Topic Problems of Stendhal's novel "Vanina Vanini" Historical events underlying Stendhal's works, the Restoration period in France and Italy, Napoleon's Italian campaigns, the Carbonari movement. Italy in the artistic mind of Stendhal
Vanina Vanini is a wealthy Italian princess. This girl has a fiery gaze and a passionate soul. Being an aristocrat by birth, she treats young people of her circle with contempt because of their inability to do great things. But Vanina Vanini falls passionately in love with the young Carbonari Pietro Missirilli, a fighter against tyranny. The characters of the characters are deliberately "romanticized". Both Missirilli and Vanina Vanini are inseparable from their time, and the originality of their personal situation is ultimately generated by the socio-political situation in Italy. There is a clash of two passions, Pietro and his beloved, even in love, find themselves on opposite sides of the "social barricade". Missirilli, who devoted himself to the revolutionary struggle, and the expressive, energetic Vanina Vanini are typical Stendhal heroes. In their passions they are romantically reckless, but their recklessness - despite the similarity of external manifestations - is of a different nature. Missirilli gives herself into the hands of the executioners out of a sense of duty, based on boundless love for the motherland, and Vanina Vanini, almost without hesitation, betrays Pietro's comrades in order to completely own the heart of her beloved, to keep him near her. But in return, she receives the burning hatred of her lover, who cannot forgive her for what she has done. Vanina Vanini is doomed to misunderstand her lover. Stendhal poetically and tragically showed how far egoism, which became a characteristic of that time, had gone: the image of Vanin Vanini demonstrates this. It is not surprising that the work is named after the heroine, whose "opposition" to society was ultimately a pose when tested by the tragic events of the time. After breaking up with Pietro Vanina, Vanini quickly consoled herself by marrying someone else. Missirilli and Vanina Vanini are people from alien and hostile worlds.
3.2 Practical (seminar) classes, their content and volume in hoursTopic 1. Problems of Stendhal's short story "Vanina Vanini"
The historical events underlying the works of Stendhal, the period of the Restoration in France and Italy, the Italian campaigns of Napoleon, the movement of the Carbonari.
The realism of Stendhal in the depiction of major historical events.
Analysis of Stendhal's short story "Vanina Vanini":
b) the problem of a young man in Stendhal's short story;
c) the image of Vanina, the hero and the social environment;
d) the positive hero of Stendhal, the image of Pietro Missirilli.
Artistic originality of the novel.
LITERATURE
Fried Jan. Stendhal. Essay on life and creativity. - M, 1968.
Reizov B.G. French novel of the 19th century. - M., 1969.
Prevost J. Stendhal. - M.-L., 1967.
Reizov B.G. Stendhal. Artistic creativity. - L., 1978.
Topic 2. The story of O. BALZAC "GOBSEK" / The problem of social and temporal determinism of a realistic nature /
^
1. The main features of Francisian realism / on the material of writing
F. Engels to M. Harkness/.
2. The main requirements of Balzac to art, set out in the "Preface" to the "Human Comedy".
3. "Human Comedy" by O. Balzac and the place in it of the story "Gobsek".
4. Features of the composition of the story, giving it a generalizing meaning.
5. Ways of creating a character in Balzac and the ideological content of the image of Gobsek:
a) a portrait;
b) environment, principles of description;
c) the evolution of the image;
d) Gobsek's philosophy, self-disclosure of the character;
e) romantic and realistic in the image;
6. Characters of the second plan in Balzac, the principles of their creation and connection with the main character.
7. Correlation between the aesthetic principles of Balzac and the method of depicting reality in Gobsek.
LITERATURE
Balzac O. Sobr. op. in 15 vols. M. 1951-55. T.1
Engels F. Letter to M. Garkness. // K. Marx, F. Engels Sobr. op. T.37. pp.35-37.
Vertsman I.E. Problems of artistic knowledge. M., 1967 /Ch. "Aesthetics of Balzac" /.
Oblomievsky D.D. Balzac: stages of the creative path. M., 1961.
Reizov B.G. Balzac. Sat. Art. Leningrad State University, 1960.
Puzikov Honore Balzac. M., 1955.
Muravyova N.I. Honore Balzac. M., 1958.
Topic 3. Prosper Merimee's short story "Carmen" /genre problem/.
Prosper Merimee's short stories of the 1830s and 40s in the light of the genre.
Analysis of the short story "Carmen":
b) conflict in the novel;
c) two centers in the structure of the work and their functions;
d) clash of two national characters /Carmen and José/;
e) the function of a frame story /ethnographer's narration/;
f) romantic and realistic beginning in the short story.
Prosper Merimee is the founder of the realistic short story in French literature of the 19th century.
LITERATURE
Lukov V.A. Prosper Merimee. M., 1984.
Smirnov A.A. Prosper Merimee and his short stories // Merimee P. Novels. M-
L., 1947. pp.5-38.
Frestier J. Prosper Merimee. M., 1987.
History of French Literature. M., 1956. T.2. pp.407-440.
History of foreign literature of the 19th century / ed. I.D.Solovyova. M., 1991. S.460-470.
Topic 4. The originality of the work of Charles Dickens
/based on the novel "Dombey and Son"/
Features of the development of English literature in the second half of the 19th century. The place of Dickens' creativity in the country's literary process. Evaluation of the work of the writer and English realists by Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Gorky.
The problems of Dickens' novels in the light of the moral and aesthetic ideal of the writer.
"Dombey and Son" by Dickens - the meaning of the title and its realization in the system of images and composition of the work.
Characters:
The role of the objective world in describing the scene of action and in creating the character's character.
Peculiarities of Psychology.
Leitmotifs and how to create them.
The role of hyperbole and its connection with a fairy tale, a fairy tale element in the development of the plot and the development of the conflict.
The genre of the novel.
The role of a happy ending in the poetics of Dickens' novels.
LITERATURE
Anikin G.V., Mikhalskaya N.P. History of English Literature. M., 1998.
Katargsky L.M. Dickens. Critical bibliographic essay. M., 1969.
Ivashov. The work of Dickens. M., 1954.
Silman T.N. Dickens. M., 1970.
Michalskaya.N.P. Charles Dickens - M., 1959.
Topic 5. The satirical tradition in English literature of the mid-19th century and the work of W. Thackeray "Vanity Fair".
1. W. Thackeray. political views.
2. The concept of art and history (prefaces to the novels "Newcomes" and "History of Pendeniss" as a reflection).
a) problems: socio-political and moral problems in the novel, the problem of snobbery,
b) the originality of the genre and the problem of "a novel without a hero",
c) composition,
d) system of images; social-typical capacity of the main images (Rebecca Sharp and Emily Sedley) and their individual psychological identity,
4. W. Thackeray's innovation in depicting the English reality of the 19th century. Irony and satire.
LITERATURE
Vakhrushev V.S. Thackeray's work. M., 1984.
Elistratova A.A. Thackeray // History of English Literature. M., 55. T.2.
Ivasheva V.V. Thackeray is a satirist. M., 58
Topic 6. The satirical work of G. Heine in the 1840s (the poem "Germany. Winter's Tale")
Aesthetic Patterns of the Development of Germany in the Middle of the 19th Century: Romanticism as an Indispensable Component of German Realism.
G. Heine. Periodization of creativity.
Place of the poem "Germany. Winter Tale” in the work of G. Heine in the 1840s.
Genre originality of the poem “Germany. Winter fairy tale.
political motives in the poem.
Duality in the perception of revolution and religion.
Life-affirming motives in the poem.
The peculiarity of satire and irony.
LITERATURE
Stadnikov G.V. Heinrich Heine. M., 1984.
Deutsch A.I. The poetic world of Heinrich Heine. M., 1963.
Gijdeu S. P. Heinrich Heine. M., 1964.
Schiller F. P. Heinrich Heine. M., 1962.
Topic 7. Problems and system of images in Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.
Aesthetics G. Flaubert. The meaning of the image of the "ivory tower". Contradiction between aesthetics and artistic practice of the writer.
Flaubert's controversy with the romantics of the second half of the 19th century and tendentious literature. The satirical image of pseudo-romantic literature in the novel and its role in the drama of the main character's fate.
The problem of the ideal in the aesthetics and creativity of G. Flaubert and its solution in the novel Madame Bovary.
The fate of Emma Bovary. The duality of the image.
Criticism of philistinism and spiritual poverty of the philistine environment in the novel.
The image of the pharmacist Ome, its social significance.
LITERATURE
Reizov B.G. Flaubert's work. M., 1955.
Ivashchenko A.F. Gustave Flaubert. M., 1955.
Reizov B.G. French novel of the 19th century. M., 1969.
Topic 8
The place of the collection of poems "Flowers of Evil" in the work of Baudelaire.
The main provisions of the aesthetic program of Baudelaire.
Structure and cycles of the collection.
Addressees of Baudelaire's Poems.
Correspondence theory. History of the idea of correspondences. Connection with mystical philosophy and aesthetics of German romanticism.
The theme of nature and the city in "Flowers of Evil".
Baudelaire's point of view on religion and its reflection in the collection.
LITERATURE
Baudelaire Sh. Flowers of evil. M, 1970.
Baudelaire Sh. Flowers of evil. Poems in prose. Diaries. M., 1993.
Baudelaire Sh. About art. M, 1986.
Balashov N.Y. The legend and the truth about Baudelaire // Baudelaire S. Flowers of Evil. Moscow, 1970, pp. 233-288.
Bibikov V. Three portraits. Stendhal. Flaubert. Baudelaire. SPb., 1890.
Valerie P. Position of Baudelaire// Valerie P. On Art. M., 1993. S. 338-353.
Levik V. “We have beauty that the ancients do not know” // Baudelaire Sh. About art. M., 1986. S. 5-16.
Nolman M.L. Charles Baudelaire. Fate. Aesthetics. Style. M, 1979.
Nolman M.L. Baudelaire coordinates. (Poem "L "amor du mesonge") // Stylistic problems of French literature. L., 1974. S. 165-174.
Oblomievsky D.D. French symbolism. M., 1973.
Etkind E.G. About external and internal space in Baudelaire's poetry // Stylistic problems of French literature. L, 1974. S. 189-208.
Topic 9. Philosophical novel-parable by G. Melville "Moby Dick, or the White Whale"
G. Melville as a representative of the philosophical trend in American literature. Aesthetic views of the writer.
Genre originality of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" as a philosophical novel-parable.
Problematics and ideological sounding of the novel.
Image system.
Combination of romantic and realistic beginnings.
The influence of Melville's work on American writers of the twentieth century: E. Hemingway, W. Faulkner and others.
LITERATURE
Melville G. Moby Dick (any edition).
Kovalev Yu.P. Herman Melville and American Romanticism. L., 1972.
Nikolyukin A.N. American Romanticism and Modernity. M., 1968.
Romantic Traditions of 19th Century American Literature and Modernity. M., 1982.
Italy, which Stendhal had loved since his youth, was perceived by him as a country of strong passions and beautiful art. The characters of the Italians have always been of particular interest to Stendhal.
Stay in Italy left a deep mark on the work of Stendhal. He enthusiastically studied Italian art, painting, music. The love for Italy grew in him more and more. This country inspired him to a number of works. These are, first of all, the work on the history of art "The History of Painting in Italy", "Rome, Florence, Naples", "Walks in Rome", the short stories "Italian Chronicles"; finally, Italy gave him the plot of one of his largest novels - The Parma Monastery.
The "Italian Chronicles" reproduce different forms of passions. Four stories are published - "Vittoria Accoramboni", "Duchess di Palliano", "Cenci", "Abbess of Castro". All of them are artistic processing of old manuscripts found by the writer in the archives, telling about the bloody tragic events of the Renaissance. Together with "Vanina Vanini" they make up the famous cycle of "Italian Chronicles" by Stendhal.
The writer owes the birth of the idea of a new novel to Italy: in 1839, in 52 days, Stendhal wrote The Parma Cloister. All Stendhal's novels, except the last one, are not rich in intrigue: can the plot of Red and Black, for example, be called complex? The event here is the birth of a thought, the emergence of a feeling. In the last novel, Stendhal shows himself to be an unsurpassed master of plot construction: here is the betrayal of a father, and the secret of the birth of a son, and a mysterious prediction, and murders, and imprisonment, and an escape from it, and secret dates, and much more.
