Book description
In 1818, when he was in his mid-thirties, Stendhal met and fell
passionately in love with the beautiful Mathilde Dembowski. She,
however, was quick to make it clear that she did not return his
affections, and in his despair he turned to the written word to exorcise
his love and explain his feelings. The result is an intensely personal
dissection of the process of falling - and being - in love: a unique
blend of poetry, anecdote, philosophy, psychology and social
observation. Bringing together the conflicting sides of his nature, the
deeply emotional and the coolly analytical, Stendhal created a work that
is both acutely personal and universally applicable. Marie Henri
Beyle, known as Stendhal (1783 - 1842) fought during the Napoleonic
wars. After Napolean's fall, he retired to Italy and began to write
under his pseudonym. In 1821 he left Italy and returned to France, where
he completed Love. The Red and the Black was his second novel, and he
completed three others.
