Stendahl: The Charterhouse of Parma

If I had read this book in a vaccum (which will never be the case), I might have been taken in by its claim to be based on real events.  Such selfish, petty, foolhardy, and entitled fellows as the ostensible protagonist abound in the world today, after all.  Privileged young men act today just as described here, and presumably throughout human history will continue to do so.  As such, I might have forgiven Stendahl for his topic.  He may not have been elevating the 19th century equivalent of a fuckboi to Romantic hero status after all, merely faithfully recording a tragic story as related to him by one of the participants.

But this is a habit for Stendahl.  Fabrice del Dongo is cut from the same reckless, vicious cloth as Julien Sorel in The Red and the Black.  To the author's eyes, their downfall was only the result of their excessive passion.  An objective observer, however, can find myriad points where even the merest sliver of virtue would have forestalled tragedy.  Stendahl's men reap the whirlwind, not of fate, but of their own worthlessness.  The author dwells so heavily in both books on the various talents of these irredeemable characters that he seems to have fooled himself into thinking that wit is a virtue--when clearly it is no more so than being tall or handsome is.

And is it a surprise that a white male of some wit and ability built entire worlds where such a fellow as himself was universally lauded, allowed to do as he pleased, and nearly suffocated with the attention of beautiful women? Or that such a man was so dissatisfied with the failure of the real world to deliver him such a life that he passed from penname to penname as though changing hats?  Or that his "supreme happiness would be to change into a lanky, blonde German and to walk about like that in Paris" [Memoirs]?  Do I dare insult the reader by answering those questions?