Marie-Henri Beyle (1783 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal, is remembered today for such novels as Le Rouge et le Noir. In his lifetime, he wrote in a variety of literary genres and under a multitude of names. Louis-Alexandre-Cesar Bombet was his choice of pseudonym for these early works, originally published in French in 1814. His lives of Haydn and Mozart were substantially derived from works by Giuseppe Carpani and Theophile Winckler respectively. Despite this audacious plagiarism, Stendhal's passion for music is evident, especially for Mozart, whose Clemenza di Tito he had enjoyed in Konigsberg during the winter of 1812 whilst serving in Napoleon's army. Of especial interest to the modern reader are Stendhal's frequent digressions expressing his forthright opinions on the issues and figures of his day. This reissue is of Robert Brewin's English translation of 1817, with additional notes by the composer William Gardiner.

Marie-Henri Beyle (1783 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal, is remembered today for such novels as Le Rouge et le Noir. Over the course of his life, he wrote in a variety of literary genres and under a multitude of names, or anonymously. Reissued here is the 1824 English translation of his Vie de Rossini of the same year, which was accused of being partly plagiarised from Giuseppe Carpani's Le Rossiniane, following similar claims regarding his biographies of Haydn and Mozart (which are also reissued together in translation in this series). Best known for William Tell and The Barber of Seville, Gioachino Rossini (1792 1868) was by far the most popular opera composer of his day, adored by his public. Colourful, vigorous and forthright, Stendhal's brilliant though somewhat unreliable biography offers an opinionated contemporary critique of 'Signor Crescendo'.

Rossini's success in Italy in the early 1820s was certainly not echoed in France, where he was regarded as "an ill-bred parvenu, whose cheap popularity was an insult to a great musical tradition". Stendhal was the first of his contemporaries to recognize the genius of this important Italian composer. Besides being a fascinating and penetrating account of the Italian composer's most creative years, and of contemporary musical events and opinions, this work is one of the finest items in the Stendhalian literary canon. Details of Rossini's early life are followed by penetrating discussions of the operas, libretti, personalities of the period and Rossini's own character.

An extensively revised "Backgrounds and Contexts" section provides geographical and political insights into mid-nineteenth century France and places the novel in the context of contemporary authors and works. A map of 1830s France, political and literary chronologies, an account of the trial of Antoine Berthet, and related writings by Stendhal, Paul Valery, and Jules Janin are included. "Criticism" collects nine essays, seven of which are new to this edition, by Erich Auerbach, Rene Girard, Victor Brombert, Shoshana Felman, Peter Brooks, Sandy Petrey, Alison Finch, Lisa G. Algazi, and Susanna Lee. A Chronology of Stendhal's life and work, also new to the Second Edition, and an updated Selected Bibliography are included.

A contemporary collection of stories by one of France s finest writers.

Revered by key literary figures including as Balzac and Merimee, Stendhal is best known for his novels, but his shorter works were just as powerful. In this brand new translation, Susan Ashe brings his greatest Italian stories to the modern reader, whilst staying true to Stendhal s style and brilliance.

The collection includes:

- The Abbess of Castro- Vittoria Accordamboni- The Cenci- Along with accompanying essays by Charles Dickens, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Stendhal himself.

Together, these stories convey Stendhal s love of Italy and admiration for the society s honesty, sincerity, and above all, passion. Roman Tales will reaffirm Stendhal as one of the great French masters of the 19th Century."

The 'Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio'- Stendhal's first published work - owes its inspiration to the audacious pragmatism of its author. After the collapse of the Napoleonic empire, Henri Beyle was jobless, soon destined to become a refugee and in desperate need of money. His most abiding passion in life was music, so why not write about it? Unfortunately, however, he knew next to nothing about it. So, calmly and without the slightest pang of conscience, he resolved to plunder the works of other writers - in particular those of the musicologist Giuseppe Carpani, who was annoyed and said so vociferously. The result of Stendhal's unscrupulous plagiarism is one of the most fascinating literary enigmas of all time. How is it that what started as a blatant act of piracy evolved into a work of enduring genius? Despite its unpropitious beginnings, this work represents the wrong-headedness of a genius - and the singular Louis-Alexandre-Cesar Bomet who signed the 'Lives' was already, in everything that mattered, the man who was to be Stendhal, one of the most enduring literary figures of the nineteenth century.