Stendhal considered psychological analysis to be the most important task of modern literature. In one of the aspects - in terms of the specifics of national psychology - he develops characters and event conflict in the short story "Vanina Vanini" (1829) with a remarkable subtitle: "Some details about the last venta of the Carbonari, revealed in the Papal States."
Created almost simultaneously with "Red and Black" short story "Vanina Vanini" in its poetics differs from the novel. Profound psychologism, manifested in the protagonist's lengthy inner monologues, which slow down the pace of external action in the novel, was in fact contraindicated for the Italian short story, its very genre nature and characters. The extreme conciseness of the author's descriptions, the rapid flow of events, the stormy reaction of the characters with their southern temperament - all this creates a special dynamism and drama of the narration.
The heroes of the novel - the Italian carbonarius Pietro Missirilli and the Roman aristocrat Vanina Vanini, who met by force of circumstances and fell in love with each other, discover completely different and even opposite sides of the Italian national character in a difficult dramatic situation.
Pietro Missirilli is an Italian youth, a poor man who inherited the best features of his people, awakened by the French Revolution, proud, courageous and independent. Hatred of tyranny and obscurantism, pain for the fatherland, suffering under the heavy yoke of foreigners and local feudal lords, lead him to one of the carbonari vents. Having become its inspirer and leader, Pietro sees his destiny and happiness in the struggle for the freedom of his homeland. (His prototype is a friend of Stendhal, the hero of the liberation movement in Italy, Giuseppe Wismar.). Devotion to a dangerous but good cause for Italy, patriotism, honesty and selflessness inherent in Missirilli make it possible to define his character as heroic.
The young Carbonari in the short story is opposed by Vanina Vanini - a strong, bright, whole nature. A Roman aristocrat who knows no equal in beauty and nobility, the case brings together Pietro, who was wounded during an escape from prison, where, after a failed uprising, he was thrown by the authorities. In it, Vanina discovers those qualities that the youth of her environment are deprived of, incapable of either exploits or strong movements of the soul.
The short story "Vanina Vanini" combines romantic and realistic features:
1. The romantic plot of the novel is opposed to the realistic beginning of the novel: "It happened on a spring evening in 182 ... years."
2. The image of the main character Pietro Missirilli is romantic in its essence. He is ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of the Motherland.
The activities of the Carbonari belong to the realistic features of the novel. Information about them is given from a realistic position. The typical character of the Carbonari is devoid of typical circumstances. It is not shown in activity.
The image of Pietro combines romantic and realistic. traits. This is the image of a whole person. He is a fighter for the people's welfare, for the liberation of the motherland.
3. Despite the social inequality of the characters, a love collision is shown (romantic and realistic.)
4. To the romantic trait, we can attribute Vanina's dressing up in men's suits for the sake of saving Pietro and for the sake of his own selfish interests.
5. Realistic character traits of heroes are determined by upbringing and environment.
6. Vanina's attempts to save Pietro are realistic in content, but romantic in form.
7. It can also be noted that the ending of the short story is realistic in content.
Creating an almost romantic halo around the protagonist Pietro, Stendhal, as a realist, strictly determines the features of his personality: passion is due to the fact that he is Italian, the author explains the nationality of the hero and the fact that after the defeat he becomes religious and considers his love for Vanina a sin, for which he this defeat is punished. The social determinism of character convinces the hero - beloved and loving - to prefer his homeland to his beloved woman. Patrician Vanina's daughter values love above all else. She is smart, above her environment for spiritual needs. The "non-secularity" of the heroine explains the originality of her character. However, her originality is only enough to send 19 carbonari to death in the name of her love. Each of the heroes of Stendhal's novel understands happiness in his own way and sets out to hunt for it in his own way.
Determining realistically bright, like those of romantics, characters, Stendhal builds the same complex plot, using surprises, exceptional events: escape from the fortress, the appearance of a mysterious stranger. However, the "grain" of the plot - the struggle of the Venta Carbonari and her death - was suggested to the writer by the very history of Italy in the 19th century. Thus, the tendencies of realism and romanticism are intertwined in the short story, but the realistic principle of social and temporal determinism remains dominant. In this work, Stendhal shows himself to be a master of the short story: he is brief in creating portraits (we guess about Vanina's beauty by the fact that she attracted everyone's attention at the ball, where the most beautiful women were, and her southern brightness was conveyed by pointing to sparkling eyes and hair, black like a raven's wing). Stendhal confidently creates a novelistic intrigue full of sudden twists, and an unexpected novelistic finale, when the Carbonari wants to kill Vanina for the betrayal of which she is proud, and her marriage fit in a few lines and
become that obligatory surprise prepared in the psychological short story by the internal logic of the characters.
Before us is an example of Stendhal's psychological realism. He is fascinated by the process of depicting feelings. Heroes are happy as long as their love is devoid of the slightest selfishness.
"Vanina Vanini" is dialectically connected with "Red and Black". The motif of love between an aristocrat and a plebeian is played up in the short story in the aspect of variations of the Italian national character.
For nine years (1830-1839), Stendhal created his most perfect works - the novels "Red and Black", "Lucien Leven" ("Red and White"), "Parma Monastery". Creative flourishing was prepared by the whole life of Henri Bayle. He mined building material, studying the era, getting to know his contemporaries better and better. He learned to build in a new way, developing an innovative creative method, an individual style. He began to create novels - beautiful in a new way - when he had already learned to lay under them that solid foundation that had long begun to take shape in his other works and articles - knowledge of political reality.
Stendhal, criticizing the existing social system in his journalistic works, always answered the question: what did he give to young people belonging to all classes, to all strata of society?
And he created his works for democratic readers - for young men who huddle on the sixth floors *.
* (In France, the lower floor of the house is called rez-de-chaussee (at ground level), the second floor is called the first, etc. sixth - poor students, small employees.)
The youth is "the hope of the fatherland," wrote Stendhal (Corr., II, 245). She is the future of the nation. What is the legacy of the young men born during the reign of Napoleon or after the restoration of the Bourbons? (S. A., III, 440, etc.). What paths to happiness can they take? What do they see as their duty? Why is their life path so dramatic? What does their experience teach future generations? After "Armans" Henri Bayle again and again turns to these motives in short stories, and in unfinished works, and in his masterpieces.
Stendhal, starting with "Armans", and Balzac, starting with "Shagreen Leather", repeatedly answered the question: what practical activity can be engaged in in the conditions of a capitalist society, without being a petty-bourgeois "prudent" money-grubber? What can a young person become without adapting to conditions that severely disfigure him intellectually and morally? This theme, one of the main ones in the French realistic literature of the 19th-20th centuries, was first boldly and angrily, deeply humane and mercilessly sober in "Red and Black".
At the very time when the aristocrat Octave neglected his high position in society, in 1827, a poor and obscure young man of low birth - Julien Sorel ("Red and Black") decided to rise at all costs and therefore was forced to adapt to the dominant classes by accepting their rules of the game.
To readers who accused Julien of cynicism, hypocrisy, dishonesty, Stendhal replied: the existing conditions are such that an energetic character has one opportunity to manifest itself - in "some roguery." "I assure you, no one has made a great fortune without being Julien" * .
* (Les plus belles lettres de Stendhal, pp. 79, 75.)
Another young man, Lucien Leven (the hero of the novel of the same name), will be convinced that practical activity in the public service during the years of the July Monarchy requires the ability and desire to be unscrupulous, heartless, dishonest.
The third young man, the Italian Fabrizio Del Dongo ("Parma Monastery"), will renounce practical activity and will kill in himself, along with his enormous energy, sunny cheerfulness.
"Personal initiative" in the works of Stendhal is synonymous with what he called roguery. The author of "Red and Black" must have partly and for the reason always admired "Tom Jones" that Fielding in this novel comprehended the poetics of the picaresque novel in this way. In Stendhal, Balzac, Daumier, socially concrete, typical for the era images of rogues become extremely capacious in content...
After the revolution awakened the energy of the people, young people were able to show talents in political activity, or defending the independence of their homeland on the battlefields, or in the field of industry and technology, or in literature, ideology (like Bayle and Joseph Rey).
Napoleon skillfully used this energy in his own way: the army of the conqueror absorbed the youth, and military glory was poeticized as its only possible ideal.
Under the Bourbons, a military career becomes a privilege of the nobility. And the awakened energy in the 1920s, when bourgeois social relations were already developing, was seething. Industry and commerce need it more than ever: the mass of the exploited grows at the same time as the wealth of enterprising people. But talented young people dream of a different destiny. “The desire to create in all areas is as imperative as the thirst for freedom,” and “the unsatisfied need for activity” finds a way out in a passion for science, literature, and the teachings of utopian socialists, says the French literary critic R. Picard * about the young generation of that era. The sons of doctors, lawyers, Napoleonic officers, gifted people from the "lower classes" of society rush to Paris, hoping to win success. One of them, the son of the General of the Republic, having arrived in the capital with fifty-three francs in his pocket and overcoming all obstacles, made his name - Alexandre Dumas - famous. But not everyone can become writers or scientists (like V. Jacquemont). The lucky ones graduate from the Polytechnic School. And the path of many youths, strewn with fragments of hopes and illusions, is bleak. They - and above all republican-minded - join the ranks of the impoverished intellectuals.
* (R. Picard, Le romanticisme social, p. 61.)
Such people are opposed by the nobility, "ignorant and lazy" (Stendhal), insidious Jesuits, insatiable bourgeois predators. Both in the 1920s and in the 1930s, reactionaries defended themselves against talented and energetic youth, hindering their activity, which was unsafe for the existing system. "Our society strives to destroy everything that rises above limitation," Stendhal wrote in 1831 (Corr., III, 25).
But it is more and more difficult to stifle the demands of gifted youths from the people and the petty-bourgeois milieu, it is impossible to suppress in them their sense of dignity and the consciousness that their demands are just. The intolerable position of the younger generation and the fear of the ruling class before it are typical features of both the pre-revolutionary situation at the end of the 1920s and the era that came after the July Revolution. In the finale of "Red and Black" Julien Sorel accurately spoke about these features of the political situation, which gave rise to the drama of the conflict between the individual and society and made Julien's lot so sad.
The struggle of a young rebel against a hostile society is a favorite theme of French romantics in the era of the Restoration. At the same time, not only in such novels as "Jean Sbogar" by Ch. Nodier, but also in "Eriane" by V. Hugo, the conventions of scenery corresponded to a similar depiction of exotic images, torn from the circumstances characteristic of modernity.
The heroes of Stendhal live in a specific political environment; in a collision with her, their characters develop. They are inseparable from the era, its signs are imprinted in their spiritual appearance, in the individual originality of their feelings and actions. Each of them is a unique personality and a generalized character typical of his time. The reader has no doubt that they are real people, everything is reliable both in their unusual life paths and in the picture of society.
Stendhal took as a writer-historian a detailed account of the case of Antoine Berthe, published at the end of December 1827 in the "Gazette des Tribunaux" ("Court Gazette") *. Seminarian Berte, the son of a peasant blacksmith, tutor in the bourgeois family of Mishu, was honored with the favor of the mistress of the house; then he was fired. Becoming a tutor in the family of an aristocratic landowner, Berte started an affair with his daughter - and was fired again. Deciding that this was the fault of Ms. Mishu, the proud and vengeful young man shot her in the church. He was put on trial in Grenoble and executed in 1828 on the very Place Grenet, which overlooked the house of his grandfather Henri Beyle.
This account is one of the sources for the conception of the novel about Julien Sorel, the original version of which ("Julien"), probably written at the end of 1829, has not survived.
The second source of the concept of "Red and Black" is the court report on the case of Laffargue, used and commented on by Stendhal in "Walks in Rome". Laffargue, a cabinet worker, a native of a petty-bourgeois environment, was very fond of his craft, was fond of philosophy and literature, was modest, but proud and proud. One frivolous girl took it into her mind to make him her lover. Then she rudely broke with Laffargue, and her mother asked the prosecutor to protect her daughter from his persecution. Insulted by this betrayal and a call to the police, exhausted by jealousy, the young worker decided: he will punish the villain, this is required by justice. After killing the girl, he unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide.
The French literary critic Claude Liprandi, in his very detailed monograph on the sources of "Red and Black", cited a lot of evidence that the image of Juliève Sorel is undoubtedly closer to the personality, character of the romantic, nervous and noble (in the image of newspaper reporters) Laffargue than to the rather petty Bertha *.
