Stendhal (1783-1842)

Stendhal

WRITER (FRANCE)

BORN 23 Jan 1783, Grenoble, Isère - DIED 24 Mar 1842, Paris: 78, rue Neuve des Capucines
BIRTH NAME Beyle, Marie-Henri
CAUSE OF DEATH stroke
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 30)

Stendhal was born Marie-Henri Beyle in Groble. His mother died when he was young and he was bored by his father during his childhood. He was closest to his sister Pauline.

In 1799 he left for Paris to enter the École Polytechnique, but he never took the entrance exam. Instead he joined the army and took part in the Italian campaign. In 1805 he fell in love with Melanie Guilbert and when she moved to Marseille he followed her. He opened a shop there but he had little success and retrned to Paris. In 1809 he missed the Battle of Wagram due to illness.

In 1810 he became an auditor with the Conseil d'État in 1810 and he continued to take part in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1811 in Milan Angela Pietragua, whom he had met in 1810, became his lover. He travelled in Germany and was a member of the army that invaded Russia in 1812. When Napoleon abdicated in 1914 he went to Milan. In 1805 his relationship with Angela ended.

In 1818 he fell in love with Mathilde Dembowski. She didn't answer his love, but he followed her to Volterra. Inspired by his tragic love he wrote "De l’Amour" in 1820. He had to leave Milan and Mathilde because he was suspected of being a spy by the Austrians. In 1824 he conducted an affair with Countess Clémentine Curial. In 1825 Clémentine left him and he heard of Mathilde's death. He became severely depressed and thought of committing suicide.

In 1827 he published his first novel, "Armance". In 1830 he became French consul to Trieste. and Civitavecchia and after Vienna refused him because they still saw him as a spy he became consul to Civitavecchia, a papal state near Rome.

In 1833 he travelled down the river Rhine in the company of George Sand and Alfred de Musset. In 1839 his best known novel "La Chartreuse de Parme" was published. It attracted little attention, although Balzac considered it a work of genius.

In 1841 his health started to fail and he returned to Paris. There he died in 1842 in his appartment. Beyle used many pseudonyms, but Stendhal was the name he was remembered by.

Related persons
• was a friend of Bagration, Catharina
• wrote about Bathurst, Rosa
• is cousin of Daru, Pierre
• visited Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
• was a friend of Kirkpatrick, Maria Manuela, countess of Montijo
• was a friend of Mérimée, Prosper
• travelled with Musset, Alfred de
• had work translated by Wedekind, Pamela

Images
Plaque at the house in Rome where Stendhal lived between 1834 and 1836 (Piazza della Minerva 66). Picture by Androom (24 Jan 2010)	The grave of Stendhal at the Cimetière Montmartre, Paris. Picture by Androom (20 Feb 2016)