Cures for Love

by Stendhal, Gilbert Sale (translator), Suzanne Sale. (translator)

Love can be surprising. Love can be heartbreaking. Love can be an art. But love is the singular emotion that all humans rely on most . . . and crave endlessly, no matter what the cost. United by this theme of love, the nine titles in the Penguin Great Loves collection include tales of blissful and all- encompassing, doomed and tragic, erotic and absurd, seductive and adulterous, innocent and murderous love. A deeply moving addition to the Penguin Great Ideas and Great Journeys series, each gorgeously packaged book will challenge all expectations of love while celebrating the beauty of its existence.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Philosophy, France, Romance, 19th Century, French Literature

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1822

About the author

Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).

Reviews

[Frankie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up as a feeble substitution for reading De L'Amour in its entirety. I realize I may be missing some redeeming parts by not reading the whole, but I'm ultimately relieved at not having submerged myself. I hate to say it, but I regard Stendhal's subject here as a mythology. One word has been floating at the back of my brain while reading this, and I'll have out with it: it's all so insipid. Maybe Stendhal doesn't deserve it. He tries, after all, to define something ethereal. I'm a fan of Stendhal's fiction in which he holds class and wealth distinctions up to the light. That type of realism doesn't work with something as inconstant as love.

The first 11 chapters are objective, almost instructional, and enlightening for the most part. In Chapter 6, his attempts to define infatuation are intuitive. "Before the nature of an object can produce its proper sensation in them [the infatuated], they have blindly invested it from afar with imaginary charm…" (p18) His finest chapter is 10, "Love at Loggerheads", in which he defines two distinct types of argumentative relationships. It's very insightful. I identify more readily with the definition of conflict than the definition of affection.

The problem with these chapters is that Stendhal diagnoses the ailments quite well, but fails to treat the condition. His eponymous "cures for love" are not effective and impossible to employ.

The final chapter is difficult and simply unreadable. It's a list of notes (170) that take up the last two thirds of the volume, some are the author's observances and some quotes with little reference to their original. Most are incoherent.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some observations and maxims were interesting, but for the most part they're a little outdated.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only worth reading if you're trying to get a handle on his other work. Full of silly ideas, for example that a man can be constant to his true love despite sleeping with other people. If you find yourself trying to persuade someone that they should love you, give up, it's never going to happen, don't write a book explaining why their feelings are wrong and in fact they don't understand love at all. I realise this is part of a literary tradition of unrequited, hopeless devotion being seen as the purest form of love, but to modern readers it feels like a long letter from a stalker.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a lot of incoherent psychobabble, but there are a few gems. On jealousy, Stendhal writes that "You must conceal your love from your rival. Secretly, calmly, and simply, and on some pretext totally unrelated to love, you should say: 'Sir, I do not know why the public chooses to credit me with little Miss So-and-so, and is even so good as to believe me in love with her. If you wanted her, why, you could have her with all my heart, were it not that unfortunately I should be made to look a fool. In six months' time you can have all you want of her, but today the honor, which, heaven knows why, attaches to these things, compels me to warn you, to my great regret, that if by any chance you lack the fairness to await your turn, one of us will have to die.'"

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very good. I like Lover's Discourse a bit more for this sorta thing... There are many, many gems and his writing can be very beautiful for some parts. Mostly though, Stendhal just bags on the French, and talks about men being passionate/from the brain vs. women who are emotional/from the heart- along with many other time-specific, dated reflections- which can be very cool from a historical, comparative standpoint.

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like the 19th century equivalent of an inspirational quotes blog. Saved from one star because he occasionally dug his way our of the heap of self-indulgent "maxims" to actually say something pretty interesting.

[christopher leibow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book with great insight. Some great quotables and funny but effective advice on how to deal with jealousy, or multiple suitors.

[Emilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really coherent, a little like some angry guy writing random crap on post-its and publishing it, or its 19th century equivalent. Loved the jibes on the French though!

[Bosibori]

Okay, I just discovered Penguin Great Loves...a series of 20 books. They look interesting.