* (Claude Liprandi, Au coeur du "Rouge". L "affaire Laffargue et" Le Rouge et le Noir ".)
But Laffargue, like Berthe, cannot be identified with Julien Sorel. Stendhal drew on both the Berthe case and the Laffargue case, which suggested to him the idea and plot of the novel; they were, so to speak, fuel for his thoughts and fantasies, activating them.
It does not follow from this that one can underestimate the help of factual material, which helped Henri Beyle to set in motion his life experience, to creatively realize his knowledge of the era and the human heart.
The drama of the Laffargue case, the atmosphere of passion in it, interested Stendhal very much and remembered him. "If people are now killing people, it is because of love, like Othello," we read in the chapter of "Walks in Rome" dedicated to Laffargue *. And now the author of the "History of Painting in Italy" discovered Shakespeare's passions among the people. And it was not for nothing that he called Othello: the Moor became a general, necessary and useful to the Venetian nobility, but he opposes it like a stranger who came from another world - and the lot of Julien Sorel would have been the same, even if nothing had interfered with his brilliant career.
* (And not for the sake of money, which, as Stendhal repeatedly reminded, was more characteristic of the bourgeois nineteenth century.)
The rapprochement of the people, passion and Shakespeare, like a tuning fork, predetermined both the dramatic tension and the anti-bourgeois nature of the novel. For Henri Bayle, just as during the writing of the pamphlets "Racine and Shakespeare", the name of the English playwright is a synonym for naturalness, national, folk art, a synonym for the denial of conventions born of the existence of the upper classes.
But creative imagination could not rely on the analogy with Othello: on its basis, only the most general scheme would arise, which would lack concreteness.
It was introduced by Stendhal's reflections on Laffargue as a post-revolutionary social type! era.
They led the writer to another analogy - not literary, but historical.
Young people like Laffargue, says the author of Walks in Rome, if they manage to get a good education, are forced to work and fight with real need, and therefore retain the capacity for strong feelings and terrifying energy. However, they have an easily vulnerable ego. And since ambition is often born from a combination of energy and pride, Stendhal ended the characterization of the young plebeian with the following remark: “Probably, all great people will henceforth come from the class to which M. Laffargue belongs. Napoleon once combined the same features: a good upbringing, a fervent imagination, and extreme poverty."
In "Memoirs of Napoleon" by Stendhal, the artillery lieutenant Bonaparte is depicted as a poor, proud and unusually versatile young man with a fiery heart and inexhaustible energy. Defending the republican system, he was able to show the talent of a commander, the mind of a statesman. A fervent imagination led him on the path of ambition. He crushed the revolution in order to seize power in the country. The great man became the "genius of despotism."
Napoleon, so to speak, is a classic type of an obscure but outstanding young man, a lonely ambitious man, able to overcome any obstacles in order to win success in a possessive society - honor, fame, wealth, power. That is why the writer, talking about Laffargue, remembered Napoleon. What will be the fate of an ardent, energetic and ambitious poor man in the era of the Restoration? Will such a young man, coming from the environment to which Laffargue belongs, succeed in becoming a "great man"? What obstacles will he have to overcome in order to do this in modern conditions? What should be his character so that he can achieve complete success?
Considering the life paths of Berthe and Laffargue in the light of his reflections on the history of France, Stendhal discovered in the facts of the criminal chronicle the source of a grandiose artistic and philosophical generalization about the nature of modern society.
At the same time, when the writer embodied this generalization in images, in the drama of the political novel "Red and Black", he spoke about the path of another poor, proud and ardent young man of the 19th century.
2
In order to correctly understand the complex character of Julien Sorel, one must see how he is internally connected with the image of Pietro Missirili, the hero of the short story "Vanina Vanini", and at the same time - opposed to him. In the short story "Vanina Vanini" and in the novel "Red and Black" we find two versions of the development of the same problem.
This short story is a work of "true romanticism", which Stendhal, "the hussars of freedom", did not identify with French romanticism.
It depicts the real romance of a sublime passion for freedom that exists in life. This passion fights in the hero's heart - with love; the heart of the heroine is in the power of love, pride and jealousy; powerful, violent feelings make the hero and heroine not hesitate to neglect danger.
The romance of ardent feelings is depicted by Stendhal realistically, with amazing naturalness. The hero of the novella, Pietro Missirili, is a Stendhal romantic character. But he is embodied by Stendhal the realist.
Missirili is inseparable from its time. The individual situation in which he acts is generated by the historical, political situation in which his character was formed. The individual conflict in the short story is due to the intensity of the political struggle.
The subtitle of the short story speaks of the political situation: "Special Circumstances of the Exposure of the Last Carbonari Venta in the Papal States".
The subtitle in the style of either a historical article or a newspaper chronicle of incidents, as it were, emphasizes the undeniable reality of the unusual content of the novel. And, like a tuning fork, the subtitle gives Stendhal's prose its general tone - businesslike, rather dry, outwardly impassive.
B. G. Reizov showed that, although in the subtitle and in the style of "Vanina Vanini" there is a setting for documentary, the content of the novel is far from the "joke" on which Stendhal's fantasy relied, completely transforming it. "Therefore, it would be more correct to say not so much about the "sources" of "Vanina Vanini" as about the materials that inspired Stendhal and helped him in his creative work of thought and imagination "*. The conclusion that characterizes the style of Bayle's work is not only on this short story; it is also true in relation to Stendhal's masterpieces - "Red and Black", "Lucien Leven", "Parma Monastery".
* (BG Reizov, On the question of the sources of Stendhal's short story "Vanina Vanini" .- Scientific notes of Leningrad University, No. 299, a series of philological sciences, no. 59, Romance Philology L. 1961, p. 171.)
"Vanina Vanini" is a drama of a new, Stendhal type in the form of a novella-chronicle. The action in it develops even more rapidly than in Merime's short stories written before her. And even among most of Stendhal's works, the prose of "Vanina Vanini" stands out for its conciseness and energy. This impression is reinforced by its capacity: the author is laconic, but did not miss a single circumstance, did not sacrifice a single significant transition, nuance in the experiences and thoughts of the characters for the sake of brevity. The reader is sure both of the authenticity of the drama and that he has learned everything about it; more details would ease her tension.
Maxim Gorky told in a note about Balzac how highly L. Tolstoy appreciated the ability of Stendhal, Flaubert, Maupassant to "concentrate content" * . This art of Stendhal was fully manifested in the short story "Vanina Vanini".
* (M. Gorky, Sobr. op. in thirty volumes, v. 24, p. 140.)
The exposition, which occupies only two pages, characterizes: the political situation, the environment to which Vanina belongs, the event that became the prerequisite for the beginning of the drama (Missirili's romantic escape from the prison castle). The exposition also gives a psychological motivation for the patterns of the plot, the further development of the drama and conflict: Vanina is the character of a romantic noble girl, typical of Stendhal's works, who despises graceful but empty young aristocrats and is able to recognize an intelligent, energetic, courageous person from the people as worthy of her respect and love.
The climax in the development of the action (its meaning Stendhal underlined in italics) occupies only sixteen lines. In them, with extraordinary laconism, both the conflict in which Vanina and Missirili tragically collided and the main features of these images are concentrated.
The young carbonarius Missirili, a poor man, the son of a surgeon, and Vanina, who stands out for her intelligence, independence of judgment, amazing beauty and high position in society, fell in love with each other. What is new about these characters?
Maxim Gorky called "the true and only heroine of Stendhal's book" the will to live*. The enormous vitality and determination of the heroes of the works of Henri Bayle are always expressed in the will to live - not the one that circumstances impose on them, but another, beautiful in their imagination.
* ()
In Missirili, everything is subject to his unbending will: he will help to free and unite Italy. This is the only way he wants to live - for struggle and victory. He doesn't like sacrifice. He suffers along with his humiliated people, and for him a duty to his homeland is a duty to himself. He, a proud patriot and revolutionary, will never submit! In Vanina, proud of the consciousness that her personality is significant, everything is subordinated to the will to win happiness, which secular society cannot give her.
Vanina finds this happiness in her love for Missirili. She preferred the young Carbonari to everyone and will be the only mistress of his heart, displacing her rival Italy from him.
But this is impossible. Missirili is "reckless". He, the "madman", prefers the fate of the persecuted rebel to personal happiness: nothing will make him betray his sacred duty. Missirili, like Vanina, is a holistic character.
Conflict is inevitable.
Remembering the promise that Missirili gave her (the uprising organized by him will be the last attempt to liberate the homeland), Vanina sends the list of members of the venta to the papal legate; she prudently strikes out the name of her lover. Missirili learns that his comrades have been arrested. His despair and anger are boundless. Who is the traitor? He is free and will be suspected! Therefore, he must immediately surrender into the hands of the legate. Saying goodbye to Vanina, Missirili demands: "Destroy, destroy the traitor, even if it is my father."
"Yes, I will punish the vile traitor, but first Pietro's freedom must be returned," Vanina exclaims, seized with cruel grief.
This is the Corneille climax of Stendhal's romantic drama.
But only the character of Missirili is at the level of high tragedy. With heroic honesty and directness, he passes a harsh sentence on himself: he betrayed his duty, giving a woman his heart, which belongs to his homeland; that's why the uprising failed. “Demands of duty are cruel, my friend,” he says simply, sincerely, without the slightest ostentation, “but if they could be fulfilled easily, what would be heroism?”
Imagine that Vanina kept her word, given by her in a fit of repentance and grief, and punished the traitor - herself. Then she would become on a par with Missirili. How shocking would be the tragedy of her fate! This would have happened if Vanina had been as devoted to the interests of the motherland as Missirili, and if she could not forgive herself for the pride that had blinded her. But she is in despair only because, through her fault, Missirili deprives herself of her freedom. Her reckless - she herself thinks - passion for the young carbonari is incomparable with the love-devotion that Stendhal portrayed in other works as a passionate and spiritual fusion of two creatures. Vanina got carried away and acts recklessly boldly, but not like her lover. She remains a person from another world, alien and hostile to Missirili. Love for him is just an extraordinary, romantic and tragic episode in the monotonous, like an eternal festivity, hothouse existence of a noble girl.
Stendhal admitted in "Memoirs of an Egotist": he does not imagine "a real person not endowed at least to a small extent with courageous energy * and stamina, depth of conviction ...". In the short story "Vanina Vanini", the writer created a generalized poetic character of such a real person - a member of a secret revolutionary society, courageous, unbendingly steadfast, confident that he had chosen the right path. It is very important that Missirili is not a "superman", not a mysterious, rare hero. Modest, he considers himself one of many. He is not elevated above his comrades. His heroic lifestyle is motivated and portrayed as "the fearless consistency of an honest man, a true patriot. And the honest accuracy of the novel's alien rhetoric, the chronicle style, the iron logic and naturalness in the development of its dramatic action seem inseparable from the appearance of the hero of the novel. The harmonious correspondence of style and plot construction to the characters , through the action of the main characters and will continue to be a distinctive feature of the realistic skill of Stendhal.
* (Italic Stendhal.)
An advanced young man of the 19th century, Missirili was not mistaken in choosing a goal worth devoting his life to striving for.
And in France during the years of the Restoration there were carbonaria - "noble madmen" who chose the same goal as Missirili.
Their contemporary, another young man of the 19th century, Julien Sorel, having taken a different path, was tragically mistaken.
3
In The Life of Henri Brulard, Stendhal recalled that he was happy in 1830 while working on Red and Black. The publisher received one by one edited, supplemented with new episodes and details of the chapter. The pages written on the eve of the July Revolution were typed and printed in August: the printing workers, according to A. Martineau, fought in the streets during the days of the uprising.
In Red and Black, Stendhal portrayed France "as it is in 1830". Stendhal then replaced the subtitle of the novel "The Chronicle of 1830" with another one - "The Chronicle of the 19th Century", which more corresponded to the author's words (in an address to readers) that the book was written in 1827, and the chronology of "Red and Black" (its action begins in the autumn of 1826 and ends in July 1831, and in the finale, as A. Martino found out, who traced the chronological outline of the novel, there are inconsistencies in the dating of events).
"True. Bitter truth." These words are the epigraph to the first part of "Red and Black". Stendhal attributed them to Danton: after all, truth is a revolutionary force.
