in Milan instead of paying a protocol visit to the chief of police in Rome. In 1812, after Bonaparte had invaded Russia in June, Henri asked for an assignment as courier to the eastern front.
He arrived back in Paris in January 1813 and published his first book in 1814, "Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio", a work that relied heavily on a book he had picked up during his visit to Milan. Henri decided to settle in Milan, where his life revolved round the opera house, La Scala, which he attended with friends most nights. There, in 1816, he met the English poet [a fan of] Byron,* whom he considered to be the greatest living poet.
He published his second book, "History of Painting in Italy" in 1817 and in the same year, he published a travel book, entitled "Rome, Naples and Florence.", his first book under the pen-name of Stendhal.
It may be that the name was designed to protect him from the Austrian authorities in Italy, since the book expressed his admiration of Bonaparte, and his dislike of the Austrians who were then occupying much of Italy. This book is the first in which Stendhal's distinctive style appears: intelligent, with a dry wit, good narrative pace and showing penetrating insights on human psychology and manners.
In 1818, he met liberal Metilde Dembowski, fell in love with her, and was inspired to write "On Love" (1820). This unrequited love was causing him great suffering so he decided to leave Italy. He lived in Paris from 1821 to 1830, a popular guest in the literary salons and involved in many love affairs.
In 1822, "On Love" was finally published and the novelist [influenced] Balzac*, influenced by it, incorporated parts of the book into his own writings on marriage. Stendhal published a life of Rossini in 1823, and in the same year published "Racine and Shakespeare", establishing himself in the forefront of the struggle between the neo-classical adherents to the French Academy and the modern Romantics.
His first masterpiece, the novel "The Red and the Black", was published in 1830. The action took place in modern France after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. It was the story of a young peasant, Julian Sorel, who calculates that the Church (the Black) will offer a better chance of advancement than the Army (the Red) and decides to use seduction as a means of gaining his objectives.
The observations of contemporary manners and the psychology of his characters made Stendhal the forerunner of the naturalist movement in literature. The book later became a favourite of [a fan was] Taine*, the French thinker and writer.
In 1830 Stendhal returned to Italy as French consul in the port of Civitavecchia, a pst he was relegated to thanks to opposition from the Austrian Chancellor Prince [his career was blocked by]Metternich*. During this time, he frequently went to Rome where he began a number of works, later published posthumously: "Memoirs of an Egoist" is an autobiographical fragment, superseded by the more unconventional autobiography, "The Life of Henri Brulard," and the novel "Lucien Leuwen," which chronicled life after the July revolution of 1830. These projects are considered to be among his best writing.
During an extended leave in Paris, from 1836 to 1839, he completed another travel book, "Memories of a Tourist" and wrote what is regarded as his second great work, the novel "The Charterhouse of Parma". This novel, inspired by the story of the Farnese family in Renaissance Italy, is set in the nineteenth century and enabled Stendhal to analyse contemporary society. Balzac acclaimed it as a masterpiece.
By 1840, Stendhal's health was failing. He began another novel, "Lamiel" which remained unfinished and in 1842, he died while on leave in Paris.
Assessment: In his lifetime he was known more for his political and travel writings. Today, he is seen as one of the great French novelists of the nineteenth century.
Oneliner: Stendhal, major French novelist
Bibliography:
- Alter, Robert, Stendhal, A Biography, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1980.