The pseudonym under which Henri Marie Bayle is known. Biography of Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)

Biography

early years

Henri Bayle (pseudonym Stendhal) was born on January 23 in Grenoble in the family of lawyer Chérubin Bayle. Henrietta Bayle, the writer's mother, died when the boy was seven years old. Therefore, his aunt Seraphi and his father were involved in his upbringing. Little Henri did not have a good relationship with them. Only his grandfather Henri Gagnon treated the boy warmly and attentively. Later in his autobiography “The Life of Henri Brulard” Stendhal recalled: “I was entirely brought up by my dear grandfather, Henri Gagnon. This rare person once made a pilgrimage to Ferney to see Voltaire, and was wonderfully received by him..." Henri Gagnon was a fan of the Enlightenment and introduced Stendhal to the works of Voltaire, Diderot and Helvetius. From then on, Stendhal developed an aversion to clericalism. Due to Henri's childhood encounter with the Jesuit Ryan, who forced him to read the Bible, he had a lifelong horror and mistrust of clergy.

While studying at the Grenoble central school, Henri followed the development of the revolution, although he hardly understood its importance. He studied at school for only three years, mastering, by his own admission, only Latin. In addition, he was interested in mathematics, logic, studied philosophy, and studied art history.

In 1802, gradually becoming disillusioned with Napoleon, he resigned and lived for the next three years in Paris, educating himself, studying philosophy, literature and English. As follows from the diaries of that time, the future Stendhal dreamed of a career as a playwright, a “new Moliere.” Having fallen in love with the actress Mélanie Loison, the young man followed her to Marseille. In 1805 he returned to serve in the army again, but this time as a quartermaster. As an officer in the quartermaster service of the Napoleonic army, Henri visited Italy, Germany, and Austria. During his hikes, he found time to think and wrote notes about painting and music. He filled thick notebooks with his notes. Some of these notebooks were lost while crossing the Berezina.

Having procured himself a long vacation, Stendhal spent a fruitful three years in Paris from 1836 to 1839. During this time, “Notes of a Tourist” (published in 1838) and the last novel “The Parma Abode” were written. (Stendhal, if he did not come up with the word “tourism,” was the first to introduce it into wide circulation). The attention of the general reading public to the figure of Stendhal was attracted in 1840 by one of the most popular French novelists, Balzac, in his "". Shortly before his death, the diplomatic department granted the writer a new leave of absence, allowing him to return to Paris for the last time.

In recent years, the writer was in a very serious condition: the disease progressed. In his diary, he wrote that he was taking medications and potassium iodide for treatment, and that at times he was so weak that he could hardly hold a pen, and therefore was forced to dictate texts. Mercury medications are known to have many side effects. The assumption that Stendhal died of syphilis does not have sufficient evidence. In the 19th century, there was no relevant diagnosis of this disease (for example, gonorrhea was considered the initial stage of the disease, there were no microbiological, histological, cytological and other studies) - on the one hand. On the other hand, a number of figures of European culture were considered to have died from syphilis - Heine, Beethoven, Turgenev and many others. In the second half of the 20th century, this point of view was revised. For example, Heinrich Heine is now considered to have suffered from one of the rare neurological ailments (more precisely, a rare form of one of the ailments).

On March 23, 1842, Stendhal, having lost consciousness, fell right on the street and died a few hours later. Death most likely occurred from a recurrent stroke. Two years earlier, he suffered his first stroke, which was accompanied by severe neurological symptoms, including aphasia.

In his will, the writer asked to write on the gravestone (done in Italian):

Arrigo Bayle

Milanese

Wrote. I loved. Lived

Works

Fiction constitutes a small fraction of what Bayle wrote and published. To earn his living, at the dawn of his literary career, he in great haste “created biographies, treatises, memories, memoirs, travel sketches, articles, even original “guides” and wrote much more books of this kind than novels or short story collections” ( D. V. Zatonsky).

His travel essays “Rome, Naples et Florence” (“Rome, Naples and Florence”; 3rd ed.) and “Promenades dans Rome” (“Walks around Rome”, 2 vols.) were popular with travelers throughout the 19th century for Italy (although the main estimates from the standpoint of today's science seem hopelessly outdated). Stendhal also owns “The History of Painting in Italy” (vols. 1-2;), “Notes of a Tourist” (fr. "Mémoires d'un touriste" , vol. 1-2), the famous treatise “On Love” (published in).

Novels and stories

• The first novel is “Armance” (fr. "Armance", vol. 1-3, ) - about a girl from Russia who receives the inheritance of a repressed Decembrist, was not successful.
• "Vanina Vanini" (fr. "Vanina Vanini" ,) - a story about the fatal love of an aristocrat and a carbonari, filmed in 1961 by Roberto Rossellini
• "Red and Black" (fr. "Le Rouge et le Noir" ; 2 t., ; 6 hours, ; Russian translation by A. N. Pleshcheev in “Notes of the Fatherland”,) - the most important work of Stendhal, the first career novel in European literature; was highly praised by major writers, including Pushkin and Balzac, but was not initially successful with the general public.
• In the adventure novel “The Parma Monastery” ( "La Chartreuse de Parme"; 2 volumes -) Stendhal gives a fascinating description of court intrigues at a small Italian court; The Ruritanian tradition of European literature dates back to this work.

• The novel “Red and White”, or “Lucien Levene” (fr. "Lucien Leuwen" , - , published).
• The autobiographical story “The Life of Henri Brulard” (French) was also published posthumously. "Vie de Henry Brulard" , , ed. ) and “Memoirs of an Egotist” (fr. "Souvenirs d'égotisme" , , ed. ), unfinished novel “Lamielle” (fr. "Lamiel" , - , ed. , completely) and “Excessive favor is destructive” (, ed. -).