Roman - a mirror that is carried along the high road - we read in "Red and Black"; it reflects both the puddles and the azure of the sky, both low and sublime. The word "mirror" sounds here as a synonym for realism (but not naturalism). Stendhal's work has never been a mirror copy of reality or its imitation.
Stendhal did not like to describe the situation, costumes. And he did not consider the external plausibility of descriptions the achievement of literature, which accurately depicts life. But when creating a novel, he always relied on facts, on reality. How did he do it?
Claude Liprandi, in his first monograph on "Red and Black" * rightly asserted that the subtitle of this novel - "Chronicle of the XIX century" - has a programmatic character. Expressing confidence that Stendhal's work contains many hints of the events of the era that have not yet been unraveled, that real facts are hidden behind the "slightest details", K. Liprandi cited some of them, deciphered by him. His conclusions: in ("Red and Black" history is depicted both "as it could be" ("what could happen"), and "as it was" **. That's right. But K. Liprandi is wrong and contradicts himself when he says that "Red and Black" is "not a political novel" *** and that Stendhal depicted the typical features of modernity, remaining neutral, that is, using facts objectively, without transforming them.
* (Claude Liprandi, Stendhal, le "bord de l" eau" et la "note secrete", Avignon, 1949.)
** (Claude Liprandi, Stendhal, le "bord de l" eau" et la "note secrete", Avignon, 1949. p. 136.)
*** (Claude Liprandi, Stendhal, le "bord de l" eau" et la "note secrete", p. 188.)
The concreteness, the accuracy of the embodiment of reality in "Red and Black" and other works of Stendhal has nothing to do with objectivism. Critically studying the life of society, creating a realistic generalized picture of it, the writer melted real facts in his creative laboratory, singled out the most important things in them, exalted, typified, and subordinated all the details to his plan.
"Dominic is a supporter of details ..." - Stendhal wrote (M. I. M., II, 97,). "Little real facts" (as he called them) are the building blocks of authenticity from which the realist writer builds, depicts the movement of life. They are connected with the ideological concept and help the development of the action. After a long training, Bayle learned at once, "without preparing in advance" (M. L., I, 157), to find the necessary characteristic details.
Both great true facts (everything connected with the already historical theme of Napoleon, or court reports in the Gazette des Tribunaux), and Stendhal needed "facts" as a support for his creative imagination. He even emphasized, it happened, in the margins of the manuscript that such and such a detail was not invented by him (for example, in the margins of the "Parma Monastery" he made a note: he saw the mosaic Florentine table, about which he had just written, he saw then, there ). Such "genuine facts" facilitated the process of reincarnation for Stendhal, helped to achieve the naturalness of the image.
Experience also convinced Stendhal that it is useful for a writer, while nurturing images, sculpting characters, to imagine real people whom he knows well * . French researchers found that the characters in "Red and Black" had real prototypes ** . The same can be said with certainty about other episodes. It turned out that even the palace of the Marquis de la Mole was copied from the luxurious house of Talleyrand.
* ("Describing a man, a woman, a place, think about real people, real things," he advised the aspiring writer Madame Gauthier in 1834 (Corr., III, 115).)
** (The prototypes of some of the heroes of "Armans" were named by Stendhal himself.)
But the characters in the novel are not moving portraits. The artistically and historically concrete character of Julien Sorel is incomparably larger, deeper, more complex, more meaningful, more typical and therefore more real for us than the everyday concrete people of the 20s of the 19th century - Berthe and Laffargue, as they appear in court reports and other materials. The Palace of the Marquis de la Mole is not a photograph of Talleyrand's house. And Verrieres is a generalized image of a provincial town. Constantly taking vital material from the abundant reserves of memory and never holding back the imagination, Stendhal created typical characters - new both in social content and in their artistic originality. At the same time, they have individual and socially characteristic features. The provincial bourgeois nobleman de Renal, the Parisian aristocrat de la Mole, the simple man Fouquet look like people from different worlds, although they are all French of the Restoration era.
In order to outline the main - historical, pre-revolutionary - situation of "Red and Black", Stendhal depicted in the chapters devoted to the secret note, the conspiracy of the ultra-royalists: foreseeing the inevitability of the revolution, they decide to create detachments of the White Guard and call on foreign interventionists to curb the Parisians and the entire French people. But, as we know, the political situation typical of the era also gave rise to the central conflict in the novel between the poor Julien and the social system hostile to the poor.
The author of the novel does not hide: he is not impassive. But, loving and hating, he always soberly examines the true motives of his contemporaries. It is thanks to this precious feature of Stendhal's realism - the justice of his "poetic justice" - that the images of the novel are so vital and plastic and the criticism of the social order contained in it is so undeniable.
The hero of the Resistance, the poet Jacques Decours, stated in an article about "Red and Black" published after his death: Stendhal depicted the development of Julien's character with the iron logic of a mathematician, as if solving one problem after another. And the whole novel wins over the reader from the first page with iron logic, with which every detail prepares and shows the objective conditionality of the development of dramatic action.
In 1826, Henri Beyle remarked: a novel should be written in such a way that when you read one page, "you could never guess the content of the next one" (S.A., III, 155). In 1838, Stendhal advised one writer: from the sixth to eighth pages of the novel, "adventure" (action) should begin. In "Red and Black" on each page lies the unforeseen by the reader, and from the very first page all the details introduce the environment, the characters in such a way that they prepare the action.
Starting to read the novel, we find out: the gardens of the rich Mr. de Renal, "where all the wall on the wall," pressed the sawmill of Sorel, Julien's father. The landscape is not just described. He actively participates in the relationship between the characters and in the exposition. We see how the vanity of the swaggering Mayor Verrieres (one of those bourgeois who feel patriotic when they look proudly at their furniture; M. I. M., II, 92) and the greed of the old peasant - the main features of their characters - appear in the negotiations for the purchase of de Renal Sorel's land plot.
In the epigraph to the first chapter - the image of the cell; the writer more than once mentions in this chapter about the walls enclosing private property, about the tyranny of "public opinion" of the provincial bourgeoisie. The motif of walls, fences, cages is the key to the theme of being owners and the poor in a provincial town, to the theme of the immobility of this life, general disunity, distrust, constraint. In this cage thrives M. de Renal, an ultra-gentleman who is ashamed of having become an industrialist, a self-satisfied proprietor, who has an excellent house and a well-bred wife. Julien Sorel suffocates in this cage.
4
In the margins of "Armans" Stendhal wrote: "the novel is created by action" (M. I. M., II, 76). Julien thought a lot about life, but did not know it. Every hour - in the house of M. de Renal, in the seminary, in Paris - he encounters circumstances that he did not foresee, which force him to act. Julien's knowledge of life is effective. The development of his character is associated with sharp turns in action.
The author of "Red and Black" after the publication of this work more than once expressed regret that hatred of the languid, pretentious "eloquence" of Chateaubriand prompted him to make some chapters of the novel "dry" and prefer a "sharp" style, "too compressed", "jerky ", "chopped" phrases (M. I. M., II, 137, 140, 141, "The Life of Henri Brular"), making it difficult - he feared - the perception of his work. Is this self-criticism fair? Each phrase of the novel about the ruined energy of a talented poor man is saturated with energy, which is generated by the content of the book. This laconic style is entirely adapted to the depiction of action. The importance of statistics for characterizing style should not be exaggerated; yet it is no coincidence that in "Red and Black" nouns do not greatly predominate over verbs * .
* (In Father Goriot, Balzac has twice as many nouns as verbs. As the famous French linguist Marcel Cohen found out, in romantic prose a phrase without a verb is quite common. Interesting are the conclusions of the Soviet researcher N. N. Teterevnikova from her observations on the style of "Red and Black"; it becomes "chopped" and especially laconic "at the most dramatic moments of the action, as if moving forward the main events of the novel, or at moments of the highest emotional tension"; the rhythm of prose in this novel "as if obeys the rhythm of the action itself, sometimes the very thought of the character" (that is, the internal action. - Ya. F.); the features of Stendhal's style are justified by the situation, are internally related to the content (N. N. Teterevnikova, On the style of Stendhal (the stylistic role of certain forms of construction and combination of sentences). - Scientific notes of the Leningrad University, No. 299, a series of philological sciences, issue 59, Romance philology , L. 1961, pp. 224-237).)
The dialogue in "Red and Black" is intensely action-packed. And Stendhal widely, masterfully used an innovative discovery - an internal monologue full of drama to depict all the nuances in the thoughts and experiences of Julien, Madame de Renal and Mathilde de la Mole - an internal action, the continuation of which are actions inseparable from it.
The psychology of the characters in the novel is complex and contradictory. Their relationship is inseparable from the mental struggle. It is in the work of Julien's thoughts and spiritual movements that embodied with sculptural relief both his effective striving for a goal, and the internal struggle that he experiences at the same time. Probably, the great artist of the "dialectics of the soul" Leo Tolstoy thought about this most important feature of Stendhal's mastery when, rereading "Red and Black", he noticed that, just as in the early forties, and now in 1883, he did not like everything in this novel, but Stendhal's "courage, affinity" to him, Tolstoy, evokes sympathy for him *.
* (L. N. Tolstoy, Poln. coll. soch., series 3, Letters, vol. 83. Goslitizdat, M. 1938, p. 410.)
In the deeply intellectual image of Julien, a hero who is characterized by intense work of thought, the final victory of a new way of portraying people, following after "Armans", is imprinted. "This celebration of the mind, made possible by the new technique, was a decisive break with the romantic tradition, fashion," Jean Prevost rightly noted in his work "Creation at Stendhal." Julien, with the penetrating gaze of the enemy, sees the world in which he lives, explores both it and his own experiences, penetrates the past with thought, tries to discern his future. The reader, together with the hero of the novel, comprehends the events, and everything is clear to him. "So, the novel is no longer a mysterious story, in which the denouement brings clarity?" - wrote Jean Prevost, developing his idea, contrasting "Red and Black" with the romantic tradition *. The hero, critical of his life, first appeared in the work of the author of the pamphlets "Racine and Shakespeare", whose motto is "Exploring". Stendhal carried out his pioneering program. He raised, - said M. Gorky, - "a very ordinary criminal offense to the level of historical and philosophical study of the social system of the bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 19th century" ** Stendhal himself also called "Red and Black" "a philosophical narrative."
* (Jean Prevost, Creation chez Stendhal, Paris, 1951, p. 253.)
** (M. Gorky, Sobr. op. in thirty volumes, v. 26, p. 219.)
In the novel, as J. Prevost correctly noted, two points of view collide: the reader sees everything that happens in "Red and Black", both through the eyes of Julien, and through the eyes of the author, whose horizons are incomparably wider, who knows what is unclear to his hero, and from the tower of his worldview he closely examines the political situation, society and Julien's path in it. The technique of "double vision" is a visual means subject to vigilant criticism and creating the impression of complete objectivity; it also participates in creating depth corresponding to the perspective in painting.
The intense work of thought and the sharpness of Julien Sorel's feelings are motivated by the fact that the world of owners and the nobility appears before the hero of the novel as an area of the unknown, full of dangers, like a country unfamiliar to Julien with dizzy steeps and deep abysses. The depiction of Julien Sorel's life path as an extraordinary adventure in the sphere of thoughts and experiences is justified not only psychologically, but also by the social and plebeian origin of the hero.
5
So, in France, where reaction prevails, there is no room for talented people from the people. They suffocate and die, as if in prison. Those who are deprived of privileges and wealth must, for self-defense and, even more so, to succeed, adapt.
Julien Sorel's behavior is conditioned by the political situation. It binds into a single and inseparable whole the picture of morals, the drama of experiences, the fate of the hero of the novel.
Julien Sorel is a young man from the people. K. Liprandi wrote out from the novel the words that characterize Julien in social terms: "son of a peasant", "young peasant", "son of a worker", "young worker", "son of a carpenter", "poor carpenter". Indeed, the son of a peasant who owns a sawmill must work at it, just like his father, brothers. According to his social position, Julien is a worker (but not an employee); he is a stranger in the world of the rich, educated, educated. But even in his own family, this talented plebeian with a "strikingly peculiar face" is like an ugly duckling: his father and brothers hate the "puny", useless, dreamy, impulsive, incomprehensible young man. At nineteen, he looks like a scared boy. And in it a huge energy lurks and bubbles - the power of a clear mind, proud character, unbending will, "violent sensitivity." His soul and imagination are fiery, in his eyes there is a flame.