[Daiton Lloyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

This brudda is such a waffler. He tried to sound profound but it was all a bunch of nonsense that didn’t make sense

0.5 stars

[Mai Farnhammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so admittedly I only got through 80% of this due to time constraints, but I’m quite far behind on my reading goal so will cheekily add it 🤭

Kind of misogynistic & crude but I do think there’s some truth in this poetry

[Kit McEvoy Gould · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not put off reading Stendhal, but this little book has little to offer.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta vendría a ser una síntesis de la obra Del amor considerando las notas publicadas como apéndice o como Fragmentos en otras ediciones. "De l'amour" en francés es una obra muy particular de Stendhal, según algunos una de sus obras favoritas. Lo leí debido a que le tengo en muy alto gracias a sus novelas "Rojo y Negro" y "La cartuja de Parma" que son mis favoritas y las he releído varias veces. Pero Del amor, a pesar de su título que pudiera parecer novelesco es más bien un ENSAYO del autor muy personal pero al fin y al cabo hecho para probar algunas de sus afirmaciones sobre todo lo relacionado a las relaciones sentimentales y pasionales.
Es el lado de Stendhal que la verdad menos me gusta, como dice Ortega y Gasset en su apreciación sobre la obra: "Stendhal tenía muchas teorías pero era un mal teorizador", como producto tenemos un TRATADO sobre el Amor poco fácil de leer y obviamente no puede parecer entretenido de leer a simple vista. Estoy seguro que para muchos puede incomodar un cierto "aire de sabiduría" que siempre ha tenido Stendhal en sus escritos, pero que bien interpretados podemos nosotros darle una adecuada interpretación, dando por resultado que a veces parezcan algunas conclusiones suyas poco lógicas.
Pero creo que estamos ante una persona muy perspicaz y sobre todo "de mundo" el cual nos da un retrato muy fiel de cómo se sentía el amor y la pasión en la Europa del siglo XIX. Habla de muchos ejemplos contemporáneos en su época (la cual a pesar de conocer bastante igual sentía que me perdía entre tantos personajes), de las pasiones y testimonios en Francia, Italia, España, Alemania, Inglaterra, Etc que él mismo ordena y da diversos grados de valoración. Su teoría fundamental se basa en la "cristalización" proceso por el cual el enamorado idealiza a la persona amada y de esta manera el amor se vuelve más pasional. Teoriza sobre las distintas clases de amor y sobre su perspectiva sobre cómo se ama en cada país.
Es como digo una teorización sobre el amor, el buscar sus causas, consecuencias, Etc no es un tratado sobre cómo amar o cómo enamorar como alguien podría pensar. Pero a pesar de su desorden y que es difícil interpretarlo al leerlo uno se encuentra ante la BASE con la cual Stendhal hizo sus grandes obras "Rojo y Negro" y "La cartuja de Parma"; y la lectura de "Del Amor" me ha hecho comprender muchas cosas del pensamiento stendhaliano que él plasmó y de las cuales se sirvió para construir sus monumentales obras.
Constituye yo creo un valioso compendio y lo que más me llamó la atención es el parecido que yo encuentro en la forma y tradición francesa de aquel siglo XIX y su similitud con los tiempos contemporáneos. A menos que Stendhal haya hecho todo una farsa pero la Francia de ese siglo se parece bastante a nuestros días a diferencia de lo que él relata en otros países. También merece un elogio aparte la comparación que hace entre Werther y Don Juan el cual puede resumir en gran parte sus pensamientos y para mí es uno de los temas principales.
Mi edición de más de 400 páginas al incluir sus Fragmentos pueden ser muy interesantes para sacar frases memorables aunque otras también muy simples. No es definitivamente una de sus grandes obras para un 5 ni tan bajo como para un 2. Considero 3.5 su puntuación según mi gusto.
Una segunda lectura se me hace obligatoria.

[Mari · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is very little for the modern reader to connect with, and more to find fault with - like when he writes about women ‘merely passing the time of day w/intelligent men... [while] lost in the admiration of utter fools’ (okay, Nice Guy), or when he writes that the “poor unfortunates” at a monastery are “wretched” and lack “courage to kill themselves”, except, of course, the leaders (what?). I didn’t find anything here that resonated with me.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting - some of Stendhal's observations really still ring true today, but I can't agree with his obsessive need to divorce morality from love: he makes the leap from saying that human beings look for pleasure and try to avoid pain, to saying that it is always entirely foolish to deny oneself pleasure for reasons of morality.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contained gems of poetic brilliance. At times, it felt like the author was referencing specific then-current events and persons without providing enough explanation. This made much of the narrative incomprehensible.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you read this book in the context of it's current value today, you'll most likely find it to be a lighthearted and very amusing backward glance into the warped minds of the sexually frustrated.
N.B. Not to be used as a self help guide for the love sick.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ways to look at love.

