O wretched soul, what sweetness it was!How we burned at the moment when I sawthose eyes that I might never see again.Lines from Petrarch, on handkerchief given secretly as a gift in novel's forbidden love affairThe 1839 Charterhouse represented a movement away and forward from the romanticism of Stendhal's time, this was one of the earliest examples of realism in a way that was considered revolutionary then; Balzac considered it the most important novel of his time. Though some elements of the r...

This didn't fit me at all. I will explain why. You then must determine if your likes and dislikes match up with mine.I am not judging Stendhal’s book. Who am I to make such a judgment?! My rating merely reflects my personal appreciation of it. My one star rating indicates only that I personally do not like it.The story circles around court romances and intrigues. The setting is predominantly Italy after Waterloo. At the start, the central figure goes off to fight under Napoleon. We travel with h...

Yes, life can be an Abattoir. Who said it couldn't?In 1975, I lugged this paperback along with my brown bag lunch on my trips into the dreary downtown enclave that first fitfully entombed my youthful dreams - my dark office at the outset of my thirty-year fully-pensionable life sentence.As my enthusiasm waned there, though eschewing the ribald loves of my fellow lifers’ way of all flesh, I found a fond friend in Fabrizio - O yes, Stendhal‘s ever-young protagonist, Fabrizio! You see, his wayward

“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.” ⟶ The Charterhouse of Parma can be seen as a blend of a social novel, a political novel, an adventure novel, a romantic thriller, and yet manages to oppose every single classification. Much like War and Peace this novel is complex, long, and full of different plot devices; the topic range goes from the Napoleonic wars, the monarchy and court hierarchy along with the petty games of aristocr

A dazzling "opera" and the worldliest of books ever written.Parmesan courtlife is both Machiavellian & Ruritanian. Courtiers, politicos, Great Ladies and Ministers of State banter, plot, betray and caress romantic dreams within a maze of social maneuvers. The young hero has a Candide-quality and his high-born aunt - a duchess who uses sex with brains as a handbook on tactics - is among the most enchanting women in fiction.

A sprawling, sloppy, often-exhilarating read. It is an almost absolute middle point between Tom Jones (the handsome lead, the vignette-y style, the wonderful humor, the slapsticky regard for human life, the excess coincidences that characterize the early novel) and War and Peace, which it clearly influenced in its court/war split and its fascination with Napoleon. It is too long by half - the scenes of intrigue in Parma are remarkably redundant - and has some messy threads that never really reso...

One of the best books I've read. Politics, action, humanism vs.conservatism, passion vs. lack of passion, lovers, rivals, extreme wealth and the values of aristocracy, all the characters with both good and bad actions and ways of thinking. Set in the autocratic monarchy of Parma in Italy between 1815 and 1830. A fascinating exploration of what motivates people and how they act. The plot is held together by the stories of a brilliant, activist Duchess and her impetuous nephew, but includes many m...

A criticism of Stendhal is a bit like undertaking a vertiginous ascent without equipment; beware of slippery ground! The Charterhouse of Parma, in this case, is one of those monuments of French literature that readers share. It has marked many generations of high school students with varying degrees of happiness, leaving everyone with mixed impressions ranging from rejection to passion under the responsibility of more or less inspired teachers. Let us recall the facts: on September 3, 1838, Sten...

I could have considered it a masterpiece, if the characters hadn't rushed to die, one after the other, towards the end. As far as I know, the novel was written in a marathon- style, inspiration maybe diminishing in the same rythm as the accumulated fatigue. I'm not necessarily a fan of happy endings, but not one of genocides either. One above the other, a novel that should not be missing from the collection of any passionate reader. The final epithet " To the happy few " - still remains an enigm...

In somewhat stark contrast to the darkness of the The Red and the Black, La Chartreuse de Parme is a comedic masterpiece from a youthful Stendhal. Well, humorous as well as languorous at the end. In it is one of the funniest incidents in all of French literature (perhaps eclipsed by the "souliers rouge" incident in Coté de Guermantes) where the hapless protagonist Fabrice dreams of Napoleon and somehow wanders onto the battlefield of Waterloo - rather like someone in Universal Studios would rand...

I read this looking for more atmosphere and details about the Napoleonic wars, having just read War and Peace in which Tolstoy does a wonderful job of conveying how Napoleon's Russian campaign was viewed by some sections of Russian society. The beginning of this novel was promising with descriptions of how the people of Milan and the surrounding area viewed the Napoleonic conquest but soon the author began a long and involved courtly love saga that might have belonged more in the twelfth century...

As I read this book in Spanish, on the early morning bus, fighting sleep, buffeted by both the heating and air conditioning, it took me almost as long to read it than it took Stendhal to write it (52 days, in his case). This is probably not ideal. Some books are to be savored, but others are to be gobbled up; and this book belongs to the latter category. It is uneven, erratic, romantic, rushed, and equal parts tedious and thrilling. There is no character to match Julien Sorel, of The Red and the...

JR was writing a little note on a piece of parchment when a cry was heard outside his door. ‘Bring him here, the rascal. I shall have his head cut off!’ There was a commotion and the door was opened and he recognized Conte Crescenzi, quite inebriated, and spouting forth such obscenities that would have made the most devilish of villains blush. Such buffooneries were uttered that even the dogs barking outside were scandalized. It was later claimed by the lowest class that at the same moment, insi...

I picked this up last month because I'm a huge fan of The Red And The Black, easily one of my top five novels. Stendahl was a nineteenth century French satirist who bascially invented the realistic psychological novel, and The Red And The Black is a wicked black comedy about a cunning young priest who plots to become Pope, and his subsequent adventures in high society. Like I say I loved this book so I had high hopes for Charterhouse.Unfortunately, in my opinion after a promising start this book...

Standard 19th century French novel? Not even close. This book defies almost every convention of the novel, and it was written before any of those conventions were even recognized! No hero, no heroine, no real plot; no morality lesson; Machiavellian politics for everyone; love doesn't conquer all; love doesn't even exist in this world until the main character gets locked away in prison for a womb-like nine months; a narrator who couldn't care less about the whole thing...this is so modern it hurt...

This is honestly one of the strangest and most exhilarating novels you are ever likely to read. Stendhal explores the 'reality' or perhaps madness of living with passion, without fear or conformity. One never quite knows whether one's reading a realist historical novel or a bizarre fantasy, but all the same it is captivating and intriguing in every twist or turn. Quite unpredictable throughout.

A long twisting tale of love and intrigue.Masterful story telling. Fun to read.

Stendhal depicts both the amorous passion and the predilection for court intrigue present in the Italian character, yet he does this with an irony and a political analysis indisputably French, thereby producing not only a great realistic novel but a work which comments on the romantic novels that have gone before. And yet--here is the marvelous part--"The Charterhouse of Parma," for all its realism, is still an incredibly romantic novel, containing a battle, a duel, a knife fight, various disgui...

2 1/2 starsApparently Balzac considered this to be the most important French novel of its time. I haven't read anything by Balzac but just going off of this comment I think we must have vastly different tastes. Either that or all the other books released were really really bad. Or possibly the translator did a really shoddy job?The book had its good points - it was frequently slyly funny for instance - but my overriding impression of it is just that it was a humongous mess. I never knew what the...

Not bad until the end where it grows maudlin, alas, and becomes a slog. Worthwhile overall, but The Red and the Black it isn't.