"Vanina Vanini" by Stendhal ( 1829 - A Short Story Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff)

Stendhal (1783 to 1842, France) is the author of two of the greatest novels of all time, The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma.  Recently I happily discovered that C. K. Scoff Moncreiff has translated these works as well as a number of lesser known works by Stendhal.

( I was able to download all of Moncrieff's Stendhal translations from E Books Adelaide (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ )

Roberto Rosselini made a movie based on "Vanina Vanini" in 1961.  The prose styling of the stories, as any reader of Moncrieff's Proust would expect, is exquisite.  The plot is standard action packed high romantic melodrama set in Rome in the 1820s.  Vanina Vanini is the beautiful nineteen year old daughter of a very wealthy Roman.  She is well into marriage ready years but she rejects all elgible suitors.  There is a very good scene at an elegant ball.  Stendhal does not give the richness of detail of Balzac but we can sense the great beauty of life for the Roman rich. You can tell Stendal liked describing Italian women.  Italy is ruled by outsiders and there is much patriotic infighting. At the ball everyone is talking about a young noble man who had just escaped from prison.  He was put there for seeking freedom for Italy.  Compressing, the girl finds a secret room in her father's mansion.  She learns her father is hiding the badly injured young man from the authorities. As comes as no surprise, he is very handsome and soon the young people are madly in love. The plot gets very melodramatic with several deaths and a dramatic close.

This is a melodramatic love at first sight among the rich story.   It can be read in about thirty minutes.  It is worth adding to your erudition.  The writing is beautiful, OK the plot is your standard romance of the period but stories don't come with a better pedigree than "Vanina Vanini".

Mel u

Armance by Stendhal (1827, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff)

Stendhal (1783 to 1842, France) wrote two of the highest status classic novels of all times, The Red and the Black and The Charter House of Parma.  Like most once I completed these two works I moved on from Stendhal.  Recently I read an excellant biography of the great Proust translator C. K. Scott Moncrieff in which I learned that he also translated numerous works by Stendhal.  I read his two famous works in new translations but once I read this I decided to make a project of reading or rereading Moncrieff's versions of the eight works by Stendhal translated by Stendhal.  

Armance, published initially anomounously, was Stendhal's first novel.  Moncrieff thought very highly of Armance and is less than half the length of his famous novels so I decided to read it.  Set among wealthy restoration aristocrats, Armance is a beautiful young woman of marriageable age.  Octavio is her cousin, a wealthy handsome young man ready for marriage.  The novel focuses on the intrigues  involved in the marriage market.  There is also a veiled suggestion that Octavio's seeming disinterest in women may have come about when he was hit by a carriage.  The idea  is that the accident rendered him impotent.  There is an exciting pistol duel scene and lots of deceptions.

Armance is a romance among the very rich novel, a marriage market work. That is pretty much it.   It is not in the class of his two big name works but it was an enjoyable story, the characters were interesting and the prose of Moncreiff is always wonderful.  I have been reading a bit of Balzac lately, in older translations, and the elegance of Moncrieff's writings far surpasses them.  

My suggestion on this book is first read Stendhal's two major works, then consider this lesser book. I am glad I read it.  

Please share your experience with Stendhal with us.

Mel u

"The Duchess of Palliano" by Stendhal (1838, translated by C. K. Scott Moncerieff)

Having recently completed C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation of Proust, I was delighted to learn from Jean Findlay's new biography of Moncrieff that he also translated a number of works of Stendhal.  The writings of these two great French writers became classics in the Anglophone literary world via the translations of Moncrieff.  Besides The Charter House of Parma and The Red and the Black, he also translated four, that I now know of, shorter works by Stendhal.   Like his novels, they exhibit Stendhal's love of Italy.   Stendhal was a writer of great influence.    In Japan prior to World War Two, he was the most admired western writer.   I have read his major works in newer translations but look forward to rereading them in the Moncrieff translations.

"The Duchess of Palliano", (reading time approximately 30 minutes)is set in the 16th century among the nobility in the central Italian city of Palliano (sometimes spelled with only one "L").  Italian politics was compleletly chaotic at the time (unlike now, of course) with all sort of interlapping lines of authority with Rome and the Leaders of the Church as the highest authority figures. Honor, especially matters of fidelity, was of great importance to the aristocracy.   A cheating wife and her paramour could and actually at the time should be killed.  A Duke might have a dozen affairs but his wife, even if he had not entered her chambers for years, must be faithful.  "The Duchess of Palliano" is very atmospheric exciting story about what happens when the duchess is evidently found in a very indelicate position by the Duke.  Stendhal brings the characters to life and lets us see the treachery and intrigue of the era.

Per my research, the Moncrieff translations of Stendhal are under copyright protection in the USA and England but not, for example, in Australia.  All of his Stendhal translations can be found on the webpage of the library of the university of Adelaide.

https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/

Please share your experiences with Stendhal with us.

Mel u