The Chartreuse of Parma

The Chartreuse of Parma - Translated from the French of Stendhal (Henri Beyle)

This novel was written in the year 1830, in a place some three hundred leagues from Paris. Many years before that, when our armies were pouring across Europe, I chanced to be billeted in the house of a canon. It was at Paduaa fortunate city, where, as in Venice, mens pleasure is their chief business, and leaves them little time for anger with their neighbours. My stay was of some duration, and a friendship sprang up between the canon and myself. Passing through Padua again, in 1830, I hurried to the good canons house. He was dead, I knew, but I had set my heart on looking once more upon the room in which we had spent many a pleasant evening, sadly remembered in later days. I found the canons nephew, and his wife, who both received me like an old friend. A few acquaintances dropped in, and the party did not break up till a late hour. The nephew had an excellent sambaglione fetched from the Caf Pedrocchi. But what especially caused us to linger was the story of the Duchess Sanseverina, to which some chance allusion was made, and the whole of which the nephew was good enough to relate, for my benefit. In the country whither I am bound, said I to my friends, I am very unlikely to find a house like this one. To while away the long evenings I will write a novel on[viii] the life of your charming Duchess Sanseverina. I will follow in the steps of that old story-teller of yours, Bandello, Bishop of Agen, who would have thought it a crime to overlook the true incidents of his tale, or add others to it. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 57638
Author: Stendhal, 1783-1842
Release Date: Aug 4, 2018
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Loyd, Mary, Lady, 1853-1936