Editions

• The complete works of Bayle in 18 volumes (Paris, -), as well as two volumes of his correspondence (), were published by Prosper Mérimée.
• Collection op. edited by A. A. Smirnova and B. G. Reizov, vol. 1-15, Leningrad - Moscow, 1933-1950.
• Collection op. in 15 vols. General ed. and entry Art. B. G. Reizova, t. 1-15, Moscow, 1959.

Characteristics of creativity

Like other romantics, Stendhal longed for strong feelings, but could not close his eyes to the triumph of philistinism that followed the overthrow of Napoleon. The age of Napoleonic marshals - figures in their own way as bright and integral as the condottieres of the Renaissance - was replaced by "loss of personality, drying out of character, disintegration of the individual." Just as other French writers of the 19th century sought an antidote to vulgar everyday life in a romantic escape to the East, to Africa, less often to Corsica or Spain, Stendhal created for himself an idealized image of Italy as a world that, in his view, retained direct historical continuity with dear to his heart, the Renaissance.

Meaning and influence

At the time when Stendhal formulated his aesthetic views, European prose was entirely under the spell of Walter Scott. Progressive writers preferred a slow-paced narrative with extensive exposition and lengthy descriptions designed to immerse the reader in the environment where the action takes place. Stendhal's moving, dynamic prose was ahead of its time. He himself predicted that it would be appreciated no earlier than 1880. Andre Gide and Maxim Gorky characterized Stendhal's novels as “letters to the future.”

Indeed, the revival of interest in Stendhal occurred in the second half of the 19th century. Fans of Stendhal derived from his works a whole theory of happiness - the so-called. bailism, which “prescribed not to miss a single opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the world, as well as to live in anticipation of the unexpected, to be in constant readiness for divine contingency.” The hedonistic pathos of Stendhal's work was inherited by one of the major French writers, Andre Gide, and a thorough analysis of psychological motivations and the consistent de-heroization of military experience allow us to consider Stendhal as the immediate predecessor of Leo Tolstoy.

Stendhal's psychological views have not lost their significance to this day. So his theory of “crystallization of love” was presented in 1983 in the form of excerpts from his text (book) “On Love” in the “Anthology on the Psychology of Emotions,” published under the editorship of Yu. B. Gippenreiter.

Stendhal's sayings

“The only excuse for God is that he does not exist.”

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Notes

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• Naumenko V. G.// Information humanitarian portal “Knowledge. Understanding. Skill." - 2012. - No. 4 (July - August) ().

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Excerpt characterizing Stendhal

To be honest, I wasn’t in too much of a mood to go for a walk, since after everything that had happened, my condition was, let’s say, very, very “satisfactory... But I couldn’t leave Stella alone either, so it would be good for both of them, though If only we were “in the middle”, we decided not to go far, but just to relax our almost boiling brains a little, and give our pain-wracked hearts a rest, enjoying the peace and quiet of the mental floor...
We slowly floated in a gentle silvery haze, completely relaxing our frayed nervous system, and plunging into the stunning, incomparable peace here... When suddenly Stella shouted enthusiastically:
- Wow! Just look, what kind of beauty is there!..
I looked around and immediately understood what she was talking about...
It really was extraordinarily beautiful!.. As if someone, while playing, had created a real sky-blue “crystal” kingdom!.. We looked in surprise at the incredibly huge, openwork ice flowers, dusted with light blue snowflakes; and the intertwining of sparkling ice trees, flashing with blue highlights at the slightest movement of the “crystal” foliage and reaching the height of our three-story house... And among all this incredible beauty, surrounded by flashes of real “northern lights”, a breathtakingly majestic ice palace proudly rose, the whole shining with the shimmer of unprecedented silvery blue shades...
What was it?! Who liked this cool color so much?..
So far, for some reason, no one showed up anywhere, and no one expressed any great desire to meet us... It was a little strange, since usually the owners of all these wonderful worlds were very hospitable and friendly, with the exception of only those who had just appeared on “ floor” (that is, they had just died) and were not yet ready to communicate with others, or simply preferred to experience something purely personal and difficult alone.
“Who do you think lives in this strange world?” Stella asked in a whisper for some reason.
- Do you want to see? – unexpectedly for myself, I suggested.
I didn’t understand where all my fatigue had gone, and why I suddenly completely forgot the promise I made to myself a moment ago not to interfere in any, even the most incredible, incidents until tomorrow, or at least until I had at least a little rest. But, of course, this again triggered my insatiable curiosity, which I had not yet learned to pacify, even when there was a real need for it...
Therefore, trying, as far as my exhausted heart allowed, to “switch off” and not think about our failed, sad and difficult day, I immediately eagerly plunged into the “new and unknown”, anticipating some unusual and exciting adventure...
We smoothly “slowed down” right at the very entrance to the stunning “ice” world, when suddenly a man appeared from behind a sparkling blue tree... She was a very unusual girl - tall and slender, and very beautiful, she would have seemed quite young , almost if it weren’t for the eyes... They shone with calm, bright sadness, and were deep, like a well with the purest spring water... And in these wondrous eyes lurked such wisdom that Stella and I had not yet been able to comprehend for a long time ... Not at all surprised by our appearance, the stranger smiled warmly and quietly asked:
- What do you want, kids?
“We were just passing by and wanted to look at your beauty.” Sorry if I disturbed you...” I muttered, slightly embarrassed.
- Well, what are you talking about! Come inside, it will probably be more interesting there... - waving her hand into the depths, the stranger smiled again.
We instantly slipped past her inside the “palace”, unable to contain the curiosity rushing out, and already anticipating something very, very “interesting” in advance.
It was so stunning inside that Stella and I literally froze in a stupor, our mouths open like hungry one-day-old chicks, unable to utter a word...
There was no so-called “floor” in the palace... Everything there floated in the sparkling silver air, creating the impression of sparkling infinity. Some fantastic “seats”, similar to groups of sparkling dense clouds accumulated in groups, swaying smoothly, hung in the air, sometimes becoming denser, sometimes almost disappearing, as if attracting attention and inviting you to sit on them... Silvery “ice” flowers, shining and shimmering, they decorated everything around, striking with the variety of shapes and patterns of the finest, almost jewelry petals. And somewhere very high in the “ceiling”, blinding with sky-blue light, huge ice “icicles” of incredible beauty hung, turning this fabulous “cave” into a fantastic “ice world”, which seemed to have no end...
“Come on, my guests, grandfather will be incredibly glad to see you!” – Smoothly gliding past us, the girl said warmly.
And then I finally understood why she seemed unusual to us - as the stranger moved, a sparkling “tail” of some special blue material was constantly trailing behind her, which shone and curled like tornadoes around her fragile figure, crumbling behind her. with silver pollen...
Before we had time to be surprised by this, we immediately saw a very tall, gray-haired old man, proudly sitting on a strange, very beautiful chair, as if thereby emphasizing his importance to those who did not understand. He watched our approach completely calmly, not at all surprised and not yet expressing any emotions other than a warm, friendly smile.

Marie-Henri Beyle (pseudonym Stendhal) - French writer, one of the founders of the psychological novel - was born January 23, 1783 in Grenoble in the family of lawyer Chérubin Bayle.

Henrietta Bayle, the writer's mother, died when the boy was seven years old. Therefore, his aunt Seraphi and his father were involved in his upbringing. Little Henri did not have a good relationship with them. Only his grandfather Henri Gagnon treated the boy warmly and attentively. Henri Gagnon was a fan of the Enlightenment and introduced Stendhal to the works of Voltaire, Diderot and Helvetius. From then on, Stendhal developed an aversion to clericalism. Due to Henri's childhood encounter with the Jesuit Ryan, who forced him to read the Bible, he had a lifelong horror and mistrust of clergy.

While studying at the Grenoble central school, Henri followed the development of the revolution, although he hardly understood its importance. He studied at school for only three years, mastering, by his own admission, only Latin. In addition, he was interested in mathematics, logic, studied philosophy, and studied art history.

In 1799 Henri went to Paris with the intention of entering the Ecole Polytechnique. But instead, inspired by Napoleon's coup, he enlists in the active army. He was enlisted as a sub-lieutenant in a dragoon regiment. Influential relatives from the Daru family secured an assignment for Bayle to the north of Italy, and the young man fell in love with this country forever.

In 1802, gradually becoming disillusioned with Napoleon, he resigned and lived for the next three years in Paris, educating himself, studying philosophy, literature and English. As follows from the diaries of that time, the future Stendhal dreamed of a career as a playwright, a “new Moliere.” Having fallen in love with actress Melanie Loison, the young man followed her to Marseille.

In 1805 he returned to serve in the army again, but this time as a quartermaster. As an officer in the quartermaster service of the Napoleonic army, Henri visited Italy, Germany, and Austria. During his hikes, he found time to think and wrote notes about painting and music. He filled thick notebooks with his notes. Some of these notebooks were lost while crossing the Berezina.

In 1812 Henri took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign. I visited Orsha, Smolensk, Vyazma, and witnessed the Battle of Borodino. He saw Moscow burn, although he had no actual combat experience.

After the fall of Napoleon, the future writer, who had a negative perception of the Restoration and the Bourbons, resigned and went to Italy, to Milan, for seven years. It was here that he prepared for publication and wrote his first books: “The Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio” ( 1815 ), "History of Painting in Italy" ( 1817 ), "Rome, Naples and Florence in 1817". Large chunks of the text in these books are borrowed from the works of other authors.

Claiming the laurels of the new Winckelmann, Henri Beyle adopts the name of this author’s hometown as his main pseudonym. In Italy, Henri becomes close to the Republicans - the Carbonari. Here he experienced a hopeless love for Matilda Viscontini, the wife of the Polish general J. Dembowski, who died early, but forever left a mark on his heart.

In 1820 In Italy, persecution of the Carbonari begins, including Stendhal's friends, forcing him to return to his homeland two years later. He later conveyed his disgust for the reactionary Austrian regime, which established its dominance in northern Italy, on the pages of the novel “The Parma Monastery.” Paris met the writer unfriendly, since rumors about his dubious Italian acquaintances reached here, he had to be very careful. He publishes in English magazines without signing his articles. Only a hundred years later was the author of these articles identified.

In 1822 he publishes the book “About Love” in various historical eras. In 1823 In Paris, the manifesto of French romanticism was published - the treatise “Racine and Shakespeare”.

In the 20s Stendhal gained a reputation in literary salons as a tireless and witty debater. In those same years, he created several works that testify to his movement towards realism. Publishes his first novel "Armans" ( 1827 ), the story “Vanina Vanini” ( 1829 ). In the same 1829 he is offered to create a guide to Rome, he responds, and so the book “Walks in Rome” appears, which is a story of French travelers about a trip to Italy. In 1830 The novel “Red and Black” is published, based on an incident that the author read about in the crime section of a newspaper. These years were quite difficult in the life of a writer who did not have a regular income. He drew pistols in the margins of his manuscripts and wrote numerous wills.

After establishing July 28, 1830 The July Monarchy in France, Stendhal enters public service. He was appointed French consul to Trieste and then to Civitavecchia, where he would serve as consul until his death. In this port town, the Parisian was bored and lonely; the bureaucratic routine left little time for literary pursuits. To unwind, he often went to Rome. In 1832 began writing “Memoirs of an Egotist,” and after another 2 years began writing the novel “Lucien Levene,” which he later abandoned. From 1835 to 1836 was passionate about writing an autobiographical novel, The Life of Henri Brulard.

Having secured a long vacation for himself, Stendhal spent three fruitful years in Paris. from 1836 to 1839. During this time, “Notes of a Tourist” were written (published in 1838) and the last novel “The Parma Monastery”. The attention of the general reading public to the figure of Stendhal in 1840 attracted one of the most popular French novelists, Balzac, in his “Etude about Bayle”. Shortly before his death, the diplomatic department granted the writer a new leave of absence, allowing him to return to Paris for the last time.

In recent years, the writer was in a very serious condition: the disease progressed. In his diary, he wrote that he was taking mercury and potassium iodide for treatment, and that at times he was so weak that he could hardly hold a pen, and therefore was forced to dictate texts. Mercury medications are known to have many side effects.

March 23, 1842 In Paris, Stendhal lost consciousness, fell right on the street and died a few hours later. Death most likely occurred from a second stroke. Two years earlier, he suffered his first stroke, which was accompanied by severe neurological symptoms, including aphasia. Stendhal was buried in the Montmartre cemetery.

Works:

Novels and stories:

The first novel is “Armance” (vol. 1-3, 1827 ) - about a girl from Russia who receives the inheritance of a repressed Decembrist, was not successful.

"Vanina Vanini" 1829 ) - a story about the fatal love of an aristocrat and a carbonari, filmed in 1961 by Roberto Rossellini

“Red and Black” (“Le Rouge et le Noir”; 2 vols., 1830 ; 6 hours, 1831 ) - the most important work of Stendhal, the first career novel in European literature; was highly praised by major writers, including Pushkin and Balzac, but was not initially successful among the general public.

In the adventure novel “The Parma Abode” (“La Chartreuse de Parme”; 2 vols. 1839-1846 ) Stendhal gives a fascinating description of court intrigues at a small Italian court; The Puritan tradition of European literature dates back to this work.

Unfinished works of art:

The novel "Red and White" or "Lucien Leuwen" 1834-1836 , published 1929 ).

Also published posthumously were the autobiographical stories “The Life of Henri Brulard” (“Vie de Henry Brulard”, 1835, ed. 1890) and “Memoirs of an Egotist” (“Souvenirs d’égotisme”, 1832, ed. 1892), unfinished novel "Lamiel", 1839-1842, ed. 1889, fully 1928 ) and “Excessive favor is destructive” ( 1839, ed. 1912-1913).

1850

1864 1880

1789

IN 1796

One of the most outstanding French writers of the 19th century, Henri Marie Bayle, who wrote under the pseudonym Stendhal, during his lifetime did not enjoy either critical recognition or success among the general reader. Almost all of his numerous works of an artistic, historical and critical nature went unnoticed, only occasionally causing reviews, not always favorable. Nevertheless, Mérimée, who was influenced by Stendhal, highly valued him, Balzac admired him, Goethe and Pushkin enjoyed reading his novel “The Red and the Black.”

Stendhal's destiny was posthumous fame. His friend and executor Romain Colomb in 1850 s undertook a complete publication of his works, including journal articles and correspondence. From that time on, Stendhal entered French literature as one of its greatest representatives.

The school of French realists of the 50s recognized him, along with Balzac, as their teacher; I. Taine, one of the inspirers of French naturalism, wrote an enthusiastic article about him ( 1864 ); E. Zola considered him a representative of the new novel, in which man is studied in his deep connection with the social environment. A scientific study of Stendhal began, mainly his biography. IN 1880 -years ago, his autobiographical works, rough sketches, and unfinished stories appeared, which R. Colomb did not include in his publication. Already in the 19th century, his novels were translated into many languages.

In Russia, Stendhal was appreciated very early, earlier than in his homeland. A.S. Pushkin and some of his contemporaries drew attention to “Red and Black”. L. Tolstoy spoke very positively about it, who was especially struck by the military scenes of the “Parma Monastery”. Gorky considered him one of the greatest masters of the European novel. In Soviet Russia, all of Stendhal's works, even unfinished passages, were translated into Russian, and his novels and short stories were republished dozens of times. His main works have been translated into many other languages ​​of the countries of the former USSR. Stendhal is undoubtedly one of our most beloved foreign writers.

Henri Marie Bayle was born in the south of France, in the city of Grenoble. Stendhal's father, Chérubin Bayle, a lawyer at the local parliament, and his grandfather, Henri Gagnon, a doctor and public figure, like most of the French intelligentsia of the 18th century, were passionate about the ideas of the Enlightenment. My father had in his library a “large encyclopedia of sciences and arts” compiled by Diderot and D-Alembert, and was fond of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. My grandfather was an admirer of Voltaire and a convinced Voltairian. But with the beginning of the French Revolution ( 1789 ) their views have changed a lot. The family had wealth, and the deepening of the revolution frightened her. Stendhal's father even had to go into hiding, and he ended up on the side of the old regime.

After the death of Stendhal's mother, the family went into mourning for a long time. The father and grandfather fell into piety, and the boy’s upbringing was entrusted to the priest, hiding under the hospitable roof of the Baileys. This priest, Abbot Ralyan, whom Stendhal recalled with indignation in his memoirs, tried in vain to instill religious views in his pupil.

IN 1796 In the same year, Stendhal entered the Central School that opened in Grenoble. The task of these schools, established in some provincial cities, was to introduce public and secular education in the republic in order to replace the previous one - private and religious. They were supposed to equip the younger generation with useful knowledge and ideology consistent with the interests of the emerging bourgeois state. At the Central School, Stendhal became interested in mathematics and, upon completion of the course, was sent to Paris to enter the Polytechnic School, which trained military engineers and artillery officers.

But he never entered the Polytechnic School. He arrived in Paris a few days after the coup of the 18th Brumaire, when the young General Bonaparte seized power and declared himself first consul. Preparations immediately began for a campaign in Italy, where reaction again triumphed and Austrian rule was established. Stendhal was enlisted as a sub-lieutenant in a dragoon regiment and went to his duty station in Italy. He served in the army for more than two years, however, he did not have to participate in a single battle. He then resigned and 1802 year returned to Paris with the secret intention of becoming a writer.

Stendhal lived in Paris for almost three years, persistently studying philosophy, literature and English. In fact, only here he receives his first real education. He becomes acquainted with modern French sensualistic and materialistic philosophy and becomes a convinced enemy of the church and all mysticism in general. While Bonaparte was preparing the imperial throne for himself, Stendhal hated the monarchy for the rest of his life. IN 1799 year, during the coup of the 18th Brumaire, he was pleased that General Bonaparte “became king of France”; V 1804 year, the coronation of Napoleon, for which the Pope came to Paris, seems to Stendhal an obvious “union of all deceivers.”

Meanwhile, I had to think about making money. Many of the comedies Stendhal began remained unfinished, and he decided to make a living through commerce. After serving for about a year in some trading enterprise in Marseilles and feeling forever disgusted with trade, he decided to return to military service. IN 1805 In the year, continuous wars with the European coalition began again, and Stendhal was enlisted in the commissariat. From that time on, he continuously traveled around Europe following Napoleon's army. IN 1806 year he enters Berlin with French troops, in 1809 -m - to Vienna. IN 1811 year he spends his holidays in Italy, where he conceives his book “The History of Painting in Italy”. IN 1812 year, Stendhal, of his own free will, goes to the army that has already invaded Russia, enters Moscow, sees the fire of the ancient Russian capital and flees with the remnants of the army to France, retaining for a long time the memories of the heroic resistance of the Russian troops and the valor of the Russian people. 1814 year he was present during the occupation of Paris by Russian troops and, having received his resignation, left for Italy, which was then under Austrian oppression.

He settles in Milan, in the city he fell in love with 1800 year, and has been living here almost continuously for about seven years. As a retired Napoleonic officer, he receives a half pension, which allows him to somehow survive in Milan, but is not enough to live in Paris.

In Italy, Stendhal published his first work - three biographies: "The Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio" ( 1814 ).

IN 1814 year, Stendhal first became acquainted with the romantic movement in Germany, mainly through A.V. Schlegel’s book “A Course in Dramatic Literature,” which had just been translated into French. Accepting Schlegel's idea of ​​the need for decisive literary reform and the fight against classicism for the sake of a freer and more modern art, he, however, does not sympathize with the religious-mystical tendencies of German romanticism and cannot agree with Schlegel in his criticism of all French literature and enlightenment. Already with 1816 Stendhal became interested in Byron's poems, in which he saw an expression of modern public interests and social protest. Italian romanticism, which emerged around the same time and was closely associated with the Italian national liberation movement, aroused his ardent sympathies. All this was reflected in Stendhal’s next book, “The History of Painting in Italy” ( 1817 ), in which he most fully outlined his aesthetic views.

At the same time, Stendhal published the book "Rome, Naples and Florence" ( 1817 ), which attempts to characterize Italy, its political situation, morals, culture and Italian national character. To make this picture of an entire country vivid and convincing, he sketches vivid scenes of modern life and retells historical episodes, revealing the brilliant talent of the narrator.

WITH 1820 years began the persecution of the Italian Carbonari. Some of Stendhal's Italian acquaintances were arrested and imprisoned in Austria. Terror reigned in Milan. Stendhal decided to return to Paris. In June 1821 year he arrived in his homeland and immediately plunged into the atmosphere of stormy political and literary struggle.

At this time, the reaction began again with extraordinary force in France. Villel's ministry, devoted to the king, carried out activities that deeply outraged the liberals. Taking advantage of the scanty “freedoms” provided by the constitution, the liberals fought in the chambers, in the press, and on the stages of theaters. Activists and press organs who had recently been loyal to the king joined the opposition. IN 1827 The year after the elections, which gave a majority to the liberals, the Villelle government resigned. But Charles X did not want to give in and decided to carry out a coup d'etat in order to completely restore absolutism. As a result, a revolution broke out in Paris, overthrowing the old monarchy in three days.

Stendhal was keenly interested in the political struggle taking place in France. The Bourbon Restoration caused his indignation. Arriving in Paris, he openly took part in the liberals' struggle against reaction.

In Paris, life was more expensive than in Milan, and Stendhal had to engage in daily literature to earn money: write small articles for French and English magazines. He barely found time to write a novel.

His first work, published after returning to Paris, was the book “On Love” ( 1822 ). This book is a psychological treatise in which Stendhal tried to characterize the various types of love common in various classes of society and in various historical eras.

During the restoration in France there was a dispute between the classics and the romantics. Stendhal took part in these disputes, publishing two pamphlets "Racine and Shakespeare" ( 1823 And 1825 ). The brochures attracted the attention of literary circles and played a role in the struggle between two literary movements.

IN 1826 year, Stendhal wrote his first novel - "Armans" ( 1827 ), where he depicts modern France, its “high society”, an idle aristocracy, limited in interests, thinking only about its own benefits. However, this work of Stendhal, despite its artistic merits, did not attract the attention of readers.

