Lucien Leuwen Book I: The Green Huntsman

by Stendhal, Louise Varèse (Translator)

"Quand enfin Lucien fut délivré des compliments des officiers, du service à la caserne, des trente-six trompettes, etc., etc., il se trouva horriblement triste. Une seule pensée surnageait dans son âme : Tout cela est assez plat ; ils parlent de guerre, d'ennemi, d'héroïsme, d'honneur, et il n'y a plus d'ennemis depuis vingt ans ! Et mon père prétend que jamais des Chambres avares ne se détermineront à payer la guerre au-delà d'une campagne. À quoi sommes-nous donc bons ? À faire du zèle en style de député vendu. [...]N'eût-il pas mieux valu être fou de bonheur, comme l'eût été, dans la position de Lucien, un jeune homme de province dont l'éducation n'eût pas coûté cent mille francs ? Il y a donc une fausse civilisation ! Nous ne sommes donc pas arrivés précisément à la perfection de la civilisation ! Et nous faisons de l'esprit toute la journée sur les désagréments infinis qui accompagnent cette perfection !"

Genres: Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

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

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg

Roman inachevé, en partie autobiographique, Lucien Leuwen a été rédigé entre 1830 et 1840 et a été publié à titre posthume (1855).

I made the proofreading of this book and it will be published by Project Gutenberg.

[Mshelton50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must confess that this unfinished Stendhal novel was unknown to me until very recently. I loved The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma. If you enjoyed the exploits of Julien Sorel and Fabrice del Dongo, then I'm sure you'll also like the exploits of Lucien Leuwen. The novel is told in two parts, The Green Huntsman and The Telegraph. The first volume is a fascinating look at French society circa 1833, i.e., in the wake of the July Revolution of 1830, which saw Charles X--the last "King of France and Navarre"--abdicate in favor of his nine-year-old grandson, the Comte de Chambord (to Legitimists, "Henri V"). Charles had asked his cousin, Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, to serve as regent for the boy; Louis-Philippe, however, said that such an arrangement simply was not possible in the revolutionary ferment. Instead, he assumed the title "King of the French," and would reign as the "Citizen-King" until the 1848 revolution. Lucien comes from a wealthy bourgeois banking family in Paris, and is suspected of harboring Republican sympathies. His father is useful and well-known to the Ministry of the day, however, and Lucien is accepted as a second-lieutenant in the 27th Lancers. As such, he is posted to Nancy, where he is smitten by Madame de Chasteller, a beautiful young woman from an aristocratic family very much a part of Legitimist society. The first volume concerns Lucien's attempts to break into that society in order to get close to this fascinating woman.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars