Letters to Pauline

by Stendhal, Andrew Brown (Translation), Adam Thirlwell (Foreword)

Determined to take his deeply loved younger sister Pauline’s education in hand, Henri Beyle—better known by the most famous of his scores of noms de plume, Stendhal—was obliged to continue her tuition in epistolary fashion on leaving Grenoble. In his letters to her he instructs her in what she should read (Plutarch, Molière, and Shakespeare); what to study (philosophy, logic, mathematics, and music); whether or not to get married (and to what kind of man); and generally how to enliven the tedium of a French provincial town. At the same time, he encourages her to think for herself—a process that, inevitably, reveals what he thought when thinking for himself.

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightening..

[Gerry Kingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fondly remember reading the Charterhouse of Parma more than thirty years ago. Sadly, I never found the time to read more of his writings until now. These letters provide an intriguing insight into the writer's earlier life, before he wrote his great novels. It shows Beyle on the make, driven by his ambition to be a great man, constantly spending beyond his means, a lover of art, literature, music, women and Italy.

'Burn after reading this', seems to be his characteristic sign-off in these letters to his poor sister, whom he restlessly lectures on what books to read, languages to learn and music to hear. And around the personal details and anecdotes, he sketches with just enough vividness some of the tumultuous historical events he was caught up in. I recommend this short book to all fans of Stendhal.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, excellent work as always Stendhal: now I'd like to hear more about Pauline, running around at night disguised as a man.