Arrigo Beyle, Milanese - aka Stendhal Quiz

Answer: The Charterhouse of Parma

The aunt ,Gina Pietranera aka del Dongo , is not really his aunt as he himself is not really a del Dongo but the off-spring of an adulterous affair between the marquis del Dongo's wife and a passing French officer. Gina who later becomes the Duchess Sanseverina is jealous of Clelia Conti, the daughter of the governor of the prison in which Fabrice has been locked up for the murder of an actor, Giletti who had attacked Fabrice. Though acting in legal defense he gets a sentence of 20 years imprisonment, which will be later reduced to 12 years.

He escapes, his enemy the Prince of Parma is killed, Fabrice gets separated from Clelia, and starts an ecclesiastical career, still hoping to win back his beloved Clelia, but in the end has to give up his attempts and withdraws in the Charterhouse of Parma. Travels with my Aunt is a Graham Greene book.

Answer: Fabrice del Dongo

Julien Sorel is the leading character in 'The Red and the Black'.(1830). Lucien Leuwen is an unachieved work of Stendhal's. So is Lamiel, the last novel he started upon. His Life of Henry Brulard (posthumous publication) is a thinly disguised autobiographical work in which he describes his childhood and adolescence.

Answer: He shoots Madame de Renal and is executed for this murder

The story is situated in the area of Franche Comte. Monsieur de Renal is the burgomaster of Verrieres. The events take place in the period of the French Restoration, after the fall of Napoleon. Stendhal has bitter criticism about the return to the pre-revolutionary values and traditions.

The story is based on true facts.They were based on the case of Antoine Berthet,an inhabitant of the Isere district. Berthet was sentenced to death after attempting to murder Mme Michoud, the mother of the children whose preceptor he was.

Answer: True

There can be little doubt about Beyle's favourable attitude to Napoleon. He was in Paris when the coup of 18 Brumaire (9-10 November) brought Napoleon to power.The next year Beyle joined Napoleon's army in the famous Italian campaign.He joined the troops on 7th of May 1800 in Paris and arrived at Milan on 10th of June. From then on he will feel very close to the Italian way of life and publish various books on Italy.

In 1806 he is given a job in Napoleon occupied Germany but after the Wagram campaign - in which he took part- he returns to Paris where he gets a job with the State Counsel.After the disastrous Russian campaign,- Beyle belonged to Napoleon's headquarters staff and saw Moscow in flames - he will be dismissed from his office by the returning Bourbons. From 1836 till 1839 he works on a book that will be called Notes on Napoleon.

Answer: Racine

Voltaire had preceded him in this admiration for Shakespeare. Beyle was also a great admirer of composers such as :Mozart,Haydn,Metastasio(Lives of ..in 1814)and Rossini( Life of.. in 1823) His own efforts to write plays, will turn out a total failure. His interest in theatre will lead to little more than an affair with the actress Melanie Guilbert.

Answer: Consul

In the 1820s he had had to leave Milan because the Austrian government suspects him of being involved with the Carbonari movement. It meant the definite separation from his beloved Metilde aka Mathilde Viscontini Dembowski. In 1928 he tries to visit Milan but is immediately expelled.

When after the 1830 Revolution in France he is sent to Trieste he is not very welcome there because of his liberal opinions .Civita Vecchia offered the advantage that he was near to Rome and its wealth of historic and artistic treasures.

He left Civita Vecchia for a period of rest from 1836-1839 in Paris. He returns on 24th of June but on 15th of March he is hit by a stroke and leaves Italy for ever on 21st of October. In 1842 on 23 of March he dies in Paris, at 2 hours in the morning in his residence in 78, Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs.

Answer: Egotism

From 1821 till 1830 he wrote his Memories of Egotism. Critics have also used the term beylism for what they call a passionate type of epicurism. Another typical Stendhalien virtue is 'the energy for life'. His own great love-affair was Metilde. See above.

Answer: To the happy few.

'The Charterhouse of Parma' contains a brilliant description of the Battle of Waterloo.Fabrice first wanted to find grandeur in the ranks of the military. When he does not find it there, because of Napoleon's defeat, the only other remaining option in post-Napoleonic Italy is : the ranks of the Church.

The choice to be made between career via the military or career via the church is also the usual explanation of the title of Stendhal's novel on Julien Sorel. Red referred to the traditional red colour of military uniforms.Black to the colour of cassocks as worn by Roman Catholic priests. By his dedication :To the happy few, Stendhal meant that only those talented with intense feeling,lucid awareness,passion and energy were able to understand the happiness of love - even of 'unhappy love'- that he describes in his books.

Answer: Grenoble

Besancon is where Julien Sorel's seminar was. Marseille is where Stendhal himself lived from 1805 till 1806. For a short while he was a grocer's apprentice here.Paris was his residence in 1799, from 1802 till 1805, from 1810 till 1811 and again from 1836 till 1839.Also the last year of his life is spent in Paris: 15 of March 1841 till 23 of March 1842. Grenoble is where he was born on 23 of January 1783. Rue des Vieux Jesuites, today rue Jean Jacques Rouseau nr 14.

After Napoleon's fall, Stendahl returned to Grenoble and had to write to have an income as he had lost his job.It will take till 1830 for him to again get a fully paid public office.

Answer: True

The town of Stendal is now in Sachsen-Anhalt, near to Magdeburg. Beyle used various pen names.Pseudonyms seem to have amused him a lot.Though he was a violent critic of the nobility, he enjoyed calling himself Henri DE Beyle. Other 'nicknames' he used were: La Borde, Baron Pataut, William Crocodile. Most of his letters he signed with an assumed name :Cesar Bombet, Cotonet etc.

He even replaces the name of Civitavecchia by 'Abeille' (F. for a bee)- a Napoleonic symbol btw. Some critics explain this as an illustration of Beyle's view of life as 'a game'.

Others link it with possible espionage Beyle may have been involved in. The name Stendhal first was used for the publication of Beyle's book on Rome,Naples and Florence in 1817. The link is probably with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, an aesthetician whose works had been a source for Beyle's History of Italian Painting.