Stendhal in Italy
endhal : Notes on a Novelist. By Robert M. Adams. (Merlin Press, 21s.)
an entry in his travel diary for February 6, 17, Stendhal asked himself a question : 'What this self, this I that I am?' The question is se- ated scores of times in his work 'and is echoed his characters. He was immensely preoccupied th the problem of self-knowledge. His writings ere designed to help him to discover what anner of man he really was, to pierce the con- idictions of everyday life and reach the essen- il self. They represent a series of converging tacks on the central citadel starting from cid- rent angles, and are all in varying degrees and fferent ways autobiographical. The two volumes :scribing his travels in Italy in 1816-17 and 127-29 respectively, which now appear in excel- nt translations, are no exception. It is all very ell for the traveller to tell us that 'it is a danger- Js undertaking to describe a journey not as a Ties of objects seen, but rather as a tale of sensa- ons experienced.' The books are far more in- resting as contributions to that vast portrait of ic artist which is Stendhal's work than as guide Joks. He was shameless in ransacking the writ- igs of other people for his facts, but it was he ho provided the 'spice,' the picture of the mis- ilevous, fascinating and elusive figure which in )ne of the padding and the longueurs casts an Ktraordinary spell over the reader.
If the travel books are less entertaining than le diaries, the letters and the autobiographies, it largely because the author was on his best ehaviour. They were not written for private onsumption, for the edification of close friends, r even for 'the happy few.' They were written
3 make money and were addressed to a far more
!date public. There are some amusing anecdotes bout the amorous propensities of the Italian
ability, but compared with the diaries they are
:markably clean. We see Stendhal the tourist, tendhal the art-lover, Stendhal the anti-clerical, Stendhal the lover and Stendhal the seducer kept discreetly out of sight. He seldom has a iod word for his compatriots, but he adored aly and the Italians. Italy was the land of pas-
3n, gaiety, caprice. 'I have never encountered a ee of men that were so closely fashioned after Y own heart,' he said. 'Happiness is contagious. it though he liked the absence of inhibitions Li intended to be complimentary when he ob- -lied that every Italian had 'a touch of the prim- e savage in him,' we may suspect that at times was not unconscious of the fact that they were• (Cs s adult people than the French. 'The great Li deep passions inhabit Rome,' he said, but Lied: 'The Roman aristocracy is moronic be- nd comparison.' His comments on the psycho; ;teal differences of the nations are acute, his igments on art enthusiastic but erratic. Milan thedral has 'none of the magnificence and none the solidity of St. Paul's in London,' He ad- es Llaroque, but Bernini's splendid ConstantConstantineSt. .Peter's is dismissed as a 'bad equestrian !lie. There is plenty of anti-clerical fun. Tu "virus is 'the famous pun on which the power the Pope is founded.' He secures 'the best seat Liable' at the papal Mass in the Sistine Chapel, .15. shocked at the 'caterwauling' of the
Yet the hardened anti-clerical is an du°ns attendant at the funeral ceremonies of
v finds the disrespectful comments of the '''Tlen nailing down the coffin 'painful,' and I" tear himself away from Rome until the
new pontiff is elected, though the conclave lasts over a month.
Mr. Adams, who teaches English at Cornell, embarked on an intensive study of Stendhal in order to discover whether he is a great novelist or simply a 'great character.' Al a time when a mountain of vast and solemn tomes threatens to submerge Stendhal's not unsubstantial wuvre, his short book stands out as one of the most lively and penetrating studies of the novelist that has appeared for some years. The chapter on the Chartreuse is particularly good, and he comes close to the heart of the matter when he distin- guishes between two kinds of imaginative litera- ture: 'one based on the fulfilling of a pattern and another, or others, based on its disruption, de- nial, or suspense.' The choice is necessarily a personal one. It is because Stendhal appeals to the 'outsider,' the anti-conformist, the spirit of rebellion in us that for me. at any rate, he remains the greatest French novelist.
MARTIN TURNELL
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