Italian Stories -- The Collected Works of Stendhal

Author: Stendhal (French), translated by Xu Hejin and Wang Zhensun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: Stendhal (1783–1842) was a renowned French realist writer of the 19th century, whose novels and literary critiques hold significant positions in French literary history. This book is a collection of short and medium-length stories, including eight works such as "Vannina Vannini," which Stendhal compiled based on handwritten stories he discovered in Italy. The stories depict tragic love between young men and women of vastly different social standings, or political intrigues and murders stemming from romantic affairs among court nobles. The characters in the novels are driven by intense emotions, overwhelming desires, and the violent actions that result from them. Stendhal aimed to use this to express his admiration for the "passionate character of Italy" and his reverence for "power," contrasting it with the reality of 19th-century French society, where material interests stifled natural human emotions.