Three Italian Chronicles: Stories
Three Italian Chronicles: Stories
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Three Italian Chronicles: Stories by Stendhal
Italian passion––”the passion that seeks its own satisfaction, and not to give one’s neighbor an enhanced idea of oneself”––is the life-blood of Stendhal’s Three Italian Chronicles. Gathered here are three long-out-of-print stories animated by life-and-death romances and sensational crimes. “The Cenci” and “The Abbess of Castro,” set in a brazen Renaissance, are the author’s versions of two antique chronicles he discovered in Italian libraries: “Vanina Vanini” is a Roman tale of the 1820s. All three give full rein to that special egoism of unswerving, passionate purpose Stendhal so adored in Napoleon and celebrated in all his heroes and heroines. Fused to that passion is his style, which imperturbably stage-manages urgent speech and violent intrigue. On this gemlike scale, his style as it charms and stings seems particularly vivid: for admirers of his novels, each of these stories gleams like an enameled miniature executed by a great master.
"The nature of Stendhal’s talent…was a strange mixture of opera and cerebralityHe was at his best when demonstrating a particularly subtle insight with the florid sensationalism of La Scala." -- The Nation
"Adored by Proust, admired by Valéry, envied by Gide, Stendhal, was far too prepossessing a writer to satisfy anyone… as merely a novelist." -- Richard Howard
"It was in Italy and in the the seventeenth century that a Princess said, as she sipped an ice with keen enjoyment on the evening of a hot day: ‘What a pity, this is not a sin!’" -- Stendhal
"Adored by Proust, admired by Valéry, envied by Gide, Stendhal, was far too prepossessing a writer to satisfy anyone… as merely a novelist." -- Richard Howard
"It was in Italy and in the the seventeenth century that a Princess said, as she sipped an ice with keen enjoyment on the evening of a hot day: ‘What a pity, this is not a sin!’" -- Stendhal
Stendhal (1783-1842), the pen name of Henri Marie Beyle, was born into a prosperous family in Grenoble. At sixteen he set out for Paris, intending to pursue a career as an engineer, but instead enlisted in Napoleon's Army. Stendhal took part in campaigns in Italy, Germany, Russia, and Austria, and then, after Napoleon's fall from power, settled in Milan, where he wrote books on art and music. Expelled from Italy for political reasons in 1821, he returned to Paris; following the 1830 revolution, he secured the position, which he was to hold for the rest of his life, of French Consul to Civitavecchia. Stendhal's great novels The Red and the Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) were largely ignored during his lifetime, and many of his works remained unfinished and were published only posthumously. Among his most important books are On Love, Lucien Leuwen, The Memoirs of an Egotist, and The Life of Henry Brulard.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780811211505 |
| ISBN 10 | 0811211509 |
| Title | Three Italian Chronicles: Stories |
| Author | Stendhal |
| Series | New Directions Revived Modern Classics |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | New Directions Publishing Corporation |
| Year published | 1991-05-29 |
| Number of pages | 195 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |