STENDHAL

born Jan. 23, 1783, Grenoble, Fr. died March 23, 1842, Paris pseudonym of Marie-henri Beyle one of the most original and complex French writers of the first half of the 19th century, chiefly known for his works of fiction. His finest novels are Le Rouge et le noir (1830; The Red and the Black) and La Chartreuse de Parme (1839; The Charterhouse of Parma). Additional reading Critical biographies include Wallace Fowlie, Stendhal (1969); Marcel Gutwirth, Stendhal (1971); Michael Wood, Stendhal (1971); Gita May, Stendhal and the Age of Napoleon (1977); and Robert Alter and Carol Cosman, A Lion for Love (1979, reprinted 1986). Analyses of Stendhal's works may be found in Robert M. Adams, Stendhal: Notes on a Novelist (1959, reissued 1969); Victor Brombert (ed.), Stendhal: A Collection of Critical Essays (1962); F.W.J. Hemmings, Stendhal: A Study of His Novels (1964); John Atherton, Stendhal (1965); Victor Brombert, Stendhal: Fiction and the Themes of Freedom (1968, reissued 1976); Margaret Tillett, Stendhal: The Background of the Novels (1971); Gilbert D. Chaitin, The Unhappy Few: A Psychological Study of the Novels of Stendhal (1972); and Geoffrey Strickland, Stendhal: The Education of a Novelist (1974).