THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA


Stendhal's (Marie Henri Beyle's) great novel, La chartreuse de Parme (1839), follows the life of "our young hero" Fabrizio del Dongo (a Lombard nobleman) through the early 1800s and life in-between the various reactionary and revolutionary movements following the French Revolution, including (early on) a turn on the battlefield of Waterloo. It seems to mimic the realist novel but is something else altogether.

The Romantic hero is actually an anti-hero, and the various allies and enemies he engenders in his quest for fire by "enthusiasm" turn one way then the next as circumstances dictate. The rapid succession of troubles -- reversals of fortune -- lead the reader into a labyrinth of social mores and historical-cultural shadows that end only by illuminating the timeless landscape of tragedy.

Stendhal's worldweariness reads in a manner of a literary mannerism -- it is unclear what his intentions are beyond spinning an extravagant tale of immense intrigue and abominable outcome. His noted style is somewhere between the detached irony of George Sand and the great illumined tableau of Balzac. As the story races ahead -- and there are few (perhaps no) denouements allowing the reader to catch his/her breath -- an entire epoch unfolds and begins to collapse (notwithstanding the closing, momentary glory of the Prince of Parma's court).

The sheer bravado of Stendhal's performance sketches a period of despotism "marred" by the revolutionary fervor of Northern Italy and one detects an almost structural edifice for the tale lurking below the apparatus of places, venues, situations, character, and -- um -- coloratura. The novel seems to arrive full-blown from the ear of Stendhal and the "libidinal economy" of the protagonist's rebellion (and eventual accommodation) suggests that the tragedy is more a matter of universal portents told against the rugged landscape of Lombardy than a historical tale of ruination by passion.

It might be best to read this thing straight through without stopping. Such a strategy enhances the nature of the narrative which is truly a tour de force -- an (intentionally) overwrought avalanche of words and images -- and matches the origin of the text insofar as Stendhal is said to have dictated the story in "a mere seven weeks".

THE BOOK / MODERN LIBRARY EDITION

Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Modern Library, 2000)

FILM VERSIONS / INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA

La Chartreuse de Parme (Christian Jaque, 1962)
Prima della Rivoluzione (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1964)

© 2003 - Gavin Keeney

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