La Chartreuse de Parme

by Stendhal

À Parme, l'ombre de la chartreuse s'étend sur la cour et sur les intrigues aristocratiques des quelques happy few qui l'animent : Gina la belle duchesse, le comte Mosca, mais surtout le jeune Fabrice del Dongo, qui suscite l'amour de tous ceux qui le croisent. Comment ne pas l'aimer, ce jeune rêveur plein de grâce, qui transfigure la réalité ? Mais lui, que tout le monde aime, qui saura-t-il aimer ? C'est la question qui hante Fabrice, et Stendhal nous entraîne dans sa quête, qui le conduira de Milan à Parme, de Waterloo au lac de Côme, jusqu'à la prison de la tour Farnèse où son destin va basculer...

Roman d'apprentissage ou rêverie italienne ? Tout l'art de Stendhal tient justement à cette ambiguïté, entre un amer constat d'impuissance et une invitation à la magie poétique, entre désenchantement et ré-enchantement. Sans conteste, La Chartreuse de Parme est, avec Le Rouge et le Noir, le chef-d'oeuvre de Stendhal. --Karine Lanini

Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, French Literature, Literature, 19th Century, Historical Fiction

506 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1839

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

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 mom and sparkling little aunt had given this kid a very long leash indeed.

Careful, ladies... His erratically errant psychological type is the kind of persona you have to watch - closely. As folks had to watch BOTH of us back then.

For Quixotic at heart, Fabrizio and I had vowed never to rescind our Law of the Quest.

You see, we were born - and remained - rather dense naïfs, Fabrizio and I.

And if you’re like that, and just let the good times roll, you’re only headed for one of life’s many brick walls.

It’s just plain fact.

So here is Fabrizio, chafing at the bit for his first Quest, like Lord Byron’s Childe Harold, taking off for whatever Lady Luck might throw his way, leaving his childhood château to go onward and outward into the grim facts of life, in a Napoleonic Era paysage moralisé.

Perhaps it will do him some good...

And so, when his wonderful questing is rewarded with the Gorgon’s head of a thankless coming of age - finally! - reading that, I consoled myself with the empathetic thought that, like him, perhaps my best bet, and my ticket out of this darkly hellish lifelong sentence In an awful office, would be in the cloistered life of peaceful recollection he finally opts for.

And that’s to a certain extent what I’ve been given, now that my pension has locked in. A life of peaceful reflection - books and meditations on books. All I ever wanted. And now - after my life’s disastrous obstacle course - how sweet it all is.

Now, what I’ve said here is only the barest of outlines of Stendhal’s whopping good yarn.

In effect, though, he is preaching his rather coarse “make hay while the sun shines” to the youth of the Machine Age, who may, like Fabrizio and me, have had their noses otherwise perpetually stuck in a dumb Book of Chivalry.

But you know, kind author, for all your robust seat-of-your-pants fictional action - and ever-apparent arch irony - you should know better than to have advised us, the Fabrizio’s of the free world, to “carpe diem.”

For in your own life as a career diplomat, black tedium dogged your steps to the end -

But, believing in the Code of a Timeless Lifelong Quest, and avoiding your private and perilous affairs of the heart, has brought me and Fabrizio, finally, to the Peace of its Fulfillment.

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 4 out of 5]

#bibliotecaafectiva

Dacă veți verifica, romanele pe care le-am pus sub eticheta „biblioteca afectivă” sînt exact acelea pe care nu le pot judeca rațional, rece, sobru, ci doar afectiv (sau sentimental) dintr-o pricină evidentă: le-am citit pentru prima dată cu mulți-mulți ani în urmă (în colegiu, să zicem, pe la 15 ani).

La o nouă lectură, nu mai văd în Mănăstirea din Parma doar povestea de dragoste dintre Fabrice del Dongo și Clélia Conti, fiica ambițiosului guvernator al fortăreței din Parma, și dau mult mai puțină importanță aventurilor nesăbuite ale tînărului marchiz: rătăcirea prin mulțimea buimacă de soldați aflată pe cîmpul de la Waterloo (în 19 iunie 1815), duelul înverșunat cu saltimbancul Giletti, evadarea din turnul Farnèse etc.

De fapt, adevărata poveste de iubire (o iubire pe care distratul ei nepot, Fabrice, n-o va băga în seamă) este aceea a ducesei de Sanseverina, mătușa eroului. În treacăt fie spus, nu sînt rude de sînge. Ducesa îl iubește pe Fabrice cu o dragoste sfîșietoare, imposibilă, pentru care este gata să facă orice sacrificiu. În opinia mea, cel mai puternic personaj al romanului este tocmai frumoasa Gina Pietranera, ducesă de Sanseverina. Un alt personaj memorabil este medicul Ferrante Palla, poet faimos, condamnat la moarte și obligat să trăiască ascuns prin păduri, ca un tîlhar la drumul mare. Firește, poetul (ca orice poet) e un pic smintit...