It was one of the most difficult periods in Stendhal's life. The political state of the country plunged him into despondency, his financial situation was very difficult: work in English magazines ceased, and books provided almost no income. Personal affairs brought him to despair. At this time he was asked to compile a guide to Rome. Stendhal happily agreed and in a short time wrote the book “Walks in Rome” ( 1829 ) - in the form of a story about a trip to Italy by a small group of French tourists.

Impressions from modern Rome formed the basis of Stendhal's story "Vanina Vanini, or some details regarding the last Venta of the Carbonari, revealed in the Papal States." The story was published in 1829 year.

In the same year, Stendhal began writing his novel “The Red and the Black,” which made his name immortal. The novel was published in November 1830 year with date " 1831 ". At this time Stendhal was no longer in France.

Among the wealthy bourgeoisie, self-interest and the desire to imitate the upper classes dominate; original and political mores can only be found among the people. Passions can be noticed only when they break out in some act punishable by law. This is why, in Stendhal's eyes, the Judicial Gazette is an important document for the study of modern society. He found the problem he was interested in in this newspaper. This is how one of Stendhal’s best works arose: “Red and Black”. The subtitle of the novel is “Chronicle of the 19th Century.” By this “century” we should understand the period of the Restoration, since the novel was begun and mainly written before the July Revolution. The term "Chronicle" here refers to a true account of Restoration society.

M. Gorky characterized this novel remarkably: “Stendhal was the first writer who, almost the day after the victory of the bourgeoisie, began to insightfully and vividly depict the signs of the inevitability of the internal social decay of the bourgeoisie and its dull myopia.”

July 28th 1830 year, on the day of the July Revolution, Stendhal was delighted to see the tricolor banner on the streets of Paris. A new era has begun in the history of France: the big financial bourgeoisie has come to power. Stendhal quickly recognized in the new king Louis Philippe a deceiver and strangler of freedom, and considered the former liberals who had joined the July Monarchy to be renegades. However, he began to pursue public service and soon became the French consul in Italy, first to Trieste and then to Civita Vecchia, a seaport near Rome. Stendhal remained in this position until his death. He spent most of the year in Rome and often went to Paris.

IN 1832 year he began his memoirs about his stay in Paris with 1821 By 1830 year - "Memories of an Egotist", in 1835 - 1836 -m - an extensive autobiography, brought only to 1800 year - "The Life of Henri Brulard". IN 1834 In the same year, Stendhal wrote several chapters of the novel Lucien Leuven, which also remained unfinished. At the same time, he became interested in old Italian chronicles he accidentally found, which he decided to process into short stories. But this plan was realized only a few years later: the first chronicle “Vittoria Accoramboni” appeared in 1837 year.

During a long vacation in Paris, Stendhal published "Notes of a Tourist" - a book about his travels in France, and a year later the novel "The Monastery of Parma" was published, which reflected his excellent knowledge of Italy ( 1839 ). This was the last work he published. The novel on which he worked in the last years of his life, Lamiel, remained unfinished and was published many years after his death.

Stendhal's worldview, in general terms, had already taken shape in 1802 -1805 years when he read with great enthusiasm the French philosophers of the 18th century - Helvetius, Holbach, Montesquieu, as well as their more or less consistent successors - the philosopher Destutt de Tracy, the creator of the science of the origin of concepts, and Cabanis, a doctor who proved that mental processes depend from physiological processes.

Stendhal does not believe in the existence of God, in religious prohibitions and in the afterlife, and rejects ascetic morality and the morality of submission. He strives to verify every concept he encounters in life and in books with data from experience and personal analysis. He builds his ethics on the basis of sensualistic philosophy, or rather, he borrows it from Galventius. If there is only one source of knowledge - our sensations, then we should reject any morality that is not connected with sensation, that does not grow out of it. The desire for fame, the well-deserved approval of others, according to Stendhal, is one of the most powerful incentives for human behavior.

Subsequently, Stendhal's views evolved: some indifference to social issues, characteristic of him in the era of the Empire, was replaced by an ardent interest in them. Influenced by political events and liberal theories during the Restoration, Stendhal began to think that constitutional monarchy was an inevitable stage on the path from the despotism of the Empire to the Republic, etc. But despite all this, Stendhal's political views remained unchanged.

A characteristic feature of modern French society, Stendhal believed, is hypocrisy. This is the government's fault. It is this that forces the French to hypocrisy. No one in France believes in the dogmas of Catholicism anymore, but everyone must assume the appearance of a believer. No one sympathizes with the reactionary policies of the Bourbons, but everyone should welcome them. From school, he learns to be a hypocrite and sees this as the only means of existence and the only opportunity to calmly go about his business.

Stendhal was a passionate hater of religion and especially the clergy. The power of the church over minds seemed to him the most terrible form of despotism. In his novel The Red and the Black, he portrayed the clergy as a social force fighting on the side of reaction. He showed how future priests are trained in the seminary, instilling in them crudely utilitarian and selfish ideas and by all means attracting them to the side of the government.

The influence of Stendhal's work on the further development of literature was broad and imaginative. The reason for this world fame is that Stendhal, with extraordinary insight, revealed the main, leading features of modernity, the contradictions tearing it apart, the forces struggling in it, the psychology of the complex and restless 19th century, all those features of the relationship between man and society that were characteristic of more than one only France.

With deep truthfulness, making him one of the greatest realists, he showed the movement of his era, freeing itself from the bonds of feudalism, from the domination of the capitalist elite, making its way to still vague, but inevitably attractive democratic ideals. With each novel, the scope of his images increased, and social contradictions appeared in great complexity and irreconcilability.

Stendhal's favorite heroes cannot accept the forms of life that emerged in the 19th century as a result of the revolution that led to the rule of the bourgeoisie. They cannot come to terms with a society in which feudal traditions have uglyly reckoned with the triumphant “purity”. The preaching of independence of thought, energy that rejects absurd prohibitions and traditions, the heroic principle that tries to break through to action in an inert and rough environment, is hidden in this revolutionary in nature, excitingly truthful creativity.