This is not a portrait of a Byronic hero like the Corsair, Manfred. Byronism has long been mastered by high society snobs, has become a pose that will soon come in handy in Parisian palaces and Julien Sorel. The romantically extreme, as it were, excessive development of all traits, qualities, and abilities in Julien's portrait (in harmony with the sharpest turns of action and incredible situations) is of everyday and political origin. Stendhal needed the reader to feel and see what an enormous and precious human energy, awakened in the "lower" classes by the era of the French revolutions, overwhelms this gifted young man from the people and, finding no way out, feeds the "sacred fire" of ambition that is ever more flaring up in him. . It is about the tragic uselessness of this popular energy in the reactionary era that Stendhal's novel was written. Julien is at the bottom of the social ladder. He feels that he is capable of great deeds that would elevate him. But circumstances are hostile to him.
The American literary critic Michael Guggenheim accused Aragon, Jean Varloo and some other French communist writers in the article "The Communists and Stendhal" of distorting the image of Henri Beyle, portraying him as a democrat and an advanced man of the era. It is only in their works that "the dreamer extends his hand to the proletarian," ironically M. Guggenheim. The American literary critic replaced the whole complexity of Stendhal's attitude towards the masses with his "disgust for the vulgar" (which M. Guggenheim, apparently, completely identifies with the people).
The subjective approach of M. Guggenheim to literature collided with the scientific objectivity of the party approach - and that's what happened. How could Aragon - exclaims the author of the article - call the son of the poor carpenter Julien Sorel, who has the finest sensitivity! "Aragon hurried to forget about everything that brings the hero of" Red and Black "together with the young Henri Bayle (the son of a wealthy bourgeois). If it was significant in Julien that he is the son of a poor carpenter, he would not be so close to Fabrizio or Lucien Leven, who belong to the best families" * .
* (Michael Guggenheim, Les communistes et Stendhal.- "Symposium", vol. XI, No. 2, Fall 1957, Syracuse, New York, pp. 258-259.)
The author of "Red and Black" more than once called Julien "the son of a carpenter", "the son of a worker", "a poor carpenter". Apparently, he considered it very significant that the "rootless" young man, a man of the people, is smarter, more sensitive, nobler, more talented than the offspring of the aristocracy that he encounters in the novel. As for the "best families", we will have to, looking ahead, recall that the father of Lucien Levin (in the novel of the same name), a wealthy banker, is depicted as the most intelligent and charming "rogue", and the old man Del Dongo in "Parma Monastery" is described as disgustingly a vulgar and low person (moreover, the reader is informed that Fabrizio's father is not he, but a French officer).
So, M. Guggenheim entered into a polemic not with Aragon and other French communist writers, but with Henri Beyle, the son of a wealthy bourgeois. The author of the article was let down by his primitive biographism, the vulgar sociological way of analyzing literature.
Julien knows for sure: he lives in the camp of enemies. Therefore, he is embittered, secretive and always wary. No one knows how much he hates the arrogant rich: he has to pretend. No one knows what he enthusiastically dreams about, rereading his favorite books - Rousseau and "Memorial of St. Helena" by Las Casa. His hero, deity, teacher is Napoleon, a lieutenant who became emperor. If Julien had been born earlier, he, a soldier of Napoleon, would have won glory on the battlefields. His element is the heroism of exploits. He appeared on earth late - no one needs feats. And yet, like a lion cub among wolves, alone, he believes in his own strength - and nothing else. Julien is one against all. And in his imagination he is already defeating his enemies - like Napoleon!
In 1838, Stendhal noted that Julien's unbridled imagination is one of the most important features of his character: "Ten years earlier, the author, wishing to draw a sensitive and honest young man, made him, by creating Julien Sorel, not only ambitious, but also with a head overflowing with imagination and illusion" (M. L., I, 235-236).
In this combination (heightened sensitivity and honesty, the power of imagination, ambition and faith in illusion) - all the unique and individual originality of Julien's character, the crystallization of his feelings, his through action.
Julien's ardent imagination elevates him above the environment, above the limited owners and officials, who can only dream of a new acquisition, a new reward. "Prudent" de Renal, Valno and the like, Julien opposes as a poetic character, as a "madman" who despises the base prose of their existence. Characterizing Julien in his unpublished article written for the Italian magazine "Antologia" ("Anthology"), Stendhal praised the depiction of Julien Sorel's "follies": they are amazing, but outlined with that naturalness in which the author of the novel sees the ideal of beauty in style (M. L. , II, 351).
But the hero of "Red and Black" is not such a "madman" as Pietro Missirili. And the young Carbonari of his dreams are elevated above the environment. And he opposes the "prudent" aristocrats and oppressors of Italy as an extraordinary, poetic character. But Pietro Missirili's "foolishness" was born of his principles, his honest consistency as a fighter for the freedom of his homeland.
In Julien Sorel, the imagination is subdued by violent ambition.
Ambition in itself is not a negative quality. The French word "ambition" means both "ambition" and "thirst for glory", "thirst for honors" and "aspiration", "aspiration"; ambition, - as La Rochefoucauld said, - does not happen with spiritual lethargy, in it - "liveness and ardor of the soul." Ambition makes a person develop his abilities and overcome difficulties.
No matter what Julien undertakes, the liveliness and ardor of his soul perform miracles. His psycho-physiological organization is a remarkable apparatus in terms of sensitivity, speed and impeccability of action; Stendhal the physiologist took care of this. Julien Sorel is like a ship equipped for a long voyage, and the fire of ambition in other social conditions, providing scope for the creative energy of the masses, would help him overcome the most difficult voyage.
But now the conditions do not favor Julien, and ambition forces him to adapt to someone else's rules of the game: he sees that in order to achieve success, rigidly selfish behavior, pretense and hypocrisy, militant distrust of people and gaining superiority over them are necessary.
The young plebeian is in the power of illusion: he, alone against all, will succeed, like Napoleon! He is ambitious and will stop at nothing!
But the natural honesty, generosity, sensitivity that elevate Julien above the environment, conflict with what ambition dictates to him under the existing conditions.
On the basis of this contradiction, the complexity of the character, the personality of the young "madman" is formed ...
Some romantics, expressing disgust at the base prose of the vulgar bourgeois system, glorified alienation from society. "Solitude is sacred," exclaimed Vigny. "Oh thrice sacred loneliness!" Musei echoed him.
"The mutual and all-round dependence of individuals, indifferent to each other, forms their social connection" * , generated by the capitalist economy. Romantic individualists, poeticizing (mutual indifference), imagined that they were thus calling for the protection of the rights of the individual from hostile social relations, rebelling against dependence on them. In reality, the individualist is only trying to fully adapt to these relations. Such individualism was - and remains - an imaginary self-defense personality from society, self-deception generated by illusion.
* (K. Marx, Chapter on money, Marx and Engels Archive, vol. IV, Partizdat, M. 1935. p. 87.)
Even before the revolution of 1830, objective observers could see that even in bourgeois society itself, which was despised by individualistic romantics, the same individualism flourished, but in the form of a wolf struggle for success. In France, "chagun pour soi" * is the foundation of wisdom instilled in children." "This existence for oneself is the primary source of all the evils that have befallen the French," we read in a letter from France, published in 1829 in the Moscow Bulletin of Natural Sciences and medicine" (No. 7).
* (Every man for himself (French).)
And for Julien, loneliness is the illusion of liberation from the cage. But, as we already know, he dreams of loneliness not for self-defense, but for victory. "Every man for himself" - and his motto. In the mountains, standing on a high cliff, Julien envies the sparrowhawk soaring above him - a feathered predator. If a young man becomes like a hawk, he will really rise above everyone. "This was the fate of Napoleon - perhaps the same awaits me?" Julien thinks.
The idea of the fate of Napoleon is connected in the novel with the image of a hawk (and not an eagle or a falcon). The image of an eagle usually gives rise to a poetic idea of greatness, the image of a falcon - of courage. Bayle in his youth called Bonaparte "Kite", but not an eagle or a falcon. Then he hated the First Consul - a tyrant who was alien to true greatness, because he stole freedom from France. Although now Stendhal the publicist defiantly opposes the "great emperor" to the new insignificant rulers, in a work of art his "poetic justice" tells him otherwise: he again compares the famous careerist, whose example gave birth in France to "insane and, of course, ill-fated ambition" *, not with the "king of birds", but simply with a bird of prey.
* ("Walks in Rome" (italics mine. - Ya. F.).)
The hawk seems to Julien Sorel the embodiment of strength and loneliness. To break out of the cage, to defeat countless enemies and win success, one must become lonely and strong, like a predator. And you need to be vigilant, ready to attack at any moment. Julien's motto: "To arms!" To the reader, he does not seem like boyish fanfare: Julien is purposeful and always takes his words and actions very seriously. Loneliness and ambition have deprived him of fun (only in the company of his beloved woman, Madame de Renal, does he know what it is). They have deprived him of real youth: he carefully weighs every word, fearing involuntary spontaneity, forced to be wise as a serpent. Loneliness and pride taught Julien to appreciate the help of weapons. And when it seems to him that he is obliged to defend his honor, he will turn his weapon - against Madame de Renal! But not as a predator, but as Sid, for he has no doubt that honor is the most precious thing. We do not know whether Julien read Corneille's tragedy; but the young Henri Bayle admired her.
The through action of the ambitious Julien Sorel was typical of the era. Claude Liprandi notes that many pamphleteers, historians, journalists, and political publicists wrote indignantly during the years of the Restoration about careerism, the fierce struggle for a place under the sun, as the "abomination of the age." The hero of "Red and Black," recalls K. Liprandi, "is characteristic of his time," "profoundly truthful." And the writers of the Stendhal era saw that Julien's image was "truthful and modern" * . But many were embarrassed by the fact that the author of the novel boldly, unusually clearly and vividly expressed the historical meaning of the topic, making his hero not a negative character, not a rogue careerist, but a gifted and rebellious plebeian, whom the social system deprived of all rights and thus forced to fight for them. , regardless of anything.
* (C. Liprandi, Au coeur du "Rouge", pp. 292-293.)
Stendhal consciously and consistently opposes Julien's outstanding talents and natural nobility to his "ill-fated" ambition. We see what objective circumstances are responsible for the crystallization of the militant individualism of a talented plebeian. We are also convinced of how disastrous for Julien's personality was the path to which his ambition pushed him.
6
Julien stands out in Verrieres: his extraordinary memory amazes everyone. Therefore, the rich de Renal needs it as another pleasure of vanity, for Verrieres it is considerable, although smaller than the walls around the gardens belonging to the mayor. Unexpectedly for himself, the young man settles in the house of the enemy: he is a tutor in the de Renal family ...
Woe to him who is careless in the camp of enemies! Do not show kindness, be vigilant, careful and ruthless, - orders himself a disciple of Napoleon. In internal monologues, he again and again tries to penetrate the secret, true thoughts of everyone with whom life confronts him, and constantly criticizes himself, developing a line of his behavior - the most correct tactic. He wants to be always directed towards his goal - like a drawn blade. He will win if he can see right through his opponents and they will never figure him out. Therefore, one should not trust any person and beware of love, which dulls distrust. Julien's main tactical weapon should be pretense.
In 1804, the reactionary theater critic Geoffrey attacked Molière's comedy Tartuffe with hatred. During the years of the Restoration, Tartuffe was often published, even in mass circulation: even now he participated in the struggle of the liberals against the ultra-reactionaries, the Congregation, and the insidious hypocrisy of the Jesuits. In those cities where the missionaries were especially zealous in returning the inhabitants to the bosom of the church and inviting them to the path of repentance and humility, tickets for the performances of Tartuffe were sold out most quickly. So it was in Rouen, Lyon, Brest. In Rouen and Brest, the authorities banned this performance, and the indignation of the public was so great that soldiers were called in, clearing the theater hall, pushing back the townspeople with rifles with fixed bayonets. Nothing like this could happen even at the "scandalous" premiere of "Ernani". The satire of "Tartuffe" sounded more topical (which is why it was banned). Tartuffe, unlike Marivaux's plays, "will live on in 1922," wrote Stendhal (Corr., II, 280).
Julien mentions twice about his second teacher - Tartuffe. The young man knows his role by heart.