Aș aprecia, de asemenea, stilul cărții: simplu, nervos, ironic, la antipodul frazeologiei bombastice a lui Balzac sau Hugo. Stendhal a redactat romanul dintr-o suflare. S-a închis într-o odaie de pe strada Caumartin din Paris și nu a mai ieșit decît după 53 de zile, cînd romanul a fost gata. Harold Bloom spune că l-a dictat unui secretar. Se poate. Sfîrșitul cărții cu morțile lui fulgerătoare (mai întîi copilul, apoi Clélia, apoi Fabrice și, în fine, contesa) nu mi-a fost niciodată pe plac. Stendhal n-a fost foarte inspirat cînd a compus acest final melodramatic. Parcă a vrut să scape de toate personajele...

În încheiere, mă grăbesc să spun că titlul acestui roman e înșelător. El nu acoperă acțiunea cărții: Fabrice petrece doar un an în mănăsirea din Parma. Titlul sugerează o lume dominată de asceză și abstinență, dar lumea din roman este una a pasiunilor excesive, mistuitoare, letale...

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 disguises for the hero and others, a poetry-writing revolutionary highwayman, and the most romantic setting for a love-affair possible--a passionate encounter between an unjustly imprisoned young nobleman and the beautiful daughter of the prison warden, soon to be married to a rich man she despises!

None of this, however, turns out quite the way that it would for Dumas pere--or Anthony Hope, for that matter--for in the world of Stendhal the individual's romantic impulses--as in real life--are often thwarted by circumstance.

[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

A criticism of Stendhal is akin to undertaking a vertiginous ascent without proper 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 that range from rejection to passion, under the guidance of more or less inspired teachers. Let us recall the facts: on September 3, 1838, Stendhal had the idea of ​​writing The Charterhouse of Parma. On November 4, Stendhal moved to 4 Rue Caumartin in Paris. For seven weeks, he set to work and dictated the text of the Charterhouse to a secretary. Finally, on December 26, he submitted a text of more than five hundred pages to his editor. This bulimia of work requires, in itself, respect. And so there appears the extravagant hero of Stendhal, whose story we could briefly summarize: Fabrice del Dongo leads a peaceful and happy life with his family on the shores of Lake Como. But the young man dreams of glory on the battlefields. He goes to fight against Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, a questionable choice regarding the battle, which will cause him many problems with the political authorities. Wanted and suspected of espionage, he was hiding with his aunt. He then meets the beautiful Clélia, whose beauty subjugates him.
The epic novel The Charterhouse of Parma did not meet with resounding success when it was released. Balzac's support would be necessary for this story to break out of a desire to live that was both joyous and tragic. In 19th-century Italy, the reality of history rises to the fabulous adventure and borders on the romantic. It is all the talent of Stendhal that sublimates its events. In the story, he speaks to us of heroism through the feelings of revenge, incest, tyrannicide, and the naivety of a dreamy hero overwhelmed by the world around him.
To conclude, this pleasant novel traces a bygone era when it was challenging to project oneself. It dates back a little and references many other stories of the nineteenth century, but it lacks the power to evoke Hugo or Zola.

[Dream.M · Rating 4 out of 5]

بیشتر مخاطبان فارسی زبان، "استاندال" رو با "سرخ و سیاه" می‌شناسن. در حالیکه در جهان ادبیات، معروف ترین کتاب این نویسنده رمان "صومعه پارما " ست که آخرین اثر اون هم به شمار میاد.
این رمان، علاوه بر داستان دراماتیک عاشقانه و کلاسیک اش؛ از نظر سیاسی و تاریخی هم یک اثر وفادار و واقع گرایانه است که حوادثی مثل نبرد واترلو به رهبری ناپلئون بناپارت رو پوشش میده و وقایع اون بین سال‌های ۱۸۱۶ تا ۱۸۴۷ و در ایتالیا جریان داره.
اگر به داستان های تاریخی و سیاسی، ماجراهای پیچیده عاشقانه، عشق های ممنوع، دسیسه چینی های تاریخی و ماجراهای جنایاتی که زیر پوست تجملات پنهان شده علاقه دارید، این رمان رو از دست ندید چون همه اینها رو باهم داره.

من رمان رو با جدیدترین ترجمه که کاری از آقای نجابتی هستش خوندم که روان بود و سختی کلاسیک خوندن رو آسون می‌کرد.

[Mark André · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Adam Dalva · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 resolve. The ending is anticlimactic and strange. I think conceptions of literary STAKES were still missing at this point and so we are built toward a climax that we don't really care about and then fade away.

