Stendhal
Titles in the series Critical Lives present the work of leading cultural figures of the modern period. Each book explores the life of the artist, writer, philosopher or architect in question and relates it to their major works.
In the same series
Antonin Artaud David A. Shafer
Roland Barthes Andy Stafford
Georges Bataille Stuart Kendall
Charles Baudelaire Rosemary Lloyd
Simone de Beauvoir Ursula Tidd
Samuel Beckett Andrew Gibson
Walter Benjamin Esther Leslie
John Berger Andy Merrifield
Leonard Bernstein Paul R. Laird
Joseph Beuys Claudia Mesch
Jorge Luis Borges Jason Wilson
Constantin Brancusi Sanda Miller
Bertolt Brecht Philip Glahn
Charles Bukowski David Stephen Calonne
Mikhail Bulgakov J.A.E. Curtis
William S. Burroughs Phil Baker
John Cage Rob Haskins
Albert Camus Edward J. Hughes
Fidel Castro Nick Caistor
Paul Czanne Jon Kear
Coco Chanel Linda Simon
Noam Chomsky Wolfgang B. Sperlich
Jean Cocteau James S. Williams
Salvador Dal Mary Ann Caws
Guy Debord Andy Merrifield
Claude Debussy David J. Code
Gilles Deleuze Frida Beckman
Fyodor Dostoevsky Robert Bird
Marcel Duchamp Caroline Cros
Sergei Eisenstein Mike OMahony
William Faulkner Kirk Curnutt
Gustave Flaubert Anne Green
Michel Foucault David Macey
Mahatma Gandhi Douglas Allen
Jean Genet Stephen Barber
Allen Ginsberg Steve Finbow
Gnter Grass Julian Preece
Ernest Hemingway Verna Kale
Victor Hugo Bradley Stephens
Derek Jarman Michael Charlesworth
Alfred Jarry Jill Fell
James Joyce Andrew Gibson
Carl Jung Paul Bishop
Franz Kafka Sander L. Gilman
Frida Kahlo Gannit Ankori
Sren Kierkegaard Alastair Hannay
Yves Klein Nuit Banai
Arthur Koestler Edward Saunders
Akira Kurosawa Peter Wild
Lenin Lars T. Lih
Pierre Loti Richard M. Berrong
Jean-Franois Lyotard Kiff Bamford
Ren Magritte Patricia Allmer
Stphane Mallarm Roger Pearson
Thomas Mann Herbert Lehnert and Eva Wessell
Gabriel Garca Mrquez Stephen M. Hart
Karl Marx Paul Thomas
Herman Melville Kevin J. Hayes
Henry Miller David Stephen Calonne
Yukio Mishima Damian Flanagan
Eadweard Muybridge Marta Braun
Vladimir Nabokov Barbara Wyllie
Pablo Neruda Dominic Moran
Georgia OKeeffe Nancy J. Scott
Octavio Paz Nick Caistor
Pablo Picasso Mary Ann Caws
Edgar Allan Poe Kevin J. Hayes
Ezra Pound Alec Marsh
Marcel Proust Adam Watt
Arthur Rimbaud Seth Whidden
John Ruskin Andrew Ballantyne
Jean-Paul Sartre Andrew Leak
Erik Satie Mary E. Davis
Arnold Schoenberg Mark Berry
Arthur Schopenhauer Peter B. Lewis
Dmitry Shostakovich Pauline Fairclough
Adam Smith Jonathan Conlin
Susan Sontag Jerome Boyd Maunsell
Gertrude Stein Lucy Daniel
Stendhal Francesco Manzini
Igor Stravinsky Jonathan Cross
Rabindranath Tagore Bashabi Fraser
Pyotr Tchaikovsky Philip Ross Bullock
Leon Trotsky Paul Le Blanc
Mark Twain Kevin J. Hayes
Richard Wagner Raymond Furness
Alfred Russel Wallace Patrick Armstrong
Simone Weil Palle Yourgrau
Tennessee Williams Paul Ibell
Ludwig Wittgenstein Edward Kanterian
Virginia Woolf Ira Nadel
Frank Lloyd Wright Robert McCarter
Stendhal
Francesco Manzini
REAKTION BOOKS
For Thomas
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
4448 Wharf Road
London N1 7UX, UK
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2019
Copyright Francesco Manzini 2019
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers
Page references in the Photo Acknowledgements match the printed edition of this book.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain, Glasgow
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
eISBN 9781789141856
Contents
Abbreviations
AM | Stendhal, Lme et la Musique, ed. Suzel Esquier (Paris, 1999) |
CG | Stendhal, Correspondence gnrale, ed. Victor Del Litto et al., 6 vols (Paris, 19979) |
DA | Stendhal, De lAmour, ed. Xavier Bourdenet (Paris, 2014) |
HB | Mrime, H. B., in Carmen et treize autres nouvelles, ed. Pierre Josserand (Paris, 1965) |
HPI | Stendhal, Histoire de la peinture en Italie, ed. Victor Del Litto (Paris, 1996) |
N | Stendhal, Napolon, ed. Catherine Mariette (Paris, 1998) |
OI | Stendhal, Oeuvres intimes, ed. Victor Del Litto, 2 vols (Paris, 19812) |
ORC | Stendhal, Oeuvres romanesques compltes, ed. Yves Ansel et al., 3 vols (Paris, 200513) |
S | Stendhal, Salons, ed. Stphane Gugan and Martine Reid (Paris, 2002) |
VF | Stendhal, Voyages en France, ed. Victor Del Litto (Paris, 1992) |
VI | Stendhal, Voyages en Italie, ed. Victor Del Litto (Paris, 1973) |
All translations from the French are my own. Where Stendhal writes in Franglais, as he often does at moments of high emotion, I have preserved his English in italics, sometimes alongside a few words of French, in order the better to convey the oddity of the original.
Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy (17891874), Stendhal, 1839, oil painting.
Introduction: Readers
Henri Beyle, more commonly referred to as Stendhal (17831842), inspires a great deal of loyalty in his readers, in part because he is such wonderful company, in part also because he flatters us. We are forever being made to feel as though he is offering us his friendship and his esteem, so we tend to read his work not as the strangers from another time we in fact are, but as co-opted members of what feels like an exclusive club: the closed circle of initiates referred to by Stendhal as the happy few, after a joke in Oliver Goldsmiths The Vicar of Wakefield, in its turn a reference to Shakespeares Henry V. Certainly, whenever I meet a fellow Stendhalian, I immediately feel a kinship: we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, and sisters.
It seems revealing that the first major academic journal dedicated to the study of Stendhals work should have been given the title