STENDHAL’S PARALLEL LIVES: DUPES. FRIPONS GREAT SOULS 1829-42 Jens Francesco Quirino Manzini PhD, 1999 University College London ProQuest Number: U642340 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U642340 Published by ProQuest LLC(2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT Stendhal divides humanity into the two categories of dupes and fripons. The introduction to the thesis shows how Stendhal's heroes and heroines attempt to transcend these two categories, modelling themselves on great souls (exemplars), most notably the heroes and heroines of the French Republic (Danton, Mme Roland) and Empire (Napoleon). The former exemplify a sublime form of duperie, the latter a sublime form of friponnerie. Stendhal relates these two categories of exemplars to their respective counterparts or pairs drawn from Plutarch's Parallel Lives, most notably Brutus (a sublime dupe) and Caesar (a subhme fripon). The introduction begins to explore these parallels by tracing Stendhal's attitudes to Plutarch prior to 1829. The first part of the thesis examines Stendhal's non-fiction of 1829-42, beginning with his evocations of Ancient Rome in the Promenades dans Rome and of specific Plutarchian exemplars in the Souvenirs d ’égotisme (Epaminondas), Vie de Henry Brulard (Brutus) and Mémoires sur Napoléon (Caesar). The first part concludes with an analysis of Plutarchian themes in Stendhal's translations {Vittoria Accoramboni. Les Cenci, La Duchesse de Palliano) and travel-writings in contemporary France {Mémoires d'un touriste. Voyage en France, Voyage dans le Midi de la France). The second part deals with Stendhal's fiction of the period, tracing his exploration of the related oppositions between Brutus and Caesar, duperie and friponnerie, generosity and ambition, the sublime and the vile. In the process, the thesis brings out the parallels Stendhal establishes between his fictional heroes and heroines as well as between these heroes and heroines and their exemplars, whether drawn directly from Plutarch or from more recent history (the Middle Ages, Italian sixteenth century, French Republic and Empire). I conclude by arguing that Stendhal's writings of the period constitute a modem Parallel Lives, part (auto-)biographical, part fictional. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Note on references I. Introduction 1. Dupes and Fripons 8 1. 'Un langage sacré' 8 2. 'Un homme distingué' 12 3. 'La clef qui explique le XIX® siècle' 17 2. Plutarch 21 1. 'Le livre par excellence' 21 2. Dérousseauiser mon ]u%QmQn\' 25 3. Plutarquiser 28 II. N o n -F iction 1. Promenades dans Rome 33 1. Le Colisée 33 2. Trastevere 37 3. 'La beauté parfaite' 41 4. 'Un beau mensonge' 45 2. ORivres intimes 50 1. Epaminondas 50 2. Brutus 58 3. Caesar 62 3. Mémoires sur Napoléon 68 1. (Auto)biography 68 2. Exemplars 73 3. Vie de César 78 4. Ambition 83 Historiettes romaines 89 1. Singularity 89 2. Rome en 1600 98 5. Voyages en France 107 1. Gilles de Retz 107 2. Valence 111 3. Generosity 116 4. Satire 120 III. F ic tio n Rouge et le Noir 129 1. Restoration 129 2. Reaction and Revolt 133 3. Chronique de 1830 138 4. 'Faut-il voler, faut-il se vendre?' 142 5. 'Marcher du tendre au rusé' 145 6. 'Savoir-vivre' 149 7. The Trial 155 cien Leuwen 158 1. 'Inachèvement' 158 2. 'Romancer l'échec' 163 3. 'La peau de la statue' 166 4. 'Un homme distingué' 174 5. 'Le sang et la banqueroute' 180 6. 'Je serai un coquin' 184 7. "Un cœur tout d'une pièce' 188 Chartreuse de Parme 193 1. A-Imagination 193 2. L'Ahhesse de Castro 196 3. 'Générations décroissantes' 203 4. 'Don Quichotte' 208 5. Caesar and Brutus 215 6. 'Les règles du jeu de whist' 220 IV. Co n c l u sio n 1. Lamiel 229 1. Esprit and Passion 229 2. Emulation and Imitation 235 3. Parallel Lives 239 Bibliography 241 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to begin by thanking my exemplary supervisor, Dr Wendy S. Mercer, for her invaluable advice, unstinting help and extraordinary kindness. Working under her guidance has been a very great pleasure. I should also Hke to thank Prof. Tim Mathews for organizing the Postgraduate seminars that have informed my work and afforded me the opportunity of trying out ideas in an informal setting. I also owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the British Academy for funding two years of my research, as well as to University College London for providing me with excellent resources, a congenial working environment and the opportunity to teach French literature. I could not have written this thesis had my enthusiasm for the study of French literature not been fired by a succession of exceptional teachers, most notably Mr N.M. Isaacs, Dr J.S.T. Garfitt and j^ % a n Raitt. I wish particularly to thank Dr Garfitt for his support and advice both prior to my decision to embark on research and at regular intervals thereafter. Finally I should hke to thank Juhet and my parents for their love. NOTE ON REFERENCES I have decided not to refer to the novels in the Pléiade edition given that it is about to be superseded. In the interests of clarity, I refer to Henri Beyle as Stendhal throughout. The following abbreviations will also be used throughout. See Bibliography for full bibliographical information. 