Fabrizio is a spectacularly useful character. He is sexy, lovable, and unbelievably stupid and impulsive. I would say he makes several of the worst decisions in literature - all of which drive the action of the book and keep us on our toes. There is a zesty incesty plot that is cleverly written around. There is possibly my favorite coincidence of this period of fiction (early on, at Waterloo. I won't spoil it). In fact, the entire before-Parma section of the book is absolutely thrilling.

Best of all though, is the stretch of the novel when Fabrizio is imprisoned in the beautifully designed tower. Brilliantly anticipated, wonderfully tense, oh-so-romantic. It's the "why I love to read" section of this book, resonant of the flood sequence in the Makioka Sisters. The rest of the novel doesn't live up to it. But then again, what could?

Oh, and the title is clever. Frances Ha-esque. Quick read for its length. The translation by Howard is excellent - the Modern Library edition is replete with typos.

[Jr Bacdayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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, inside the church of the Sta. Elena, tears fell from the Virgin’s eyes. Now JR had a tiny piece of dagger in his hilt and was ready to stab the Conte had the Conte attempted to draw his rapier. Alas, the Conte was there only to abuse the poor gentleman with his words. Earlier, he had been visiting a debtor in a rather dreadful tavern full of vagabonds when he heard a drunkard say ‘I say, here’s the Conte Crescenzi come to mingle with us dogs. I feel thee, better to be with us dogs than a wife who is a bitch to another man. Come and drink.’ The crowd inside the tavern was filled with guffaws for the drunkard’s insolence. The Conte’s face blushed with horror. He had never heard such an accusation, and from such a lowly person. Never before had he doubted his wife’s fidelity to him until that moment. Thus his heart was filled with great sorrow and he drunk such wine that the Savior would have died had it been all his blood the Conte was drinking. Then the suddenly passionate Conte broke into a sonnet he wrote as a boy once when his mother had struck him for pilfering a sou from her purse. When he finished the drunken crowd erupted with peals of laughter and insults, for the sonnet was not flattering and very novice. It even had a line which said ‘your maternal person is Machiavellian so let me suck the wiliness out of your teat,’ which seemed rather seditious to the crowd. Then a monstrously plump vagabond who liked to call himself Bonaparte made a declaration ‘a friend of mine writes appraisals better than that Jacobinical sonnet.’ The Conte was outraged. ‘Give me the name of this libertine and I shall hang him.’ The drunken Conte had fancied that the vagabond had implied that this person who made appraisals better than his sonnets was also the lover of his wife. It was his Italian blood, prone to fits of wild imaginings when in frenzy that we can attribute this to. And so Bonaparte declared the name JR and informed the furious Conte of his whereabouts. Full of zeal, the Conte made haste and left the tavern but not before he insulted the crowd with his profanities that are to be legendary for being astoundingly juvenile at the same time. And so this is where our story began, when the Conte arrived at the gentleman’s lodgings and here too shall it end. After assaulting JR with a furious besmirching, the Conte sat down and asked for some wine. ‘Let me wet my dry lips, clown.’ ‘It shall be as wet as the Contessa’s buds whenever I take her to be mine,’ responded JR quite amused by the Conte’s audacity to ask for wine from someone he just insulted. The Conte’s face blushed due to his very Catholic nature, however due to his intoxication he managed to summon some small ounce of courage and take a small knife from his boot to stab JR who was turned back quite busy decanting a Verdicchio. JR felt the sharp pain on his back and slowly his vision turned dark until everything was black as a crow’s eye. Emptiness. Death? But then light slowly came to him. He awoke inside his room with a copy of Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma on his face. He’d fallen asleep on his couch right after reading the novel. He smiled. That’s realism for you, he thought. But the smile vanished from his face when he looked at the clock and saw that it displayed the numbers seven fifty-eight. He sprang up, took a quick shower, changed clothes, got his bag and went out. He was late for class.

[adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 hurts. I wouldn't call this an easy or fun read, but I find myself thinking about the book a lot, long after I've finished it. It's really difficult to place and kinda powerful because of it...