That is why even now, so many years after Stendhal’s death, his works are read in all countries by millions of people, whom he helps to understand life, appreciate the truth and fight for a better future. That is why our readers recognize him as one of the greatest artists of the 19th century, who made an invaluable contribution to world literature.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Documentary films - The Hunt for Happiness, or Stendhal's Orc Love

✪ Stendhal, Bombe

✪ Stendhal: “The insignificance of literature is a symptom of the state of civilization”

✪ Stendhal "Red and Black". Brief summary of the novel.

Subtitles

Biography

early years

Henri Bayle (pseudonym Stendhal) was born on January 23 in Grenoble in the family of lawyer Chérubin Bayle. Henrietta Bayle, the writer's mother, died when the boy was seven years old. Therefore, his aunt Seraphi and his father were involved in his upbringing. Little Henri did not have a good relationship with them. Only his grandfather Henri Gagnon treated the boy warmly and attentively. Later in his autobiography “The Life of Henri Brulard” Stendhal recalled: “I was entirely brought up by my dear grandfather, Henri Gagnon. This rare person once made a pilgrimage to Ferney to see Voltaire, and was wonderfully received by him..." Henri Gagnon was a fan of the Enlightenment and introduced Stendhal to the works of Voltaire, Diderot and Helvetius. From then on, Stendhal developed an aversion to clericalism. Due to Henri's childhood encounter with the Jesuit Ryan, who forced him to read the Bible, he had a lifelong horror and mistrust of clergy.

While studying at the Grenoble central school, Henri followed the development of the revolution, although he hardly understood its importance. He studied at school for only three years, mastering, by his own admission, only Latin. In addition, he was interested in mathematics, logic, studied philosophy, and studied art history.

In 1802, gradually becoming disillusioned with Napoleon, he resigned and lived for the next three years in Paris, educating himself, studying philosophy, literature and English. As follows from the diaries of that time, the future Stendhal dreamed of a career as a playwright, a “new Moliere.” Having fallen in love with the actress Mélanie Loison, the young man followed her to Marseille. In 1805 he returned to serve in the army again, but this time as a quartermaster. As an officer in the quartermaster service of the Napoleonic army, Henri visited Italy, Germany, and Austria. During his hikes, he found time to think and wrote notes about painting and music. He filled thick notebooks with his notes. Some of these notebooks were lost while crossing the Berezina.

Literary activity

After the fall of Napoleon, the future writer, who had a negative perception of the Restoration and the Bourbons, resigned and left for seven years in Italy, in Milan. It was here that he prepared for publication and wrote his first books: “Biographies of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio” (), “History of Painting in Italy” (), “Rome, Naples and Florence in 1817”. Large chunks of the text of these books are borrowed from the works of other authors.

Having procured himself a long vacation, Stendhal spent a fruitful three years in Paris from 1836 to 1839. During this time, “Notes of a Tourist” (published in 1838) and the last novel “The Abode of Parma” were written. (Stendhal, if he did not come up with the word “tourism,” was the first to introduce it into wide circulation). The attention of the general reading public to the figure of Stendhal in 1840 was attracted by one of the most popular French novelists, Balzac, in his “Etude on Bayle”. Shortly before his death, the diplomatic department granted the writer a new leave of absence, allowing him to return to Paris for the last time.

In recent years, the writer was in a very serious condition: the disease progressed. In his diary, he wrote that he was taking medications and potassium iodide for treatment, and that at times he was so weak that he could hardly hold a pen, and therefore was forced to dictate texts. Mercury medications are known to have many side effects. The assumption that Stendhal died of syphilis does not have sufficient evidence. In the 19th century, there was no relevant diagnosis of this disease (for example, gonorrhea was considered the initial stage of the disease, there were no microbiological, histological, cytological and other studies) - on the one hand. On the other hand, a number of figures of European culture were considered to have died from syphilis - Heine, Beethoven, Turgenev and many others. In the second half of the 20th century, this point of view was revised. For example, Heinrich Heine is now considered to have suffered from one of the rare neurological ailments (more precisely, a rare form of one of the ailments).

On March 23, 1842, Stendhal, having lost consciousness, fell right on the street and died a few hours later. Death most likely occurred from a recurrent stroke. Two years earlier, he suffered his first stroke, which was accompanied by severe neurological symptoms, including aphasia.

In his will, the writer asked to write on the gravestone (done in Italian):

Arrigo Bayle

Milanese

Wrote. I loved. Lived

Works

Fiction constitutes a small fraction of what Bayle wrote and published. To earn his living, at the dawn of his literary career, he in great haste “created biographies, treatises, memories, memoirs, travel sketches, articles, even original “guides” and wrote much more books of this kind than novels or short story collections” ( D. V. Zatonsky).

His travel essays “Rome, Naples et Florence” (“Rome, Naples and Florence”; 3rd ed.) and “Promenades dans Rome” (“Walks around Rome”, 2 vols.) were popular with travelers throughout the 19th century for Italy (although the main estimates from the standpoint of today's science seem hopelessly outdated). Stendhal also owns “The History of Painting in Italy” (vols. 1-2;), “Notes of a Tourist” (fr. "Mémoires d'un touriste", vol. 1-2), the famous treatise “On Love” (published in).

