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The happy few

by
June 2010, issue no. 322

With Stendhal by Simon Leys

Black Inc., $19.95 pb, 144 pp

The happy few

by
June 2010, issue no. 322

As Stendhal did with The Red and the Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), Simon Leys dedicates his With Stendhal to ‘the happy few’. In both cases, humility is the motivation, rather than affectation or coyness. Henri Beyle (1783–1842) – Stendhal’s real name – was committed to his writing, but he really had no idea that his novels would become masterworks of Western literature, or that his protagonists Julien Sorel and Fabrice del Dongo would come to be seen as archetypal figures of the Romantic era. He would have been astonished to learn that beylisme – denoting a melding of passionate energy and cynical individualism – had become a common noun in French.

With Stendhal

With Stendhal

by Simon Leys

Black Inc., $19.95 pb, 144 pp

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