Stendhal

Summary

Dominique Pagani regularly ranks Stendhal among the great realist novelists, alongside Balzac, in what he calls the golden age of the French novel1. As with Balzac, he sees in his work a novel of the intermediate classes2. In The Red and the Black, he dwells on the pages where Julien Sorel takes Madame de Rênal's hand. With Clouscard, he reads in them the essence of eroticism, and he sees in them the mark of the realist novel: thirty pages to take a hand3. He often quotes the phrase "make a woman laugh and you are in her bed", which for him shows that language serves to seduce. He also takes up the idea of beauty or love as a promise of happiness. The Charterhouse of Parma serves him as the French reference for the myth of Italy and for modern sensibility's relationship to that country4. Finally, he recalls that for Stendhal the nineteenth century begins with Napoleon, whom Stendhal first opposed and later rallied to5.

1. 1Introduction to the upcoming workshops23 Mar 2020 · 11:22
2. 2#4.4B Objections to Dominique Pagani4 Feb 2018 · 8:58
3. 3With Clouscard2 Aug 2016 · 1:06:34
4. 4#1 Mignon, or the song of silence7 Apr 2021 · 28:44
5. 5Napoleon, or the reasons of cunning2 Dec 2024 · 1:09:57

Summary produced automatically from 18 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.