Julien, says the author of the novel, is noble and courageous. And in the 19th century, powerful people, if they do not kill the courageous, throw them in prison, doom them to exile, subject them to unbearable humiliations. Julien is alone and can only rely on cunning. He understands that he will die, revealing his face, betraying his secret - admiration for Napoleon. Therefore, the young man thinks, it is necessary to fight the hypocrites with their own weapons.
Tartuffe's behavior is "Jesuitism in action," wrote Bayle, analyzing Molière's comedy in 1813*. The modern French director Roger Planchon, having staged this play in his theater, showed that the actions of the Jesuit are cynical adventurism masked by pretense; this interpretation is close to the analysis of "Tartuffe" in the notes of Henri Bayle. So, in order to win in the struggle of one against all, Julien Sorel is ready not only to wear a mask, but also to stifle in himself that which prevents him from becoming a hypocrite-adventurer, such as his enemies (and Stendhal's enemies) - the Jesuits. Julien is ready to do anything to succeed. If need be, Jesuitism will forever be second nature to him! He is alone in the camp of enemies, he is at war! But will he succeed in becoming Tartuffe?
A poor man, a simple man, can no longer be an officer. And now it is not the military who are succeeding, but priests and bigots in "short cassocks." The disciples of Joseph de Maistre penetrated all the pores of society. If missionaries operate in the provinces, then in Paris there are "secular" preachers. In one of Stendhal's articles for the English New Monthly Magazine there is a laconic sketch of a ball in an aristocratic house in 1826: "A handsome young priest delivers a sermon for forty-five minutes in a gentle and melancholy tone. Then he retires, and the ball begins." This happened not on the theater stage, not in the new Tartuffe, but in life. Surprisingly similar to this handsome and exquisitely melancholy priest, the Bishop of Agde, whose youth amazed Julien: after all, he effortlessly achieved a higher "position in society than Napoleon's marshals, scorched by the gunpowder of bloody battles! So, religion is a field in which Julien is obliged to make a brilliant career!
He had already memorized the New Testament in Latin and the book "On the Pope" by de Maistre ("believing it as little" as the first). Who else is capable of such a feat? The benevolent and strict Abbé Chelan will help Julien enter the seminary.
But it is excruciatingly difficult for a proud, intelligent, passionate young man to wear the mask of humility and stupid hypocrisy - the "uniform" of a rootless ambitious man in the era of the Restoration. Will he always be able to pretend and succeed, regardless of anything? "O Napoleon, how wonderful your time was when people won their position in the dangers of battle! But to break through meanness, increasing the suffering of the poor ..." The noble plebeian is not capable of this.
Julien enters the seminary like a prison. "There are only fierce enemies around. And what a hell of a job it is ... - every minute hypocrisy. Yes, it will overshadow all the exploits of Hercules!" He "poorly succeeded in his attempts to hypocrisy with facial expressions and gestures ..." "He could not achieve anything, and even more so in such a vile craft." He mercilessly rapes himself: it is not easy to become a Jesuit Tartuffe.
Stendhal considered the chapters devoted to the seminary - a satirical picture that gives the impression of an objective study - the most successful in the novel. This high appraisal is probably due not only to the power of satire, but also to the fact that the writer depicted Julien's life in the seminary with amazing plasticity and accuracy as a battle in which the young man defeats himself. Only an extraordinary person is capable of such efforts, says the author of the novel. Julien's iron will suppresses his violent pride, freezes his ardent spirit. To make a career, he will be the most impersonal of the seminarians, impassive and soulless, like an automaton. A young man capable of heroic deeds decides on moral suicide.
Julien's battle with himself is the most important aspect of the novel.
The hero of Pushkin's The Queen of Spades, Hermann is a young ambitious man "with the profile of Napoleon and the soul of Mephistopheles." And he, like Julien, "had strong passions and a fiery imagination." But the internal struggle is alien to him. He is prudent, cruel and with all his being is directed towards his goal - the conquest of wealth. He really does not take into account anything and is like a drawn blade.
Julien, perhaps, would have become the same if he himself had not constantly appeared as an obstacle in front of him - his noble, ardent, proud character, his honesty, the need to surrender to direct feelings, forgetting about the need to be prudent and hypocritical. Julien's life is the story of his unsuccessful attempts to fully adapt to social conditions in which base interests triumph. The “spring” of drama in the works of Stendhal, whose heroes are young ambitious people, says the French writer Roger Vaillant in his book “The Drama Experience”, is entirely that these heroes are “forced to force their rich nature in order to play the vile role that they themselves imposed" * , These words accurately characterize the drama of the internal action of "Red and Black", which is based on the mental struggle of Julien Sorel. The pathos of the novel lies in the vicissitudes of Julien's tragic combat with himself, in the contradiction between the sublime (Julien's nature) and the base (his tactics dictated by social relations). The most dramatic episodes of the novel (depicted most often by means of internal monologue and dialogue) are those in which the need to be hypocritical and insidious - morally deformed, makes Julien unhappy, and those in which the nature of the young man takes over. And she wins more than once in situations important for the development of the plot ...
* (Roger Vailland, Experience du drama, Correa. Paris, 1953, pp. 112-113.)
Stendhal, a friend of Methilde Dembowska, created the most poetic images in French realistic literature of women who are pure and strong in spirit, captivating with depth of experience and a subtle mind. Their moral beauty, as it were, reminds readers that existing social relations are hostile to the flowering of the personality of most people; but the time will come when the norm in life - everything truly human in people - will triumph.
The image of Ms. de Renal differs from other poetic, sublime female characters in the works of Stendhal in that, to a greater extent than they, it is everyday, inseparable from the specifically depicted circumstances of provincial life. And yet, it corresponds to the writer's idea not of the vanity of the "French character", but of the immediacy of the "Italian" and akin to the Italian Clelia ("Parma Monastery"). Such characters became possible in France after a turbulent revolutionary era, when people's feelings were uninhibited.
Julien is in the house of his master - de Renal. He is hostilely wary, agitated and, almost for the first time, unsure of himself. The door is opened by Madame de Renal. She is joyfully amazed: a handsome, timid boy is that formidable tutor who will henceforth have power over her children! He himself is a frightened boy and needs encouragement! .. From this moment begins the process of crystallization of the love of a sincere, ingenuous woman who does not know life for Julien.
Madame de Renal is not the heroine of adultery. She fell in love for the first time - truly and forever. Julien, not de Renal, is her chosen one, her true husband. Society will consider her love illegal. But it is dominated by hypocrisy and falsehood. She fell in love despite false conventions and is not ashamed of her passion. Happiness reveals the strength of Madame de Renal's holistic character, the core of which is her ability to be infinitely devoted to her beloved. She is ready to challenge dangers every minute. This is the courage of devotion. And this is the "madness" of a woman, whom her fiery feeling elevated above the base "prudence" of the prudent de Renal, his rival in the struggle for success - Valeno and other pillars of Verrier society.
But before God, she sinned, breaking her vow of loyalty to de Renal. And when her youngest son falls ill, she knows that God has punished her. But she is devoted to her children. What to sacrifice - the life of a child or love? .. The accuracy and strength with which the torments of an unfortunate (and yet happy, loving) woman are depicted, the physical tangibility of all the nuances of violent feelings, not seen before in French literature, is a real triumph of new literature .
The author of the book "On Love" has already mastered the art with a perfection, inaccessible to the novelists of his era, to create a strong, beautiful character, the core of which is an internal action, inseparable from the crystallization of love and the struggle of this feeling with hostile circumstances ...
At first, Julien is suspicious of Madame de Renal: she is from the camp of enemies. The young man forces himself to seduce her only to prove to himself that he is not a coward. But then, in the happiness of being loved by a beautiful and noble woman and passionately loving her, he forgets about tactics. Trusting, like her, carefree, like a child, he first learns "the bliss of being himself" by communicating with another person.
But this is dangerous: having discarded the mask, he is unarmed! And again another Julien - cold, embittered - reminds: "To arms!" He must be insidious, living in a world where there is no carefree happiness...
Julien's pride and intellect rebel against the need to please the self-satisfied Monsieur de Renal, successful scoundrels like the insolent thief Valeno. But precisely because he fails to suppress his pride, to hide the strength of his character, precisely because his intellectual superiority continually gleams and noble impulses triumph in him, he stands out among the provincial bourgeois, and among the seminarians, and among the elegant but empty aristocrats. He will go far, Madame de Renal, Abbé Pirard, Marquis de la Mole, Matilda think of Julien.
Julien, leaving the house of de Renal and Verrières for the seminary, and her for Paris, really makes a dizzyingly rapid climb up the social ladder. And he owes his fabulous success more to his proud, bold character, his talents than to tactics, hypocrisy.
But he experienced happiness only in those hours when, loving Madame de Renal, he was himself. Now another Julien is satisfied - an ambitious man, a student of Napoleon.
The history of the relationship between the plebeian conqueror and the aristocrat Matilda, who, like Vanina Vanini, despise the spineless secular youth, is unparalleled in originality, accuracy and subtlety of the drawing, in the naturalness with which the feelings and actions of the characters are depicted in the most unusual situations.
Julien is madly in love with Matilda, but never for a moment forgets that she is in the hated camp of his class enemies. Matilda is aware of her superiority over the environment and is ready for "madness" in order to rise above it. But her romance is pure head. She decided that she would become equal with her ancestor, whose life was full of love and devotion, danger and risk * . So, in her own way, she perceived the poetization of the distant historical past in circles close to Charles X. For a long time, Julien can capture the heart of a rational and wayward girl only by breaking her pride. To do this, you need to hide your tenderness, freeze passion, prudently apply the tactics of the highly experienced dandy Korazov. Julien rapes himself: again he must not be himself. Finally, Matilda's arrogant pride is broken. She decides to challenge society and become the wife of a plebeian, confident that only he is worthy of her love.
* (Alexandre Dumas, following in the footsteps of Stendhal, would later describe in the novel Queen Margot the adventures and death of this ancestor of Matilda, the Comte de la Mole.)
But Julien, no longer believing in the constancy of Matilda, is now forced to play a role. And pretending to be happy is impossible.
But the second Julien reached the summit, which he dreamed of, standing on a cliff.
7
Could Julien Sorel follow the path of Missirili, the hero of the short story "Vanina Vanini"?
Stendhal says of his hero: "He would be a worthy colleague of those conspirators in yellow gloves who want to turn the whole way of life of a big country upside down and do not want to have the slightest scratch on their conscience" (Italics mine. - Ya. F.).
In Verrières, Julien met only one "decent man": "it was a mathematician named Gros, who had a reputation as a Jacobin." Only in conversations with him did the young man openly express his thoughts. Gro is the Grenoble geometry teacher of the boy Bayle, a noble poor man, an enlightened man, an impeccable Jacobin revolutionary. The writer kept an enthusiastic memory of him for the rest of his life. He took the pleasure of talking about Gro in "The Life of Henri Brulard", mentioning him in "Walks in Rome" and making him a character in "Red and Black". And in all three cases Stendhal left Gros by his name to perpetuate this goodie era, which he was fortunate enough to know personally.
In Paris, Julien becomes close to the emigrant Count Altamira, an Italian carbonari condemned to death. This "yellow-gloved conspirator" has the same basic prototype as Pietro Missirili - Stendhal's favorite older friend, the Italian revolutionary Domenico Di Fiore. But French literary critics, not without reason, believe that Stendhal, creating the image of Altamira, also recalled his other friend, the Carbonari Giuseppe Wismar. K. Liprandi's conjecture is also convincing that the writer could not help but know the biography of the Neapolitan officer Antonio Galotti, who was convicted three times by the reaction to death (they wrote about him in all the newspapers). The images created by Stendhal were never "copies".
The Spanish Carbonari don Diego Bustos tells Julien: "Altamira told me that you are one of ours." Just like the author of the novel, Altamira thinks that Julien's real place is among the revolutionaries.
The theme of the coming revolution is one of the leitmotifs of the novel. Madame de Renal and Mathilde are also thinking about the inevitability of the revolution, confident that when it breaks out, Julien will become the new Danton. Julien, talking with Altamira (who expresses the thoughts of Stendhal himself), feels that his element is revolution. He would not be intimidated by the need to shed blood in the name of the triumph of justice; he, unlike Altamira, could "execute three to save four".
