Stendhal, pseudonym of Henri Marie Beyle 1783-1842
French novelist

He was born in Grenoble, where he was educated at the �cole Centrale, and wrote for the theatre. A cousin offered him a post in the Ministry of War, and from 1800 he followed Napoleon I's campaigns in Italy, Germany, Russia and Austria. Between wars he spent his time in Paris drawing-rooms and theatres. When Napoleon fell he retired to Italy, adopted his pseudonym, and began to write books on Italian painting and on Haydn and Mozart, as well as copious journalism. After the 1830 revolution he was appointed consul at Trieste and Civitavecchia, but his health deteriorated and he returned to Paris. His recognized masterpieces, Le Rouge et le noir (Eng trans Red and Black, 1900; better known as Scarlet and Black, the title of a 1938 translation), and La Chartreuse de Parme (Eng trans The Charterhouse of Parma, 1895), were published in 1830 and 1839 respectively. The first follows the rise and decline of Julien Sorel, a provincial youth in the France of the Restoration, and the second recounts the fortunes of Fabrice del Dongo at an insignificant Italian court during the same period. These are remarkable and original works, and were admired by Honor� de Balzac, although neither received great understanding during Stendhal's lifetime. His autobiographical volumes include Souvenirs d'�gotisme (1892, Eng trans Memoirs of an Egotist, 1949).

Bibliography: Wallace Fowlie, Stendhal (1969)