[Johnny B. Rempit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely NOT my cup of tea.

[Nadrah]

:)

[Tim Caines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite funny in parts and many true points made.

[Seymour Glass · Rating 1 out of 5]

the usual old school misogynist nonsense. if i read the words 'a woman should...' one more time i'll eat my own hand.

[Jenna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not a great selection of maxims.

[Alex Margolies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yawn!

[Gemma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must admit at this point that the Penguin Great Loves boxset has proven to be pretty disappointing so far. This is the fifth book and is extracts from Stendhal's longer work, De l'Amour.

The book consists of a series of musings about different aspects of love, under headings such as Infatuation, Glances and Jealousy. The text was inspired by his own experience of being rejected by a woman he loved which, combined with the time when it was written, may go some way to explain the misogynistic views spouted in it.

To give an example, "I see them praising folly, moved to tears by mawkishness, and gravely weighing mere affectation as a trait of character. How they can be so silly is beyond me. There must be some law of nature I haven't heard about."

I gave up on this after deciding I didn't really want to spend time reading the "silly" opinions of a man with a bruised ego. It did lead me to question its inclusion in this boxset. There is a distinct lack of female voices in the series as it is, but to be including this kind of dated nonsense is an interesting choice. I am all for reading critically and learning from our history but I am not sure these extracts are worthy even of that.

[Hali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Going to be frank, I didn't enjoy this in the slightest. It was really difficult to follow at times, and obviously very old fashioned with very dated views. Strikingly Eurocentric. Definitely one star.
However, I believe that even if you don't enjoy something, there are still things to be learnt. And Stendhal did have some observations that I thought were interesting :
What he refers to as "crystallization"- I believe is (again difficult to follow!) where your love for someone starts to take shape in all aspects of your life. Could be wrong but I did like this idea : "One of your friends goes hunting, and breaks his arm: wouldn't it be wonderful to be looked after by the one you love!" Literally, within the whole novel, this was the only thing I liked. How after you fall in love, you start to imagine yourself in all manners of everyday situations with that person. This is definitely a weird example he's given (I'm sure you wouldn't want a broken arm just to be treated by your person)but it makes in another situations. Imagining going to the cinema, the park, going to the supermarket, these are all things that become all the more appealing when they are done with the person you love.
But as I said, that was the only thing I liked reading about. And it was one page of the entire novel.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is more of a non fiction work as opposed to a lot of the books in the Great Loves collection which have been taken from other fiction works by those authors, this is instead more of a bit of an essay than a story.

In this volume, which apparently has been abridged from another work by Stendhal, he talks about things like the various types of love and whether or not you can overcome jealousy and things like that. Probably if you were reading the full work then it would make a little bit more sense and be a bit easier to get through whereas it seems a bit jarring to have an abridged version of something that is already apparently quite short.

[M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing is so interesting as passion; everything about it is unexpected, its agent is also its victim. Love is the only passion which rewards itself in a coin of its own manufacture.

The tone is so serious, as if the author is attempting to write serious arguments in a serious essay!
Obviously it isn’t that, it’s more a set of ramblings from an 18th century guy, filled with comically stupid assessments of women, savages and French.But it was interesting to read how he tried to dissect the topic of love back in the day.

[Andrew McDonnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's interesting to read other people's responses to the text. For me, this is a brilliant satire on European desire and transgression. It treats its subject as a myth (male jouissance in action), playing on classical ideas of unrequited, unsatisfactory and unhealthy love. Its a guide to the bourgeois social ideologies of Napoleonic Europe and the hypocrisies and insanity of the European civilisation. It's actually very funny, and excoriating.

[NoBeatenPath · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet meditation on the nature of love and relationships. Stendhal can be by turns tender and biting as he describes love and attraction. This book is quite sexist, though the reader should probably take into account the time and society in which the writer was living.