The articles which Stendhal contributed as French correspondent for the 'London Magazine', 'New Monthly Magazine' and other English Marketing Reviews of the 1820s are here brought together in a single volume, the only edition available in English. In them Stendhal - defying fashion and giving proof of the bold originality of his creative writing - provides an illuminating and often entertaining commentary on the politics and mores of post-Napoleonic France and Italy, and reveals his outstanding and all too rarely acknowledged gifts as a reviewer and literary critic. Together with the articles from the English Marketing Reviews, this edition includes translations of articles, essays and notes on Cornielle, Scott and Lord Byron, who was on terms of close acquaintance with Stendhal during his stay in Milan in 1816.

Stendhal examines the "shadow" in lesbian relationships that descends when women bond so completely that the intimacy becomes a merging, obliterating the space between individuals where desire lies. Lesbian bed death, the topic of so many comediennes, is examined and reined in, no longer an inevitable result of a solid relationship. "True Secrets of Lesbian Desire" casts an eye on the myths that burden us all.

"The Life of Henry Brulard" is the autobiography of one of France's greatest writers, Stendhal, author of "The Red and the Black" and "The Charterhouse of Parma." Here, writing at white heat and with such ferocious honesty and indignation that his book was to remain unpublishable for more than a century after its composition, Stendhal revisits his unhappy childhood in a stuffy provincial town and bares his rebellious heart. His adored mother, who died when he was only seven; a father devoted only to his own social ambitions; the aunt whose daily cruelties passed for care: these are among the indelible portraits in a work that captures the sights, sounds, places, and characters of Stendhal's youth, its pleasures and sorrows, with preternatural clarity and immediacy. Full of dazzling images and burning emotions, "The Life of Henry Brulard" is a vivid memoir that is also an extraordinary work of the imagination.

This major critical work by the great French novelist reveals Stendhal's decisive role in the literary renaissance called Romanticism. Written sixteen years before 'The Charterhouse of Parma', it marked the beginning of his illustrious career and established him at the forefront of the French Romantic movement. The first part of 'Racine and Shakespeare' appeared as a pamphlet in 1823, when Waterloo was still bitterly alive in the French mind. In it, Stendhal vigorously championed the spontaneous vitality of Shakespeare while condemning the rigid imitators of Corneille and Racine. The second half of 'Racine and Shakespeare' appeared two years later in answer to a speech against Romanticism by the secretary of the Academie Francaise. It is a brilliant tour de force, an exchange of letters between an old classicist and a young Romanticiist, in which Stendhal defined Romanticism not only for his age but for all time.

Nineteenth-century French writer Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name Stendhal, is one of the earliest leading practitioners of realism, his stories filled with sharp analyses of his characters' psychology. This translation of Stendhal's Chroniques italiennes is a collection of nine tales written between 1829 and 1840, many of which were published only after his death. Together these collected tales reveal a great novelist working with highly dramatic subject matter to forge a vision of life lived at its most intense. The setting for these tales is a romanticized Italy, a place Stendhal viewed as unpolluted by bourgeois inhibitions and conformism. From the hothouse atmosphere of aristocratic convents to the horrors of the Cenci family, the tales in Italian Chronicles all feature passionate, transgressive characters engaged in "la chasse au bonheur"-the quest for happiness. Most of the tragic, violent tales are based on historical events, with Stendhal using history to validate his characters' extreme behaviors as they battle literal and figurative oppression and try to break through to freedom. Complete with revenge, bloody daggers, poisonings, and thick-walled nunneries, this new translation of Italian Chronicles includes four never-before-translated stories and a fascinating introduction detailing the origins of the book. It is sure to gratify established Stendhal fans as well as readers new to the writer.

‘For Julien, to make his fortune meant first of all to get out of Verrières … he would dream with delight that he would one day encounter the beautiful women of Paris …’

Handsome and ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins and make something of his life. To do this, he realizes he must adopt the code of hypocrisy by which society operates, achieving advancement through deceit and self-interest. His triumphant career takes him from the provinces to glamorous Paris society, along the way conquering the beautiful, gentle Madame de Rênal, unhappy wife of his employer, and then haughty, aristocratic Mathilde, engaged to another man. But he brings about his own downfall when he commits an unexpected, devastating crime.

The Red and the Black is a lively, satirical picture of French Restoration society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed and ennui. The complex, sympathetic portrayal of Julien, the cold exploiter whose Machiavellian campaign is undercut by his own emotions, makes him Stendhal’s most brilliant and human creation, and one of the greatest characters in European literature.

• with a new introduction, chronology, further reading and notes •