1. Works by Stendhal A Armance (Gamier-Flammarion) C Correspondance (Pléiade-Gallimard) Cl Chroniques Italiennes (=GC, XVni-XIX) AC LAbbesse de Castro DP La Duchesse de Palliano LC Les Cenci SS Suora Scolastica TT Trop de faveur tue VA Vittoria Accoramboni CP La Chartreuse de Parme (Classiques Gamier) DA De VAmour (Folio-Gallimard) HMM Vies de Haydn, de Mozart et de Métastase {=OC, XLI) JL Journal Littéraire (=OC,XXXm-XXXV) L Lamiel (Gamier-Flammarion) LL Lucien Leuwen (Gamier-Flammarion) MN Mémoires sur Napoléon (=0C, XL) OC (Mivres Complètes (Cercle du Bibliophile) CI (Mivres Intimes (Pléiade-Gallimard) J Journal SE Souvenirs d'égotisme VHP Vie de Henry Brulard RN Le Rouge et le Noir (Classiques Gamier) RSN Romans et Nouvelles {=0C, XXXVm) MV Mina de Vanghel RV Le Rose et le Vert T Théâtre (=OC, XLH-XLm) VFR Voyages en France (Pléiade-Gallimard) MT Mémoires d'un touriste VF Voyage en France VMF Voyage dans le Midi de la France VIT Voyages en Italie (Pléiade-Gallimard) PR Promenades dans Rome RNF(26) Rome, Naples et Florence (1826) VN Vie de Napoléon (=0C, XXXIX) 2. Works by Plutarch AA The Age of Alexander FRR The Fall of the Roman Republic MR The Makers of Rome RFA The Rise and Fall of Athens I INTRODUCTION 1 DUPES AND FRIPONS 'On peut dire de [...] Stendhal, qu'il avait grande frayeur d'être dupe.' (Charles Baudelaire)^ 1. ’Un langage sacré’ Stendhal's texts are pre-eminently concerned with the vanity, charlatanism, vulgarity and mediocrity of French society under the Restoration and Orleanism. Stendhal contrasts these perceived failings with the idealism of the French Repubhc and the grandeur of Napoleon's Imperial project. He therefore presents the fall of Napoleon as a major cultural discontinuity; a Fall responsible for a set of cleavages, between art and politics, language and action, imagination and reality, passion and vanité. Stendhal's post-lapsarian world is populated by an inferior generation, forever dividing into dupes and fripons. Stendhal's heroes and heroines seek to reverse this generational decline, re-inventing themselves in the image of great souls such as Mme Roland, Danton and Napoleon, themselves modelled on the exemplars of Republican and Imperial antiquity. Stendhal identifies passion as the quality proper to an appreciation of music and the figurative arts, in particular the works of Cimarosa and Mozart, Raphael, Michelangelo and Correggio. Stendhal also shows this quality as proper to an understanding of historical exemplars such as Brutus and Caesar, Mme Roland, Danton and Napoleon. Thus Napoleon's Italian campaigns represent a fusion of art and politics: 'le canon du pont de Lodi (mai 1796) commença le réveil de l'Italie. Les âmes généreuses purent oublier l'amour et les beaux-arts; quelque chose de plus nouveau se présentait aux jeunes imaginations' (VIT, p. 1039 [PR]). Passion offers Stendhal a point of contact between language and action, representation and emulation. It therefore helps Stendhal's heroes and heroines span the generations and so reverse centuries of cultural decline. It also functions as 'un langage sacré' between Stendhal and his ideal readers. ^ Charles Baudelaire, OEuvres complètes, ed. by Claude Pichois, 2 vols (Paris: Pléiade- Gallimard, 1975-76), II, 757. Esprit and savoir-vivre have often been privileged at the expense ofpassion in critical readings of Stendhal, particularly those which attempt to decode Stendhal's authorial irony.2 Yet Stendhal's work finally deals more with the limitations than the satisfactions of esprit and savoir-vivre. Indeed, Stendhal opposesesprit both to a proper understanding of the arts {VIT, p.741 [PR]) and to the effective management of public affairs: 'Clément VII avait beaucoup d'esprit et manquait tout à fait de caractère. Or nous avons vu dans notre Révolution que, dès que les circonstances politiques deviennent difficiles, l'esprit est ridicule: c'est la force de caractère qui décide de tout' (p.