Stendhal, or the Pursuit of Happiness

“The study of human nature, ‘the observation of the human heart and its passions,’ was his constant preoccupation. But where could he study the passions better than in himself? Though he lived exuberantly, submitting himself to experience... he went on incessantly writing down everything that happened to him just as it happened… he even led to perform some remarkable experiments upon himself…He laid claim to having been a soldier, a man of fortune, a great lover, a society wit, a diplomat, a traveler, and even, sometimes, a revolutionary conspirator… “Fifty years after his death he becomes one of the demigods of the world’s letters, taking his place in the ranks of the great social writers who appeared toward the end of the last century… his manner of life itself has fascinated whole regiments of literary scholars in France, Italy and Germany in the last forty years.” —Matthew Josephson, From the Introduction (1946) “Stendhal is best known for his masterpieces The Red and the Black (1830) and The Chartreuse of Parma (1839), sharp and passionate chronicles of the intellectual and moral climate of France after Napoleon's defeat.”