[محمد نجابتی · Rating 5 out of 5]

« ...این کتاب که بر ضد ستمگری و خودکامگی است، در واقع صومعه‌ای است که ستون‌هایش بر تاریخ خودکامگان قرن هجدهم برپاست، درهایش بر بندگان و رعایا و بورژواهای کوچک بسته است، هر سنگش از نخوت و خودپسندی، نیرنگ و پستی و هوس پرداخته شده است و همان‌گونه که از نامش پیداست، مذهب مانند چادر تمام آن را از چشم ظاهربین خلق پنهان داشته است. راوی (استاندال)، کلید در دست، بر خواننده در می‌گشاید و حجره‌به‌حجره را به او نشان می‌دهد؛ در هر حجره کسی است: زنی زیبا و هوشمند، خودکامه‌ای برتری‌جو، دسیسه‌گرانی ماهر... و قهرمانی که خواننده به‌مرور می‌فهمد که قهرمان نیست، بلکه انسانی است که نیروهایش، اندک‌اندک و در سایۀ صداقت خطرانگیزی که با احساساتش دارد، متجلی می‌شود و هنگامی که به عشق (شناخت) دست می‌یابد، به‌یک‌باره شخص دیگری می‌شود، شخص دیگری که اکنون می‌توان قهرمانش خواند (زیرا خود انتخاب می‌کند).
و صومعه – که سنت و مذهب از نگاه‌ها پنهانش می‌دارد – تجلی‌گاه خصوصیات حیوان‌صفتانۀ کسانی است که شهوت قدرت، شهوت شهرت و شهوت ثروت مسخشان می‌کند و به قول نویسنده، عروسکی درباری ازشان می‌سازد. هرگاه بیگانه‌ای در جمع این آشنایانِ زیانکار سربرمی‌کشد (شاعری آزاده که محکوم به مرگی ناعادلانه است، دخترکی که پرنده و عشق را گریزی از تباهی درباریان می‌بیند، زنی گاریچی که در جنگْ همۀ خصال مردمان عامی را نشان می‌دهد...) خواننده را در وادی تضاد روابط، در گرداب قیاس و استنتاج، در شناسایی انسان و انسانیت رها می‌کند.
صومعۀ پارما رمانی است به‌غایت استادانه و هنرمندانه، اثری هنری و بزرگ، خالی از هرگونه فلسفه‌بافی. فراز و فرود دارد و همچون زندگی، بی‌شکلی و ابهامی است که می‌تواند چشمۀ جوشان هرگونه برداشت و تفسیر باشد. مثل درخت است که می‌توان از برگ سبز آن، با هوشیاری، پی به معرفت برد. و حقیقت هنر نیز همین است که بیش از زندگی، زندگی است.»

هرمز شهدادی – «چشمۀ جوشان ابهام» (دربارۀ صومعۀ پارمای استاندال)

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 sort of loses the thread. The majority of it is taken up with the bureaucratic and romantic intrigues of a court in the small Italian state of Parma, and to the modern Western reader most of this stuff is crushingly dull. Stendahl's great strength is showing us characters who are oblivious to their own inner motives (those motives being plain as day to us readers) and there is some of that here, as well as some compelling characters (especially the Duchesa Gina Sanservina, the real hero of the story), but markedly absent is the biting wit and barbed social commentary of Stendahl's other great novel.

This is one of those historic romance novels that always leaves me scratching my head and thinking "wait, are these characters sleeping together or not?" Perhaps I'm asking a bit much to have these elliptical intrigues spelled out for my modern sensibility, but it's frustrating to observe the behavior of these courtiers, who for all my experience with their weird ways might as well be attendants to the Prince of Mars.

Some of the ridiculous courtly behavior is funny, or illuminating of human weakness in a telling way, some of the scenes are great (the Waterloo sequence early in the book is absolutely amazing), some of the characters are worth getting to know, but there are weird plot twists that feel poorly introduced and then abandoned. Also, and I kid you not, some of the most significant and interesting action in this five hundred ten page novel takes place on the last ten pages! We spend hundreds of pages meandering around in these peoples lives, and then all this crazy intense shit happens to them at the very end and is totally glossed over! What were you thinking, Stendahl?

If you're a Stendahl fan you'll probably want to read this at some point, and maybe it's better than I know and I'm just not the best reader for this one. My opinion though, as if it weren't obvious, is that you should do yourself a favor and read The Red And The Black instead.

[Orsodimondo]

Non sono un fan di questo libro, ma non aggiungo commenti perch�� non credo di essere in grado: penso d'averlo affrontato in un periodo sbagliato.