Novels and stories

• The first novel - “Armance” (French “Armance”, vol. 1-3) - about a girl from Russia who receives the inheritance of a repressed Decembrist, was not successful.
• "Vanina Vanini" (fr. "Vanina Vanini",) - a story about the fatal love of an aristocrat and a carbonari, filmed in 1961 by Roberto Rossellini
• “Red and black” (fr. "Le Rouge et le Noir"; 2 t., ; 6 hours, ; Russian translation by A. N. Pleshcheev in “Domestic Notes”, ) - the most important work of Stendhal, the first career novel in European literature; was highly praised by major writers, including Pushkin and Balzac, but was not initially successful with the general public.
• In the adventure novel “Parma Abode” ( "La Chartreuse de Parme"; 2 volumes -) Stendhal gives a fascinating description of court intrigues at a small Italian court; The Ruritanian tradition of European literature dates back to this work.

• The novel “Red and White”, or “Lucien Leuven” (fr. "Lucien Leuwen", - , published).
• The autobiographical story “The Life of Henri Brulard” (French) was also published posthumously. "Vie de Henry Brulard", , ed. ) and “Memoirs of an Egotist” (fr. "Souvenirs d'égotisme", , ed. ), unfinished novel “Lamielle” (fr. "Lamiel", - , ed. , completely) and “Excessive favor is destructive” (, ed. -).

Editions

• The complete works of Bayle in 18 volumes (Paris, -), as well as two volumes of his correspondence (), were published by Prosper Mérimée.
• Collection op. edited by A. A. Smirnova and B. G. Reizov, vol. 1-15, Leningrad - Moscow, 1933-1950.
• Collection op. in 15 vols. General ed. and entry Art. B. G. Reizova, t. 1-15, Moscow, 1959.
• Stendhal (Bayle A. M.). Moscow during the first two days of the French entry into it in 1812. (From Stendhal’s diary)/Message. V. Gorlenko, note. P. I. Barteneva // Russian Archive, 1891. - Book. 2. - Issue. 8. - P. 490-495.

Characteristics of creativity

Stendhal expressed his aesthetic credo in the articles “Racine and Shakespeare” (1822, 1825) and “Walter Scott and the Princess of Cleves” (1830). In the first of them, he interprets romanticism not as a specific historical phenomenon inherent in the beginning of the 19th century, but as a revolt of innovators of any era against the conventions of the previous period. The standard of romanticism for Stendhal is Shakespeare, who “teaches movement, variability, the unpredictable complexity of worldview.” In the second article, he abandons Walter Scott’s tendency to describe “the clothes of the heroes, the landscape among which they are located, their facial features.” According to the writer, it is much more productive in the tradition of Madame de Lafayette to “describe the passions and various feelings that excite their souls.”

Like other romantics, Stendhal longed for strong feelings, but could not close his eyes to the triumph of philistinism that followed the overthrow of Napoleon. The age of Napoleonic marshals - figures in their own way as bright and integral as the condottieres of the Renaissance - was replaced by "loss of personality, drying out of character, disintegration of the individual." Just as other French writers of the 19th century sought an antidote to vulgar everyday life in a romantic escape to the East, to Africa, less often to Corsica or Spain, Stendhal created for himself an idealized image of Italy as a world that, in his view, retained direct historical continuity with dear to his heart, the Renaissance.

Meaning and influence

At the time when Stendhal formulated his aesthetic views, European prose was entirely under the spell of Walter Scott. Progressive writers preferred a slow-paced narrative with extensive exposition and lengthy descriptions designed to immerse the reader in the environment where the action takes place. Stendhal's moving, dynamic prose was ahead of its time. He himself predicted that it would be appreciated no earlier than 1880

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Stendhal (pseud., real name - Henri Marie Beyle, Beyle) (1783-1842), French writer. Born on January 23, 1783 in Grenoble into a middle-class family. The impressions of his childhood years later echoed in the views and paradoxes of the mature writer. In all of Stendhal's major novels there is a theme of a conspiracy of young, full of life people against stupid and tyrannical elders.

During Napoleonic campaigns, Bayle served as an officer in the quartermaster service and undoubtedly exaggerated the horrors he experienced. He most often took indirect participation in many major battles, including Borodino, and during the retreat from Moscow he showed courage and fortitude. However, according to his internal makeup, he was not suitable either for military service or for an bureaucratic career. When Napoleon abdicated the throne in 1814, Bayle almost happily went to Italy to engage in literary work.

Love is a delightful flower, but it takes courage to come and pluck it from the brink.

Stendhal

The book Rome, Naples et Florence (1817) was published under the pseudonym of Stendhal and revealed his enthusiastic amateurism; travel impressions are mixed here with lightweight social and aesthetic criticism. However, later, in the treatise On Love, Stendhal's penchant for introspection manifested itself. His first attempt at fiction was the novel Armance (1827). The next novel, Red and Black (Le rouge et le noir, 1831), fully revealed his writing capabilities. The prototype of Julien Sorel was the young provincial Antoine Berthe, who in 1827 was convicted and executed for the murder of his mistress. The episode of the criminal chronicle appeared to Stendhal as the tragedy of a talented person who did not find use for his abilities and energy during the Restoration era (the time of action in the book is approximately 1826-1830). Finally, in a wonderful burst of inspiration, in 52 days he created his masterpiece - the Parma Monastery (La Chartreuse de Parme, 1839). One of the greatest discoveries of the novel were the battle scenes. The Battle of Waterloo is seen through the eyes of an almost random participant, an inexperienced, confused young man, unable to connect and comprehend its individual episodes. Both L.N. Tolstoy and E. Hemingway noted Stendhal’s new vision of war and their dependence on him. The impetus for the plot of the novel was given by Italian chronicles, which described the early years of A. Farnese, later of Pope Paul III, as well as some circumstances of the life of the sculptor and writer B. Cellini. O. Balzac wrote an enthusiastic article about the novel, especially praising the only battle scene in Stendhal’s work. Stendhal died in Paris on March 22, 1842.