The Charterhouse of Parma

Stendhal, 1783-1842Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.6
Word count
1.1M words
Chapters
106

Tags

Foreign Language Books Foreign Literature Political AllegoryPortrait GalleryCourt IntriguePower GameComplex HumanityPsychological InsightItalian SettingNapoleonic Era

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.La Chartreuse De Parme by StendhalAuthor: Stendhal, 1783-1842,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jan 1, 1997

Editor's review

La Chartreuse de Parme is Stendhal's major novel after The Red and the Black. Set in the fictional Duchy of Parma in Italy, it tells of the young Fabrizio, from an ardent follower of Napoleon on the battlefield to an adventurer caught between court and Church, and finally to a quiet retreat in a monastery. The novel's most moving quality lies in its parallel portrayal of passion and intrigue: on one side the heat of love, ambition and heroic dreams, on the other the precise calculations of the court, the Church and social life. Stendhal's psychological touch is swift and cold, often striking directly at a character's inner being with short sentences; the chaotic description of Waterloo is especially famous. This is the original French edition, suited to readers who already read French and want to experience the rhythm of Stendhal's language, and also to students of foreign literature who wish to read closely alongside a Chinese translation. Reading requires patience in entering the political context of nineteenth-century Italy; once the relationships are grasped, the narrative shows strong momentum.

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Reading tips

  1. First learn the political situation of Italy in the Napoleonic era, then enter the intrigue of the Parma court.
  2. Prepare a character-relationship chart and note it as you read, to avoid losing focus through confusion over titles and factions.
  3. Read the Waterloo chapters slowly, noting the shifting narrative perspective and the protagonist's disillusionment.
  4. For the French original, read a fixed amount each day; when encountering long sentences, grasp the main structure first and then return to the modifiers.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Do I need to read The Red and the Black first? No. The two novels have independent characters and plots. They echo each other thematically in ambition and passion, but reading La Chartreuse de Parme directly will not cause difficulties in understanding; instead, you can first experience Stendhal's touch with Italian material.
Does the French original demand a high language level? Yes, relatively high. Stendhal's sentences are concise but jumpy, the shifts between dialogue and psychological description are frequent, and the vocabulary involves titles, the Church and the military. It is advisable to have intermediate or higher French reading ability, or to read a Chinese translation first to become familiar with the plot before challenging the original.
Is the court intrigue part hard to understand? At first reading it may seem that there are many characters and mixed factions. The key is to see the Parma court as a closed field of power and to grasp the main lines of the Duchess, the Archbishop and the Prime Minister; the other characters mostly revolve around these lines, and clarity will come naturally as you read on.
Is this book suitable as an introduction to Stendhal? It can serve as an introduction, but with some mental preparation. It is looser and more Italian than The Red and the Black, and the plot advances through the characters' passions rather than tight causality. If you prefer tightly structured narrative, read The Red and the Black first and then come back.

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About the author

Stendhal, 1783-1842 Author

Stendhal (1783-1842) was a French writer, best known for the novels Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma), as well as On Love and shorter works such as Vanina Vanini. He also wrote autobiographical and art-historical works, including Vie de Henri Brulard, Souvenirs d'égotisme and Histoire de la peinture en Italie. His writing is noted for its subtle and dispassionate psychological portrayal, often revealing inner conflicts of love, ambition and social circumstance. The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma are often regarded as important works of nineteenth-century French realist fiction. The available records provide limited public information about his life, so this note focuses on the themes and style of his works rather than unverified biographical detail.