[sigurd]

ho scoperto di essere stendhaliano per sentito dire, molto prima di leggere Stendhal, e precisamente leggendo un pomeriggio Alberto Savinio (quest'anno ho il proposito di stanarlo tutto, leggendolo). Il pittore e scrittore mezzo greco ammirava molto il grande Fabrizio Clerici, suo amico: artista surreale e immaginifico, incrocio tra Attanasio Kircher, Salvador Dalì e Picasso nella loro epoche classiche. Savinio affibbia a Clerici attributi che lo incasellano in quell'atmosfera vitale che è lo stendhalismo, la cui aria ho sempre respirato senza rendermene mai conto.
"Stendhaliani si nasce, non si diventa. Lo svagato deambulare di Fabrizio Clerici attraverso la vita; il suo lasciarsi prendere dalle cose più impensate; il suo fare scarso assegnamento sul potere della virilità, della forza, del pugno di ferro anche se guantato di velluto; il suo assaggiare le frasi e le più volte lasciarle a metà come indegne di essere formulate; il suo bighellonare anche nelle gradi svolte della Storia; il suo fannullare anche in mezzo alle più folte occupazioni; il lento vagare dei suoi occhi a mandorla bianca.., il suo ignorare le 'grandi mete' e rendere omaggio alle mete minime e inapparenti; il suo dilettantismo di razza; il suo tener dietro al proprio naso - mi avevano dato sicuro indizio di stendhalismo. L’amico stendhaliano è necessario. E’ il compagno leggero, l'Ariele di questo mondo asciutto d'acqua e d'aria… Tu come Clerici e io come Chirico siamo oltre a tutto anche parenti… mi unisco alla tua stessa radice clericus, e assieme risaliamo al comune klericòs cioè a dire tutto quello che tocca in sorte.
A noi che toccherà in sorte? Tutto. Poichè questa è la misteriosa virtù di noi stendhaliani, di avere la nostra propria sorte nella sorte di tutte le cose, dalle massime alle minime, di essere noi soli come voleva essere Nietzsche, come una volta erano gli dèi: dappertutto e in nessun luogo".

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Chrissie · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 him to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria, but the Italian area around Parma is home. It is not the common folk that we rub shoulders with but instead princes and dukes and duchesses, counts and countesses, marquis, archbishops and others of high standing that we associate with. There are brigands to be outwitted. What is delivered are tales of adventure and romance and intrigue. Conflagrations, poisonings, obductions, imprisonments and escapes fill the tale. Swooning romances too. The tale is plot oriented. Both the prose and the unfurling of the plot are way too soap-operatic for my taste. Take what I am saying seriously. The story is so overdone. One may laugh at its ridiculousness, sneer in distain or yawn of pure boredom.

I did follow the tale to the end. The only good point I can think of is that it doesn’t end with a super cute happy ending. You could reasonably say that Stendhal draws a realistic picture of Italian court life. I assume Stendhal was intending us to view that which is drawn with irony.

Eduardo Ballerini narrates the audiobook. His narration magnifies the soap-operatic tone of the tale. One might reason that it is a good narration because it has the same tone and style as the prose. The writing was hard enough for me to swallow. I didn’t enjoy further melodrama and exaggeration even if this does reflect the tone of the writing. Nope, I didn’t like the narration at all. Ballerini speaks the Italian words rapidly. This makes it harder to hear the names. This isn’t a serious problem though because most characters are known by their title.

Neither the narration nor the tale is to my liking. I have given both one star. If you enjoy novels of romance and melodramatic court intrigues, this book may be just your cup of tea. I am not going to try another Stendhal. I’ve had enough.

You should be happy. I copied down a whole bunch of lines to show you how ridiculous they were. I am sparing you them.

************************

*The Red and the Black 1 star
*The Charterhouse of Parma 1 star

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 randomly wander into a movie set for, say, Star Wars - and has his back turned just as Napoleon goes by, to his doom (Napoleon's that is!). It is - as all of Stendhal's books - extremely well-written and a masterpiece of 19th C French literature.

[Fionnuala]

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 than the nineteenth. Not exactly what I expected...

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

O wretched soul, what sweetness it was!
How we burned at the moment when I saw
those eyes that I might never see again.

Lines from Petrarch, on handkerchief given secretly as a gift in novel's forbidden love affair


The 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 romantic emotionalism linger, the novel turns to realism in more fully exploring human nature and psychology of its primary characters.

Stendhal, like the protagonist Fabrice del Dongo, served with Napoleon's army in the 1812 campaign into Russia. After Napoleon's fall, Stendhal lived six years in Italy, a country he fell in love with, before returning to his native France.

Upon return from serving with Napoleon's army, del Dongo returns to the intrigue and politics of the court of Parma and fends off repeated advances from his relatively young aunt by marriage, 15 years his senior. He falls head over heels for the young maiden Clelia and they begin a platonic affair...until after she is married (and insists that they have sex in complete darkness so she would not be fully aware that she was committing an adulterous sin).

Once he deems the affair hopeless, that he can never be with his love, he turns to the cloth, escaping the cruel world into the charterhouse, or monastery.

I enjoyed it as a unique departure in my reading, appreciating the blend of the realism with some of the dramatically emotional pull of hopeless love.