But these are dreams. But Julien's life path is different. And "our indignant plebeian" is not the modest and selfless Missirili. Reflecting on the future revolution, he dreams of "glory for himself and freedom for all." Glory for yourself - in the first place. And in the dreams of Missirili, Altamira and Stendhal himself, the common good comes first. Julien, smarter, more talented and stronger than Missirili, hates inequality. But he descended to Altamira from the cliff, on which he envied the strength and loneliness of the hawk. A disciple of Napoleon, poisoned by ambition, he knows: "everyone is for himself in this desert of selfishness called life." And, making a career, he accustoms himself to be arrogant and indifferent even to those whom he deeply respects.
He, the secretary of the powerful Marquis de la Mole, "felt it amusing" that he could now provide patronage. Laughing, he made the aged and out of his mind scoundrel de Cholain the manager of the lottery office in Verrières. As soon as de Cholain was appointed, Julien learned that a deputation from the department had already asked for a place for the "famous mathematician" Gros. This noble man gave part of his small annuity to the recently deceased office manager, burdened with a large family. Having received an office, Gro could support his family. "How are they going to live now?" - Julien thinks - the one whom Altamira considers his like-minded person. "His heart sank ..." But then the second Julien takes the floor - the one who knows: every man for himself. “It’s a trifle,” he said to himself, “you never know I have to commit all sorts of injustices if I want to succeed ...”
Julien Sorel could have taken part in the July Revolution if he had followed the path of Altamira, Missirili. But the desire to succeed and the circumstances pushed the ambitious man to a different path. A week before those “three glorious days” of July 1830, when the Parisians stormed the Bourbon monarchy, Julien Sorel stormed the palace of the Marquis de la Mole in his own way: he penetrated the ladder into the room of the daughter of the Marquis and became her lover. After the July Revolution, when the democrats were afraid that the people would not be deceived by the bourgeoisie, Julien had his own worries: the wayward Matilda lost interest in him, hates him! In August - September 1830, Julien cleverly, boldly, with amazing self-control and dexterity, carries out a dangerous assignment from the leaders of the ultra party, who are ready to pour blood over France. Internally alien to the camp of enemies of the revolution, the young careerist does not hesitate to serve him and bind his fate with him. A valuable acquisition for the decrepit class of aristocrats. And Julien, who considers himself a supporter of Altamira, should already be clear that he is becoming more and more entangled in the snares of circumstances and will not become the new Danton. The first Julien is happy when he secretly dreams of revolution; he is with the "madmen" Altamira and Missirili. The second Julien is clearly subordinate to the enemies of the revolution and these "madmen". And the obvious triumphs.
Julien Sorel is not Pietro Missirili. The pride of a talented, ambitious poor man and the pride of a poor, patriotic, revolutionary are not the same thing.
However, let's listen to what the author of the novel says about the hero of the novel: "He was still very young, but, in my opinion, a lot of good was laid in him"; while so many people who are sensitive in youth become cunning later, Julien "would have gradually acquired with age a sympathetic kindness ...". Responsiveness is the main characteristic feature of a real person, to whom, like the Jacobin Gro, the common good is dearer than all.
Under what conditions could Julien, whose character is formed until the very end of the novel, become such a person? As the son-in-law of the almighty Marquis de la. Moth.- An arrogant upstart? Unlikely.
Already after the July Revolution, in March 1831, Stendhal spoke in one of his letters about a new, coming revolution, not bourgeois, but popular in content and scope: it is inevitable, and "two hundred thousand Julien Sorels living in France" (Corr., III , 42), talented plebeians who remember well how the non-commissioned officer Augereau became a general of the Republican army, and the prosecutor's clerks - senators and counts of the Empire - will win a place in life, overthrowing the power of the mediocre upper classes.
And, participating in such a - popular - revolution, Julien would have dreamed of "glory for himself", and not just about freedom for everyone. But then the noble traits of his character could have triumphed - those that were sung after the revolution of 1830 by the poet of "two hundred thousand Julien Sorels" - Petrus Borel. If everything had turned over in the same way as in 1793, the revolutionary struggle of the people who won freedom and heroically defended it would probably gradually re-educate Julien.
But in the novel, Julien's rebirth remains a purely speculative possibility. Julien Sorel's "follies" only help him adapt to social relations that disfigure his nature ...
"Red" is not only Julien's unrealizable dreams of military exploits, glory, but also Julien's proud, fiery soul, the fire of his energy, his noble blood of the poor shed by the rich. "Black" is not only the darkness of the Restoration, the Jesuits, the attire of Julien the seminarian, but also hypocrisy, which the young man wanted to make his second nature, although it was alien to him, and which distorted his nature, crippled his life. "Red" is also the revolutionary ardor of the dreams of Julien, a friend of Altamira, "black" is his participation in the secret conspiracy of the ultra party ... *
* (Literary critics have long been trying to decipher the symbolism of the name "Red and Black". Here are three interpretations of the most interesting. Prof. B. G. Reizov sees the source of the novel's title in its "prophetic scenes": in the first, taking place before the start of Julien's career, a young man reads on a piece of newspaper picked up in a church about the execution of a certain Zhanrel; at this time, the sun, breaking through the crimson curtains on the windows of the church, casts a reflection that gives the holy water the appearance of blood (murder prediction); in the second scene - the first appearance of Matilda in deep mourning, in which she will be after the execution of Julien (prophecy of punishment for murder) (Prof. B. Reizov, Why Stendhal called his novel "Red and Black" .- "New World", 1956, No. 8, pp. 275-278). According to the Italian scientist Luigi Foscolo Benedetto, "red" symbolizes Julien's state of mind, when he, standing on a cliff, dreams of becoming a worthy student of Napoleon; "black" symbolizes the collapse of the illusions of Julien, who is in prison. In the first case, writes Benedetto, Julien seems to see Napoleonic France, its victories and glory, in the second - the France of the Jesuits and its darkness (Luigi Foscolo Benedetto, La Chartreuse noire. Comment naquait "La Chartreuse de Parme", Firenze, 1947, pp. 24-25). Acad. V. V. Vinogradov introduced both the title and the content of the novel "Red and Black" into a semantic series associated with the motives of "game" - "chance" - "fate", which is challenged by the "player": "The roulette or card term in the title is already given the understanding of artistic reality in the aspect of gambling. And Julien Sorel, who wanted to follow the path of Napoleon, loses all bets in this game "(V. V. Vinogradov, Style of the Queen of Spades. - "Pushkin. Provisional of the Pushkin Commission. Academy of Sciences of the USSR", 2, ed., Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow-Leningrad 1936, pp. 100-101). The guess is witty, but simplifying Julien's character.)
Julien rejected the opportunity to live independently, away from the rich and noble - he refused to become a companion of his devoted friend Fouche. This was not what the ambitious dreamed of. And he believed in his star. And now he is a brilliant officer, a dandy and an aristocrat from head to toe, a rich man. He is Monsieur de la Verneuil, the fiance of Mathilde de la Mole. Now let graceful and spineless secular young people compete with him, with his vital energy!
A false letter, which the Jesuit clergyman dictated to Madame de Renal, tormented by jealousy, overthrows Julien from this peak. The action of the novel rushes to a tragic denouement.
If Julien were like the hero of The Queen of Spades, he might have decided, having taken money from Matilda's father, to leave for America. But he is as if possessed and obeys only his violent pride. He was insulted! He will take revenge!
Julien the officer shoots Madame de Renal in the church. And immediately "the state of physical irritation and half-madness in which he was, leaving Paris for Verrieres, ceased." After a fiery explosion of energy - a deep sleep of the exhausted Julien the prisoner. This episode was written by Stendhal the physiologist, an attentive reader of Pinel and Brousset, Mi who for a moment does not forget about Julien's extraordinary sensitivity, receptivity, nervousness, about the subtlety, responsiveness, excitability of his psychophysical organization.
It's hard to get used to the idea that everything you've experienced is over. But that's the way it is. Julien is proud and therefore decides: he must pay with his life for his crime. And now, when he wants only to die with dignity, the second Julien - an ambitious man - has nothing more to dream about, nothing to do on earth. For the prisoner, everything that the ambitious man won with such efforts and suddenly lost is unreal. In prison, a young man matures and at the same time finally becomes himself. It's good that you no longer have to think about tactics, cunning, pretending!
At the beginning of the novel - the image of a society-cell. In the last chapters - a prison cell. The tragic theme of the prison in "Red and Black", its gloomy and proud poetry are connected with one of the romantic motifs in Stendhal's work. In a prison cell, a real person, who hates the hypocrisy and cruelty of rulers and their servants, feels inwardly incomparably freer than those who adapt to them. He can gain philosophical clarity of thought, despising the world of falsehood and oppression. The philosopher Van, whom Julien visited in a London prison, is "the only cheerful person" met by the hero of the novel in England.
And Julien gradually acquires a philosophical state of mind. Everything superficial, ugly flies off him like a husk. Astute as never before, he surveys his life, soberly looks at himself from the outside, calms Matilda, almost distraught from grief and jealousy, whose love has also become the past.
Every day, for hours, Julien talks to himself. He says to himself: having become the husband of Mathilde de la Mole, in case of war he would have been a hussar colonel, and in (peacetime - secretary of the embassy, then - ambassador in Vienna, London. What a wonderful career! That's what he could have dreamed of, If it were not for the absolutely urgent meeting with the guillotine, the fact that Julien, at the thought of this, is able to laugh "with all his heart" is for Stendhal the greatest proof of the strength and greatness of the spirit of the carpenter's son.
Under the law of retribution for sacrilege, Julien can be severely punished: he attempted to kill in a church. Well, he saw the king, soon he will see the executioner, the support of the throne. And he already recognized his contemporaries. Mentally, he settles scores with a society in which successful scoundrels are surrounded by honor. How much higher than the nobility is the simple man Fouquet - honest, straightforward, selfless! .. Now Julien understands that even Napoleon, his idol, was not honest - he stooped on the island of St. Helena to pure charlatanism. Who can be trusted? He regrets that for the sake of illusion he neglected the happiness of living independently in the mountains near Verrieres ...
Now only Julien surrenders, in fact, selflessly again to the love that has flared up in his heart for Madame de Renal. When his girlfriend is with him, he is as carefree as a child. “Let them take us to the dungeon as soon as possible, there we, like birds in a cage, will sing ... so together we will live and rejoice,” says Cordelia, deprived of everything, King Lear after the enemies captured her. "Think about it, I've never been so happy!" Julien confesses to Madame de Renal. Only now did he comprehend the art of enjoying life. The cage of society is terrible: even in a dungeon, saying goodbye to life, you can find more joy than in that first cage! ..
Stendhal's novel ends with the spiritual enlightenment of Julien, who has now truly risen above both his enemies and himself - the way he was yesterday - he looks at life in a new way and sees the social meaning of his tragic fate.
Nineteen-year-old Julien Sorel tremblingly entered the seminary, as if in an "earthly hell." He is twenty-three years old when he most desires to be fearless on the day of his execution. Earthly hell is more terrible than death.
Julien is informed that almost no one wants his death. He could get a pardon. But for this one would have to repent, ask, humiliate himself. No, it's better to lose your head than bow it before the successful and triumphant scoundrel - Baron Valno, chairman of the jury! And Julien asks to be buried in the mountains, not far from his cliff, in his cave, where he dreamed of loneliness and strength, of exploits and victory. There, along with a talented plebeian who believed Napoleon, his illusions will be buried.
Even the Jesuit Frieler admits after the trial that Julien Sorel's death would be "a kind of suicide." But at the trial, the hero of The Red and the Black, who for so long forced himself to be hypocritical, throws the whole truth in the face of his enemies, the aristocrats and the bourgeois; the first Julien - now the only one - says: he is being executed because he is a commoner who dared to rebel against his low lot; in this way they want to "punish and break once and for all" all those "young people of low birth" who managed to get a good education and penetrate into an environment "which the arrogance of the rich calls good society."
We know what the implication was for Stendhal in these words: the upper classes are afraid of "two hundred thousand Julien Sorels"; they are dangerous even when trying to adapt to existing social conditions. The judges listened to the proud plebeian as if he were one of those who fought on the barricades at the end of July 1830, who after that endlessly resented the "mob" in the cities of France. And they executed Julien, wanting to take revenge on many *.
