Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842),
better known by his pen name Stendhal,
was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his deep analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered France’s foremost
realist writer as is evident in his novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of
Parma, 1839).
Stendhal’s
prose is always as fresh as an evergreen, puzzling and motivating scholars and
even contemporary critics to attempt to find the source of such freshness.
In his Journals (Vol. III: 1928-1939) Andre Gide's has this to say about
Stendhal’s prose:
The great
secret of Stendhal, his great shrewdness, lay in writing spontaneously. His
thought charged with emotion remains as lively, as fresh in color as the newly
developed butterfly that the collector has surprised as it was coming out of
the cocoon. There we find that element of alertness and spontaneity, of
incongruity, of suddenness and nakedness that always delights us anew in his
style. It would seem that his thought does not take time to put on its shoes
before beginning to run.
In the 20th
century, Harvard scholar Matthew Josephson credited Stendhal with anticipating
the force of the unconscious mind in human behavior:
He [Stendhal]
was aware of the “irrational” or unconscious elements of the mind long before
the later nineteenth century psychologists and the men of the Freudian school
arrive on the scene.
About the Memoirs
Caustic and
acerbic of just about every one of his acquaintances, Stendhal never pulled any
punches. But the bitterest targets of his bluntest commentaries were nations: “in England the divisions between classes are as
distinct as they are in India, the country of pariahs,” and “The English are, I think, the most obtuse and
barbaric people in the world.” About
Germans: “… apart from their enthusiasm, the
Germans are too stupid.” And Italians: “The Italians would have held forth, each of
them occupying the floor for twenty minutes and
remaining the mortal enemy of his antagonist in the discussion. At the third
meeting they would have composed satirical sonnets against one another.” About Russia: “In a half-civilized country like Russia he’d
pass as a hero…”
The value of Stendhal’s memoirs lies in the man’s sincerity as
demonstrated by his plain —often offensive— language. Yet, one has to heed his
opinions, for they are laden with deep insights; especially, his opinions about
art and literature. His assessment of Walter Scott has been prophetic in a
negative way, as has been his recognition of Shakespeare, Diderot, Goldsmith,
Voltaire, and Mozart in a positive way.
Besides the lighthearted prose he employed,
Stendhal managed to inject humor, oblivious to whether his brand of humor was
appropriate or perhaps even risqué. His main preoccupation
was to be read, to be quite sober and yet entertaining—never boring.
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