[Carlo Mascellani · Rating 4 out of 5]

RILETTURA: le vicende tormentate di Fabrizio del Dongo, consentono a Stendhal di porre sotto i nostri occhi il complesso gioco di equilibri, di sotterfugi, di favoritismi che sosteneva la politica italiana (quella di Parma, in particolare) negli anni successivi al declino di Napoleone. Ma è anche la testimonianza di un idealismo restio a vedersi soffocare da tutti questi intrighi e che seguita a mantenersi vitale nonostante assai di rado (e fuggevolmente) veda coronati i propri strenui sforzi.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.”
I read The Scarlett and the Black when I was in my teens (many years ago) and seem to remember enjoying it. It’s taken al most fifty years to get round to the next one! To be frank I wish I hadn’t bothered. I am aware that the novel’s list of admirers is a lengthy one (including Hemingway, Balzac, James and Proust, to name a few). There has been a film and several TV mini-series, not to mention an opera.
There is a positive, I thought it started quite well and the depiction of the Battle of Waterloo was quite effective. Stendhal depicts the fog of war quite well. It’s downhill from there though. The hero Fabrizio I found intensely annoying (that may, of course, be the point).
There are lots of romances and swooning women, plenty of intrigue at a political and court level, a good sprinkling of tyranny and a little Jacobinism, and of course there’s the Church and everything that goes with that, Add some brigands and actors, poisoning, imprisonment, daring escapes. There is also a surfeit of sentimentality, particularly towards the end:
“This beautiful thought, of 'dying close by that which one loves', expressed in a hundred different ways, was followed by a sonnet in which it was found that the soul, separated, after atrocious torments, from the frail body in which it dwelt for twenty-three years, and impelled by that instinct for happiness natural to all that has once existed, would not reascend to heaven to mingle with angelic choirs as soon as it was set free, and in the event of the awful judgment according it forgiveness for its sins, but, happier after death than it had been in life, it would go a few steps from the prison where it had lamented for so long, to be reunited with all that it had loved in the world. And thus, the sonnet's last line went. I shall have found my paradise on earth.”

There’s a good deal of melodrama and twisted plot turns. I do wonder if Stendhal was around today if he might have been writing daytime soap operas.
There are many who do appreciate this: maybe it’s just me!

[Paradoxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Δεν υπάρχει η γοητεία της ιστορίας και των αλληγοριών του Κόκκινο και Μαύρο. Υπάρχουν όμως η ίδια αίσθηση διαχρονικότητας και ταύτισης καταστάσεων και ξυπνάει ακόμη εντονότερα τον ηθικό αντίλογο.

Σπουδαία επιτεύγματα είναι η εξαιρετική τακτική μοναδική στον Στεντάλ ώστε να μην προκαλεί ταύτιση με τους ήρωες αλλά να ξυπνά την ομοιοπάθεια και την πολύβαθη, ρεαλιστική αναγνώριση πως οι εποχές αλλάζουν, η εξέλιξη κάνει τον κύκλο της για να αποδώσει νέες αυλές που μοιάζουν με κάθε άλλη παρελθοντική αυλή στην κακεντρέχεια, στην υποκρισία, στην πίστη σε φαινότυπους, σε ονειροτόκα υψηλά ιδανικά που καταποντίζονται γιατί ο παράς είναι πολύ πιο εύκολα μετρήσιμο αγαθό μιας κάποιας αξίας του ατόμου αλλά όχι της ψυχής.

Μια απ' τις ενδιαφέρουσες βασικές ιδέες είναι πως ο άνθρωπος που ζηλεύει ερωτικά κάποια στιγμή θα οδηγηθεί και πάλι στη λογική, όταν είναι ελεύθερος από το στιγματισμό κάποιων ψυχαναγκασμών όπως η επιφατική θρησκοφοβία ή η κοινωνική αποδοχή, αλλά ωστόσο ελλιπής. Υπάρχουν πολλά πάθη της ψυχής ικανά να οδηγήσουν στη ζήλεια, οποιασδήποτε μορφής.

Απ' την άλλη ο άνθρωπος που από κακία ή πλήξη ή χυδαίο φθόνο τσιγκλάει τη ζήλεια κάποιου άλλου όπως μόνο ένας χαιρέκακος μονοδιάστατος τρίτος μπορεί, είναι ένας άνθρωπος που έχει χάσει κάθε σκοπό στη ζωή και την οποιαδήποτε αναγνώριση της αξίας των συνανθρώπων και είναι τυφλός μπροστά στην οποιαδήποτε μορφή αγάπης.

