Nineteenth-century French writer Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his
pen name Stendhal, is one of the earliest leading practitioners of
realism, his stories filled with sharp analyses of his characters'
psychology. This translation of Stendhal's Chroniques italiennes is a
collection of nine tales written between 1829 and 1840, many of which
were published only after his death. Together these collected tales
reveal a great novelist working with highly dramatic subject matter to
forge a vision of life lived at its most intense.
The setting for these tales is a romanticized Italy, a place Stendhal
viewed as unpolluted by bourgeois inhibitions and conformism. From the
hothouse atmosphere of aristocratic convents to the horrors of the Cenci
family, the tales in Italian Chronicles all feature passionate,
transgressive characters engaged in "la chasse au bonheur"--the quest
for happiness. Most of the tragic, violent tales are based on historical
events, with Stendhal using history to validate his characters' extreme
behaviors as they battle literal and figurative oppression and try to
break through to freedom.
Complete with revenge, bloody daggers, poisonings, and thick-walled
nunneries, this new translation of Italian Chronicles includes four
never-before-translated stories and a fascinating introduction detailing
the origins of the book. It is sure to gratify established Stendhal fans
as well as readers new to the writer.
