Marie-Henri-Beyle (1783-1842)
A Short Biography
Marie-Henri Beyle was born in the small provincial town of Grenoble in France. His mother died when he was very young and he suffered a very unhappy childhood with his father. But his friendship with his sister would continue throughout most of his life. He was an avid fan of music, particularly Rossini, about whom he penned a very accurate biography. His other passion was women, again whom he wrote about in his writing.
Career
Beyle became an auditor with the Conseil d’Ètat when he was 27 years of age and took part in both the French administration and the Napoleonic wars. In 1814 he went to Italy with which he formed a deep affection and would settle here for the rest of his career. It is here whilst working as French consul that his writing began to flourish.
His wrote his first novel The Charterhouse of Parma in 52 days. Beyle rejected his native France as the setting as he believed it was not as genuine or as passionate as Italy.
It is believed that Beyle chose the pseudonym Stendhal from a list of hundreds. It is an anagram of Shetland although there are a number of reasons why he may have chosen it. His Realistic style of writing was not in the beginning appreciated by his readers most possible because at the time they were living in the Romantic period. He would dedicate his books to the ‘Happy Few’ as reference to this.
Stendhal Syndrome
Also known as the 'Florence Syndrome', this phenomenon was described by Stendhal after he visited the city of Florence in Italy. He was swept away by the experience and wrote about his feelings of ‘ecstasy’ and the ‘sublime beauty’ in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.
The syndrome wasn’t named until 1979 by an Italian psychiatrist and it describes a psychosomatic condition suffered by those exposed to art. Its symptoms include a racing heart beat, nausea, dizziness and even hallucinations. These were regularly observed in visitors of the Uffizi Gallery during the 19th Century.
Stendhal and Love
Stendhal also described a concept of crystallization which is describes the process of the ‘birth of love’. This mental transformation consists of ‘crystallising’ all imperfections into something of beauty. Stendhal used a trip to Rome to describe the process where the city of Bologna depicts indifference and where the transformation has not taken place. The journey to and Rome itself, signifies the perfect love and the crystallisation of all the imperfections. Stendhal believed that it was an instinctive process and consisted of four steps:
- Admiration – of the qualities of loved ones
- Acknowledgement – at having attracted the loved ones attention
- Hope – of gaining the love of the loved one
- Delight – in overlooking the imperfections of the loved one
Stendhal died in Paris in 1842 and is buried in the Cimetière De Montmartre. Today his work is acknowledged for its sarcasm, psychological and historical facts.
Stendhal
|
What do you think about this article?
More in History
Latest Articles