Stendhal

by Jonathan Keates

A biography of the nineteenth-century French novelist follows his childhood, his career in Napoleon's armies, his love affairs, and his diplomatic postings

Genres: Biography, France, Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 1994

About the author

Jonathan Keates, is an English writer, biographer, novelist and Chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund. Keates was educated at Bryanston School and went on to read for his undergraduate degree at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am giving this book four stars despite the fact that I did not enjoy it because I believe that it provides a very accurate portrayal of Henri Beyle, the man who was Stendhal.

At age nineteen, having completed my first year at an English speaking university, I suddenly took an interest in my French heritage. In a six week period during the summer vacation I read "La chartreuse de Parme" et "Le Rouge et Le Noir". Stendhal had instantly become my favourite writer. I spent the next five summers plowing through the Stendhal catalogue hoping to find something that would give me as much pleasure as the first two novels. Only "Chroniques italiennes" came as close. The rest were frankly horrible. Including in the list that I had read were "Vie de Napoleon", "Rome, Naples et Florence," "Lucien Leuwen", "Vie d'Henri Brulard" et "Racine et Shakespeare". In a word I found Stendhal apart from his three masterpieces to be an awkward stylist and a profoundly superficial thinker.

Keates' Stendhal conforms very much to the negative image that I had developed of him after first having been swept away. Keates describes Stendhal as a highly unpleasant person. He felt a need to feel superior to everyone who surrounded him. He criticized their faults and seldom acknowledged their good points. He relied on connections rather than talent to secure government employment. His love life was absurd. Most of the time he pursued unattainable women from the aristocracy and the rest of the time he was enjoying himself with prostitutes in brothels. Keates also found him to be a superficial critic who followed whatever tendency was popular in literary circles. He exaggerated the extent of his interactions with both Rossini and Byron. All in all, Stendhal was a second rate person who produced primarily second-rate works. Somehow he was able to rise above himself on two occasions leaving us with "Le rouge et le noir" et "La chartreuse de Parme."

Everything in this book rings true. I cannot say that I took any pleasure from reading it but I certainly trust the author's judgements.

[Peter Allum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough study of the life, loves, and writings of Henri Beyle (aka Stendhal). Written for the lay reader rather than the academic (mercifully). The style is readable, though the sentences are often somewhat baroque. Rich in details, with sometimes a little too much (for this reader) on his passing acquaintances and habitations. The author assumes that the reader has a grasp of political developments in France and Italy of the early C19th; a broad brush political overview and a map of the Italian kingdoms would have been helpful.

[Damien Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the greatest things that can be said of any biography applies here: When you finish, you miss them. "Nothing escaped him, nothing left him cold, but his sadnesses were hidden under jesting and he never seemed as happy as when expressing the liveliest contradictions."