Πολύ όμορφη είναι η σκέψη για τις Νεανικές Ψυχές στις οποίες αναγνώρισα λίγο και τον εαυτό μου. Οι νεανικές ψυχές που ενεργοποιούνται απ' το νέο, την ανακάλυψη, τα ταξίδια χωρίς χάρτη και φτάνουν κάποτε σ' ένα τέλμα όπου δεν υπάρχουν άλλες Αμερικές κι η ψυχή πεθαίνει ή διαφθείρεται τόσο ώστε να συναντήσει τα ερέβη της και να οδηγηθεί τυφλά σε δολοφονία του σώματος απ' το πνεύμα, όσο οι συναισθηματικοί ψυχαναγκασμοί καίνε στο οξύ τη λογική.

Τέλος μοναδική είναι κι η απεικόνιση της εποχης, των αντιλήψεων και για άλλη μια φορά η τελειότητα στην παρεμβατικότητα του Στεντάλ ως μια προζίστικη μορφή που φαίνεται να δίνει τα κλειδια για τους συμβολισμούς του.

[Nataliya Yaneva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Една от най-потресаващо скучните книги, които съм чела (да не звуча пресилено и да кажа „изобщо“) от дълго време насам. Твърде помпозният, хаотичен, превъзнесен стил на Стендал се вихри с пълна сила. Спомням си, че и в „Червено и черно“ имаше моменти, в които изпитвах подобна досада, но тук наистина ми беше неимоверно трудно да следя историята. Твърде много безсмислени случки и описания, за които, в момента, в който ги изчетеш си мислиш „Това защо се случи, дявол да го вземе? Има ли някаква роля за повествованието? С какво то допринесе, за да разберем ние личността на персонажите?“. Най-често отговорът на тези въпроси беше „нищо/никакъв“. Безспорно Стендал хвърля особен труд да обрисува душевните преживявания на героите (правдоподобно предадени, смея да кажа, абсолютно объркана и нееднозначна плетеница от мисли, противополжни чувства и крайности), но това се случва толкова често и пространно, че в един момент дотяга безкрайно.

Леко прилича в стилистично отношение на Мопасан, струва ми се. „Бел Ами“ също беше вид изпитание за търпението ми на моменти, макар да ми хареса в пъти повече. Може би са просто французите. От друга страна Виктор Юго, Дюма и Флобер разказват доста по-различно и далеч по-увлекателно за мен.

[Andrei Tamaş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pentru mine, Sthendal este unul dintre marii scriitori moralizatori de factură istorică. El surprinde funcţia educativă a istoriei expunând cu o insensibilitate apologetică (fapt pentru care este renumit) faptele istorice aşa cum au avut ele să fie, centrând în schimb spectrul de analiză asupra caracterelor pe care vrea să le scoată în evidenţă (mai mult sau mai puţin peiorativ).
În "Mănăstirea din Parma" prezintă destrămarea unei familii aristocratice de sorginte italiană. Acţiunea îl are în centru pe Fabrizio, un tânăr nobil care se înrolase în Marea Armata (sau ce mai rămăsese din ea) a lui Napoleon, în bătălia finală de la Waterloo. Paradoxal, deoarece el era aristocrat! Înrolarea în armata Republicii Franceze este doar un fapt minor, "un fapt romantic", deoarece, pe parcurs, acţiunea se orientează asupra marilor cercuri aristocratice din Italia încă neunificată. Episcopi, scandaluri sexuale în inima Bisericii, romantism incurabil, corupţie, lupta machiavelică pentru putere...
Romanul conferă -în fine!- aura aceea de malancolie istorică, Sthendal neoferind în final nicio morală concretă, prezentând doar faptele din care cititorul conchide ceea ce trebuie.
"TO THE HAPPY FEW!"

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escritores como Balzac, André Gide o Tolstoi consideraron "La cartuja de Parma" de Stendhal una de las mejores novelas de todos los tiempos.

Llego a ella después de haber leído "El rojo y el negro" y "Vanina Vanini" y podría afirmarse que contiene una mezcla de ambas, hipótesis factible si se tienen en cuenta los años de publicación de las tres novelas: "El rojo y el negro" fue publicada en 1830, "Vanina Vanini" en 1829 y "La cartuja de Parma" en 1839. De "El rojo y el negro" tomaría Stendhal el recurso de utilizar las aventuras de un personaje masculino para ofrecer un retrato detallado de la lucha por el poder y la sociedad del lugar donde sitúa la acción. De "Vanina Vanini" aprovecha el uso de las relaciones amorosas de ese personaje principal para exponer en la novela la temática de corte amoroso y la constante estrategia que en este terreno entrañan las decisiones para el protagonista. Aunque se podría objetar que en "El rojo y el negro" este elemento también aparece, en "La cartuja de Parma" los personajes femeninos están mucho más desarrollados, ostentan más protagonismo y son más potentes.

