One of the most original French writers of the first half of the 19th century. Stendhal is best known for his masterpieces LE ROUGE ET LE NOIR (1830) and LA CHARTREUSE DE PARME (1839), sharp and passionate political chronicles of the intellectual and moral climate of France after Napoleons defeat. Stendhal also wrote travel books, literature and art critics and biographies about such composers as W.A. Mozart and Joseph Haydn. He played a major role in the development of the modern novel. Stendhal's subjects are often melodramatic, but his treatment of them is realistic and psychologically deep.

"A novel is a mirror that strolls along a highway. Now it reflects the blue of the skies, now the mud puddles underfoot."
(from Le Rouge et le Noir)

Stendahl was born in Grenoble. His father was a well-to-do lawyer and landowner. Stendhal's mother died when he was a child. At the age of 16 Stendhal moved to Paris to study and became a playwright. On May 1800 he joined the French Army, under the command of Napoleon, and served as a lieutenant of the dragoons for some 18 months. Stendhal fought in Italy, Germany, and Russia. After resigning he had a post in a civil and military administration. When the French empire fell in 1814, Stendhal was placed on half-pay. For years he applied for a new positions but could not even find employment as a low-paid librarian. Perhaps unsurprisingly Stendahl decided to settle in Italy. His travel book, ROME, NAPLES ET FLORENCE EN 1817, appeared in 1817 and was the first publication for which he used the pen name Stendahl.

In 1821 Stendhal settled in Paris and made a name for himself in the salons. In 1822 he published DE L'AMOUR (On Love) and the following year he wrote a Romantic manifesto RACINE ET SHAKESPEARE (1823, 1825). THE RED AND BLACK, was published when the author was 47. It skilfully weaves the political and social conditions of France during the period 1815-30 in the story of Julien Sorel. As often is the case in Stendhal's novels, the hero is in search of himself. Julien is a carpenter's son, who can memorize everything and anything. He tries to achieve greatness and his place in the world through the force of his will, using seduction as a tool for social climbing. He shoots his first employer, the only woman he loves, Mme de Rênal after she comes between his projected marriage to the aristocratic Mathilde de la Mole. Finally he sees through the falseness of his own mythology and the values of society in his speech to his judges: "Gentlemen, I have not the honour to belong to your social class. You see in me a peasant in revolt against the baseness of his fate... I see men who would like in my person to punish and dishearten for ever that class of young people who, born in a lowly and poverty-stricken class, had the chance to educate themselves and the courage to associate with those circles which arrogance of the rich calls society..." The title of the book refers to Juliens character and choices of career: the army, symbolized by the colour red, and the church, symbolized by the colour black.

After the 1830 revolution King Louis-Philippe came to power. Stendahl was appointed consul at Trieste and in the small port of Civitavecchia in the Papal States. There he wrote SOUVENIRES D'ÉGOTISME (Memoirs of an Egoist), in which he depicts the salons, theatres, and museums of Paris, the self-searching VIE DE HENRY BRULARD (The Life of Henry Brulard), and LUCIEN LEUWEN, which reveals the corruption under Louis-Philippe - all unfinished works and published posthumously.

"Love has always been the most important business in my life, I should say the only one."
(from La Vie d'Henry Brulard)

Stendhal's political views are full of contradictions: his lack of success kept alive his hostility towards the prevailing order but as soon as his personal circumstances improved, he became a moderate conservative. During a prolonged leave in Paris from 1836 to 1839 Stendahl composed his second masterpiece LA CHARTREUSE DE PARME, a chronicle of the adventures of Fabrizio del Dongo and his search for himself. The book opens joyfully but turns into a tragedy. Fabrizio is loved by his aunt-by marriage, Gina Pietranera, the Duchess Sanseverina, but he is in love with Clélia. And there is the Machiavellian Mosca, who loves Gina. Clélia's son by Fabrizio dies, the grieving mother also expires. The reader discovers the Charterhouse of the title in the novel's final pages, Fabrizio dies there, and Gina, who has married Mosca, dies unhappy without Fabrizio.

The Charterhouse of Parma was published to Balzac's acclaim in 1839 and the great author himself, celebrating the work, said that it "often contains a whole book in a single page." From 1841 Stendhal was on sick leave from his post, living in Paris. He died on March 23, 1842 in Paris.

For further reading: Mimesis by Erich Auerbach (1953); Stendhal et la voie oblique by Victor Brombert (1954); Stendhal by F.W.J. Hemmings (1964); Stendhal: Fiction and the Themes of Freedom by Victor Brombert (1968); The Problematic Self : Approaches to Identity in Stendhal, D. H. Lawrence, and Malraux by Elizabeth Brody (1978); A Lion for Love by Robert Alter (1979); Stendhal et le roman by Hans Boll-Johansen (1979); Stendhal's Paper Mirror by James T. Day (1987); Reading Realism in Stendhal by Ann Jefferson (1988); Stendhal's Violin by Roger Pearson (1988); Le Desir De La Voix Vive: Etude Du Ton Chez Stendhal by Francoise Coulont-Henderson (1990); Stendhal Revisited by Emile J. Talbot (1993); The Feminization of Dr. Faustus : Female Identity Quests from Stendhal to Morgner by Helga Druxes (1993); Approaches to Teaching Stendhal's the Red and the Black, ed. by Dean De LA Motte, Stirling Haig (1999) - See also: Francois La Rochefoucauld

• VIE DE MOZART, 1814
• ROME, NAPLES ET FLORENCE EN, 1817
• HISTOIRE DE LA PEINTURE EN ITALIE, 1817
• VIE DE HAYDN, DE MOZART ET DE MÉTASTASE, 1817
• VIE DE NAPOLÉON, 1817
• DE L'AMOUR, 1822 - On Love
• RACINE ET SHAKESPEARE, 1823, 1825
• VIE DE ROSSINI, 1823 - Life Of Rossini
• D'UN NOUVEAU COMPLOT CONTRE LES INDUSTRIELS, 1825
• ARMANCE, 1827
• PROMENADES DANS ROME, 1829
• LE ROUGE ET LE NOIR, 1830 - The Red and the Black / Scarlet and Black, 1929-30 - film 1954, dir. by Claude Autant-Lara (?), starring Gérard Philipe
• L'ABBESSE DE CASTRO, 1832
• MÉMOIRES D'UN TOURIST, 1838
• LA CHARTREUSE DE PARME, 1839 - The Charterhouse of Parma - film 1947, dir. by Christian-Jaque; film 1954, dir. by Claude Autant-Lara
• CHRONIQUES ITALIENNES, 1839
• JOURNAL, 1888
• LAMIEL, 1889.
• VIE DE HENRY BRULARD, 1890 - The Life of Henry Brulard
• SOUVENIRS D'ÉGOTISME, 1892 - Memoirs of an Egoist
• LE PHILTRE, 1892
• LUCIEN LEUWEN, 1894 - Lucien Leuwen: The Green Huntsman
• JOURNAL D'ITALIE, 1911
• OUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1912-48
• CORRESPONDANCE, 1933-35
• OUVRES, 1952-56
• JOURNAL, 1955
• OUVRES, 1961
• CORRESPONDANCE, 1962