Stendhal in English
Mussas. Cnierro AND WINDUS have performed a service
to the English-speaking world by having commissioned Mr. C. K. Scott Moncrieff to give us the works of Stendhal in English.
The two great novels, Scarlet and Black, and The Charter- house of Parma, have already appeared, and since, on the whole, the reputation of Stendhal will always stand or fall by these two astonishing books, it is already possible to begin to see what Stendhal in English looks like. Henri Boyle (Stendhal's real name), though he undoubtedly expected to be translated into every other language in the world, would have lifted his eyebrows if he had heard of a complete edition of his works in English. Beyle used himself to say that it would take about 100 years for his novels to be read even in France. Thus he underrated somewhat the speed at which his countrymen would come near enough to his point of view to understand him. He could not foresee that even greater men than he, amongst his contemporaries and his successors, Goethe, Nietzsche, and even Tolstoy would develop and perfect that strange point of view, of which he comes near to being the originator.
When we are reading Stendhal we get the most extra- ordinary impression of something new and vital struggling to be born, and that must be why Stendhal, in spite of the glaring imperfections in his literary technique (imperfections which have somewhat frightened away the general reader) has always counted amongst his disciples the choicest and most vital spirits of Europe.
We said just now that Mr. Scott Moncrieff and his publishers are performing a service to the English-speaking world in translating Stendhal. We mean something much more than a mere literary service. Stendhal is perhaps the most un-English writer who ever lived ; and it is for that very reason that we need him ; for he can give us what we most lack. His dislike of the England of Pitt and Wellington was, of course, intense. Bonapartist to the marrow, extremist, anti-Monarchist and anti-democrat, he was appalled by what he saw across the Channel. His readers will remember the intensely characteristic passage in Scarlet and Black,
where M. de la Mole asked Julien about his visit to England. " On his return, ' What amusing idea have you brought me from England ► ' M. de la Mole asked him. He remained silent. What idea have you brought, amusing or not ? ' the Marquis Itent on sharply. ' First of all,' said Julien, the wisest man in England is mad for an hour daily ; he is visited by the demon of suicide, who is the national deity. Secondly, intelligence and genius forfeit twenty-five per cent. of their value on landing in England. Thirdly, nothing in the world is so beautiful, admirable, moving as the English countryside.' "
How strange and how fascinating are the grotesque and the profound, the savage and the tender commingled in this passage. Like all writers of his type, Stendhal had an omnivorous taste for quotation. Every chapter carries at its head a strange and delightful passage from some author. The chapter entitled " The best positions in the Church," is headed with these words from Telemaque. "Des services ! des talents ! du merite ! bah ! soyez d'une coterie." This reflection opens out one whole side of Stendhal, his extra- ordinary and desperate realism, and one can imagine no books which so quickly awaken the reader to the realitin of social life as his. It has been said that every young Frenchman who goes to Paris thinks that he is Julien Sorel. Let us hope that this belief is quickly disproved or else the guillotine would always be as busy as during the Terror. (Scarlet and Black ends with the execution of the hero.) But on the other hand it is certain that a young man would be wise to read the story of his eternal prototype, Julien, before attempting to conquer the world.
This is one great theme of Stendhal's. What, in fact, is the social world in every country, in every time, in every class like ? His other theme is, what is the male human heart in extreme youth like ? Julien's lack of love for Madame de Renal, combined with the sense of a duty to himself which spurs him on to possess her, and which actually does in the end make him love her beyond all else ; Fabrizio's desperate search for what he feels he ought to feel in The Charterhouse of Parma, the risking of his neck by his return to Parma after his banishment in order to see a woman who leaves him totally unmoved—these are the characteristic love incidents of Stendhal. When we think that they were written in the 1820-80's, they stagger us by their originality.
Which is one to prefer of these great novels, the Scarlet and Black or The Charterhouse of Parma ? No doubt Scarlet and Black has rightly been acclaimed Stendhal's masterpiece. It is a far better novel, more closely knit, easier to read, more exciting than The Charterhouse. And yet those who, like Balzac, support The Charterhouse of Parma, have much on their side. The characters of the Count Mosca and of the Countess Gina are almost matchless.
Mr. Scott Mo.ncrieff has wisely included in his English edition Balzac's famous review of The Charterhouse of Parma, in the course of which Mown is identified with Metternich : nor is there anything in Scarlet and Black more illuminating than the description of Waterloo : a description which, Tolstoy said, first taught him to understand the nature of war.
But all these are the details, the gorgeous and valuable trappings of Stendhal. We shall regard him as a notable but amateurish author (for his defects certainly cry to Heaven) or as something very much more, according to whether his unique spirit is sympathetic to us or not.
The whole of Stendlial's work is really an attempt to depict and so differentiate a certain type of man and woman whom he usually calls people of feeling ; to place them on one side and to place the rest of the world over against them on the other side. It is the same distinction which Goethe draws between what he called " puppets " and " natures." Stendhal's " men and women of feeling," Julian, Gina, Fabrizio, are Goethe's " natures." They are the only valuable people in the world. Over against them are the puppets, the panicky princes, the aristocrats like M. de la Mole, the disgusting bourgeois like M. de Renal, Valenod, the bestial peasants like Julien's father. Always the " natures," the people of feeling are crushed and broken by the puppets. But at any rate the " natures " have the unique satisfaction of having lived. If we feel this distinction and recognize it, then we shall love the works of Stendhal. If we do not, if we deny its validity (as there are the best of logical grounds for doing), then we shall not feel the main force of his work.
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