Centrándonos propiamente en "La cartuja de Parma" se trata de una novela que lo tiene todo: en parte bélica, pues emula la batalla de Waterloo; en parte amorosa, describiendo sus relaciones con la duquesa Sanseverina y con Clelia Conti; en parte sociológica, pues se inmiscuye en los ambientes cortesanos de la Italia del XIX, se refiere al poder de la Iglesia, y no olvida las clases sociales bajas, cuando se ocupa de los devaneos de Fabrizio con Marietta, una actriz de una compañía ambulante. El tratamiento del contenido es siempre desde una perspectiva crítica fabricada a través de un humor sutil e inteligente que el lector acostumbrado a Stendhal reconocerá al instante. En esta novela en particular sorprende los apuntes que va realizando el autor sobre el carácter de las gentes de Italia, mucho más apasionado y exagerado, en relación con el de los franceses. Y se aprecia el amor que Stendhal prodigó por este país.

Personalmente quizá la novela me haya superado un poco, por la multiplicidad de tramas y temas que abarca. Así que prefiero "El rojo y el negro" por focalizarse más en Julien Sorel y su sed de ambición.

De todas formas Stendhal aquí es un 5/5.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 main characters. The author doesn't lead us to sympathize with any of them or choose one to root for--all pay the psychological price for their choices.

Early in the book, the plot turns to a long episode where Fabrizio, the nephew, goes to France, hoping to fight for his hero, Napoleon, who had earlier brought a short period of liberation from the autocracy, the Church, and Austrian influence. On his way, Fabrizio stumbles upon the battle at Waterloo. Stendhal's description of the confusion felt by an individual soldier during a battle is at least as good as Tolstoy's description of the Battle of Borodino in "War and Peace".

Amazing writing.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 Black—all of the principal characters being over-determined by their romantic passions—and the political maneuverings and backstage plots were, I thought, repetitive and superfluous.

What carries the book are its great moments—the Battle of Waterloo, the knife fight, and most especially the romance in the castle. If this were written today, it would be confined to “genre fiction” and passed over by the critics; but as this was written by Stendhal, even the snobs can enjoy a gripping, over-the-top love story.

[William2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Théo d'Or]

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 enigma for me, though. Perhaps Stendhal anticipates his writing being read in the future by some " happy few ". Those few who can ignore abrupt endings, in their appreciation.

[MarcoD · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Pensa più un innamorato a raggiungere la sua amante che non il marito a sorvegliarla.”
Il libro ambientato in Italia e diviso in due parti, racconta le vicende, anche amorose di Fabrizio del Dongo. Il primo libro non mi piaciuto più di tanto, ma il secondo invece mi ha colpito, tra intrighi e la vita di corte, tra fughe e innamoramenti, mi ha fatto vivere l'afflizione del protagonista ma anche il suo amore per Clelia Conti.
Bhe, che dire, nonostante fosse una rilettura (la prima risale alle superiori) lo consiglierei.

[Jovana Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“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 aristocrats, the spiritual leaders, astrologists, to imprisonment, the birth of new aristocracy, simony, etc…

“This man, whom great monarchies would have envied the prince of Parma, was known to have only one passion: of holding intimate conversations with great personages and currying favour by his buffoonery.”

⟶ It is a world of absolutely no order and no justice, where human emotions rule over an entire social group. This is a novel where there is no hero and where the villain is power and selfishness.

It’s a novel of duchess Sanseverina, one of the most striking female characters I have ever read about in pre-20th-century literature work. Strong, carried by a mixture of emotion and principle, intelligent but at the same time selfish, opportunistic and ambitious.

It is a novel about Fabrice/Fabrizio del Dongo, the unlikable main character who has absolutely no ambition and goes wherever his gut takes him, not caring about the consequences. It’s easy to be annoyed by him, but nonetheless, his actions capture the attention of readers, and like a catastrophe unfolding one can’t manage to look away and not care about what happens with this fickle man.

More importantly, it’s a novel of one whole time captured on paper. A world where adaptation, cunningness, and strategy were a must if one would conserve their status in a time on the cusp of change. Fabrice is not a soldier, he most surely isn’t a clerical figure either; Sanseverina isn’t a model figure of female empowerment; The eponymous Charterhouse of Parma isn’t even mentioned until the very last chapter and plays no big role; nothing is completely fixed and solid in this novel and that’s where the complexity lays.

⟶ I have read that the reason why Stendhal is harder to read is because of the rhythm , he never catches the reader’s attention on one specific detail and event rather the entire novel is one big stage where everything is set for the reader to decode and understand the meaning behind it.
That statement is especially true for this novel, needless to say, it’s definitely an atmospheric read worth checking out if one is interested in the finer work of French realism or French literature in general.
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More like 3,75/5, I am going to let this one sink in for a few days and then decide. Review to come.