Stendhal

Stendhal was the pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle, a French novelist born in Grenoble in 1783. He worked in administrative and military roles during the Napoleonic era, travelling through Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia and accompanying Napoleon’s army during the disastrous campaign of 1812. These experiences shaped his interest in ambition, political upheaval, social advancement and the conflict between private desire and public convention. His writing is known for its psychological precision, ironic tone and unsentimental treatment of love, vanity and self-deception.

His best-known novels are The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma. The Red and the Black follows Julien Sorel, a talented young man of modest birth who attempts to rise through the rigid society of Bourbon Restoration France. The Charterhouse of Parma is more directly historical, placing the young Italian nobleman Fabrice del Dongo amid the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Waterloo and the political intrigues of post-Napoleonic Italy. Although Stendhal is not usually classified solely as a historical novelist, both books recreate periods of rapid political and social change through characters whose personal ambitions are shaped by the aftermath of revolution and empire.