The Red and the Black

Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name Stendhal, was born in Grenoble, France, in 1783 and died in 1842. He lived through a period of intense political and cultural upheaval in France, experiencing the French Revolution as a child and serving in Napoleon’s army as a young man. His literary career began after the fall of the Empire, and he established himself as a prominent novelist, memoirist, and critic. His two most famous novels, The Red and the Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), are widely considered precursors to modern psychological and Realist fiction. Though he was largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Stendhal’s reputation grew steadily after his death, and today he is viewed as a key transitional figure between Romanticism and Realism in French literature.

Stendhal’s early life and intellectual formation were heavily influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment and the upheavals of the French Revolution. This background, combined with his admiration for Napoleon and his travels through Italy, gave his work a unique combination of Romantic passion and political skepticism. His work shares many traits with the Romantic movement: an emphasis on individual emotion, a fascination with heroism, and a sense of alienation from society.