* (In "Red and Black" there is only one date associated with a certain event: February 25, 1830, the day of the premiere of "Ernani". Approximately dating the episodes of the novel in which the action takes place before this day and after it, and about the time intervals between which there are indications in the text, A. Martino constructed a chronological outline of "Red and Black" - from September 1826 to July 25, 1831 (day execution of Julien Sorel). Therefore, if this date is approximately correct, Julien was on trial during the strikes and unrest in Paris and the industrial regions of France, and he was guillotined exactly one year after the July Revolution. And also - almost eight and a half months after the publication of the novel, of which Julien is the hero! This date of the death of Julien Sorel is not only spectacular; unusual, even for a realistic novel alien to copying, a leap into the near future fits without exaggeration into the dialectic of the development of the plot, into the social meaning of "Red and Black", and into the dialectic of real events. This date sharpens the objective life subtext of the finale: the rich hate in the person of Julien all the brave and rebellious poor, the proletarians who are able to rebel.)
The rebellious plebeian could not become a "fashionable hero." In the living rooms about "Red and Black" was silent. Ladies and girls did not dare to read this work even in secret: reactionary criticism recognized the veracity of Stendhal's political novel as obscenely cynical.
* (Just one "tactless" angry phrase of Julien about the environment, "which the arrogance of the rich calls (italics mine. - Y.F.) good society" was enough to irritate and displease Stendhal's acquaintances from this very "good society". Those ladies who had previously said that this restless Bayle was uncouth, provincial, decided that Julien was his self-portrait.)
On the other hand, the young inhabitants of the sixth floors hunched over Red and Black for a long time in the reading rooms.
The novel "Red and Black", perhaps the most unusual in French literature of the 19th century, sounded like a formidable warning: the time will come when the Julien Sorelis - young plebeians who can passionately dream of a better future and fearlessly fight for their happiness - will be able to find the right one. way!
So Stendhal opposed the unfair trial of the rich and noble in "Red and Black" with the justice of his "poetic justice".
8
Excerpts from the first chapters of the novel were published on November 4, 1830 by the Parisian "La Gazette litteraire" ("Literary Gazette"), and ten days later the first two-volume edition of "Red and Black" appeared, dated 1831 (750 copies). The noisy premiere of "Ernani", which took place in the same 1830, is a triumph of French romanticism; The edition of Stendhal's political novel, not noticed by everyone, is a victory for French realism of the 19th century *.
* (Balzac in 1830 prints "Gobsek", in 1831 - "Shagreen leather", in 1832 - "Colonel Chabert", and only in 1834 he writes "Father Goriot" - a work that can equal the power of realism with "Red and Black". In 1831, Daumier began to create his political lithographs.)
In 1830 the power of the big bourgeoisie was politically formalized and, so to speak, consecrated by the institutions of the July Monarchy, which took the place of the Bourbons. The novel Red and Black, published after this triumph of the capitalists, sounded like a condemnation of their domination, undeniably motivated historically and politically, by the circumstances of the drama and its social meaning, by the irresistible logic in the development of the plot and characters, by the topicality of this modern chronicle. Surprisingly insightful and courageous, humane and therefore demanding of society, of a person, French realism of the 19th century entered the lives of people. And the experience of decades has confirmed that this literature is needed by generations - one after another.
However, not so: thought many of Stendhal's contemporaries, including enlightened writers. For example, Jules Janin immediately after the appearance of "Red and Black" ranked this novel among the gloomy manifestations of subjectivism, subject to hypochondria and malice. In an article published by the newspaper "Journal des Debats" in December 1830, J. Janin informed readers that Stendhal in "Red and Black" doused "with his poison" "everything that he comes across - youth, beauty, illusions ... flowers"; the world depicted by Stendhal is so ugly that it would be impossible to live in it.
In this review, J. Janin continued the literary controversy that he had begun a year earlier in the novel The Dead Ass, or the Guillotine Woman (1829). Starting from Stern and parodying sentimentality, narrating ironically and naturally, Jeanin developed some of the themes typical of physiological essays and some of the motives that would become purely melodramatic in Eugene Sue's Secrets of Paris. As if leafing through an album with sketches and tiny miniatures, J. Janin spoke vividly and amusingly about those who exist, as it were, outside society (about the “girl for joy”, whose story is the plot core of the book, about a hereditary beggar who was arrested because he had there is no patent for begging, about the keepers of the brothel, the respectable mothers of the family, counting the income, etc.). In 1829, this should have sounded fresh and sharp (which probably explains Pushkin's approving review of Janin's novel).
At the same time, the kaleidoscopic nature and tone of light chatter give the "Dead Donkey" the character of a semi-feuilleton-semi-fairy tale about the invisible life of a big city, and the feelings, actions of the characters, even the death of the heroine on the scaffold, do not require the reader to take them seriously - just like inserted "jokes "and parables. Zhanen's novel is a literary work that claims only to be entertaining and parodic.
Controversy is also associated with parody. Appearing in the preface and passing into the text of the novel, it is a program feuilleton-pamphlet inserted into it. He attacks writers who disregard the imagination and are obsessed with the "passion of being truthful", depicting what they see, and see only what is disgusting. Frankly parodying violent romantics, and a physiological essay, and genuine drama, striving for deep realism, thus smoothing out the differences between them, Janin with a grin demonstrates pictures of the Parisian knackers and the morgue (here's the drama!), piles up "terrible" motives (murder, execution, etc.). Stamps are usually parodied. Janin wanted to create the impression that the truth of life, the drama, as such, are literary clichés, nothing more.
Truthfulness is always hostile to the imagination, - Janin repeatedly exclaims, - this is the tendency to look for "horrors", invent them, "pervert everything in the world without pity and mercy - turn beauty into ugliness, virtue into vice, day into night ... ". These words seem to be taken from Janin's review of "Red and Black". No wonder: after all, the motto of the author of this novel is "True, bitter truth", his imagination is friends with research, and he seriously, deeply and boldly portrayed the drama he found in the real life of society.
Current page: 1 (total book has 2 pages)
Stendhal
Vanina Vanini
F.Stendal (Henri Beyle)
Vanina Vanini
Translation from French by N. Nemchinova.
Vanina Vanini
or Details of the last vente of the Carbonari,
uncovered in the Papal States
It happened on a spring evening in 182.... The whole of Rome was engulfed in excitement: the notorious banker Duke de B. was giving a ball in his new palace on Venetian Square. The decoration of this palace combined all the splendor of Italian art and all the tricks of London and Parisian luxury. Many guests came. English aristocrats - stiff blond beauties considered it an honor to appear at the banker's ball. They flocked in a whole swarm. The most beautiful women of Rome competed with them in beauty.
A young girl entered the hall, arm in arm with her father: sparkling eyes and hair, black as a raven's wing, revealed in her a Roman woman; all eyes turned to her. An extraordinary pride shone in her every movement.
Foreign guests were amazed by the splendor of this ball. "No festivities of the monarchs of Europe can compare with it," they said.
The monarchs of Europe do not have palaces created by Italian architecture; they are forced to invite their court ladies, while the Duke de B. invited only beautiful women. This evening, his choice was especially successful: the men were blinded. So many captivating women gathered that it was difficult to decide who to give the palm to. But after some hesitation, Princess Vanina Vanini, a black-haired girl with a fiery gaze, was unanimously proclaimed the queen of the ball. Immediately foreigners and young Romans, leaving the drawing rooms, crowded into the ballroom.
The girl's father, Prince Azdrubale Vanini, wished that she first of all danced with two or three German sovereign princes. Then she accepted an invitation from several Englishmen, very handsome and very noble, but their starched appearance bored her. She seemed to take more pleasure in torturing the young Livio Savelli, who seemed to be passionately in love with her. Livio was one of the most brilliant young men in Roman society and also held a princely title; but if he had been given a novel to read, he would have thrown the book away on the twentieth page, declaring that he had a headache; in Vanina's eyes, this was a big disadvantage.
Around midnight, news spread at the ball, which caused a lot of talk. That very evening, from the fortress of the Holy Angel [Fortress of the Holy Angel - an ancient prison in Rome.] fled, dressed up, a young carbonarius kept in custody; having already reached the last gates of the prison, in the heat of romantic courage he attacked the soldiers of the guard with a dagger, but he himself was also wounded. Sbirs [Sbirs are police guards.] are chasing him on bloody trails and hoping to catch him.
While everyone was talking about this escape, Don Livio Savelli, delighted with the charm and success of Vanina, almost mad with love, exclaimed, escorting her to an armchair after the dance:
- But tell me, for God's sake, who could please you?
“The young Carbonari who escaped from the fortress today. At least he did something, and not only gave himself the trouble to be born.
Prince Azdrubale went up to his daughter. This rich man for twenty years did not require an account from his steward, and he lent him his own money at very high interest. If you met the prince in the street, you would take him for an old actor; you would not even notice that his fingers are studded with massive rings with very large diamonds. Both of his sons entered the Jesuit order [The Jesuits are a powerful Catholic monastic order founded in the 12th century.], then went mad and died. He forgot them, and was angry with his only daughter Vanina for not getting married. The girl is already nineteen years old, and she rejects the most brilliant parties. What is the reason? The reason was the same that prompted Sulla [Sulla (138-78 BC) - Roman military leader, opponent of the popular party.] to abdicate: contempt for the Romans.
The next morning after the ball, Vanina noticed that her father, an unusually carefree man who had never picked up a key in his life, extremely diligently locked the door to the narrow staircase that led to the rooms located on the fourth floor of the palace. The windows of these rooms overlooked a terrace lined with potted orange trees.
Vanina went to the city on visits; when she came back, the front porch was cluttered with illuminations, and the carriage drove in through the back yard. Vanina raised her eyes and, to her surprise, saw that in one of the rooms, which her father had so carefully locked up, a window was open. Having got rid of her companion, she went up to the attic and, after searching, found there a little barred window opposite the terrace with orange trees. The open window that intrigued her was two steps away. Someone has obviously moved into the room. But who?
The next day, Vanina managed to get the key to the door that led to the terrace with orange trees. Stealthily, she went to the window - it was still open. Vanina hid behind a lattice shutter. At the back of the room, she saw a bed. Someone was on top of her. Vanina was embarrassed, wanted to run away, but suddenly noticed a woman's dress thrown on a chair. Looking closely, she made out a blond head on the pillow; her face looked very young. Now she no longer doubted that it was a woman. The dress thrown on the chair was covered in blood; blood was caked on the women's shoes that stood on the table. The stranger stirred, and then Vanina noticed that she was wounded: her chest was pulled together by a linen bandage, on which a bloody stain spread; the bandage was held by some kind of ribbons - it was clear that it was by no means made by the hands of a surgeon.
Vanina began to notice that now her father locked himself in his rooms every day at about four in the afternoon, and then went to visit a stranger; he stayed with her for a very short time, and returning, he immediately got into the carriage and went to the Countess Vitelleschi. As soon as he left, Vanina went up to the small terrace and watched the stranger. She felt deep pity and sympathy for such a young, so unfortunate woman and tried to unravel her story. The blood-stained dress, thrown on a chair, seemed to have been torn by dagger blows. Vanina could count the holes on it.
One day she saw the stranger more clearly: she was lying motionless, her blue eyes fixed on the sky, as if praying, and suddenly her beautiful eyes filled with tears. At that moment the princess could hardly restrain herself from speaking to her.
The next day, Vanina decided to hide on the terrace before her father appeared. She saw how Don Azrubale entered the stranger; he carried a basket of provisions in his hand. The prince was obviously alarmed, spoke little and so quietly that Vanina did not hear anything, although he did not close the glass door. He soon left.
"This poor thing must have very dangerous enemies," Vanina thought, since my father, such a careless person, does not dare to trust anyone and every day he himself climbs here along a steep staircase of one hundred and twenty steps.
One evening, when Vanina cautiously approached and peered through the window, her gaze met that of a stranger, and everything was revealed. Vanina threw herself on her knees and exclaimed:
- I love you, I'm your friend!
The stranger gestured for her to enter.
“Forgive me, forgive me, please,” Vanina repeated. “Perhaps you find my stupid curiosity offensive. I swear I will keep everything a secret, and if you wish, I will never come again.
“Who wouldn’t be happy to see you!” - said the stranger. Do you live here in this palace?
“Of course,” Vanina replied. - But you, apparently, do not know me: I am Vanina, the daughter of Prince Azdrubale.
The stranger looked at her in surprise, and, blushing deeply, added:
“Let me hope that you will come every day, but I would not want the prince to know about it.
Vanya's heart was beating fast. All the manners of the stranger seemed to her full of dignity. This unfortunate young woman must have offended some powerful person, or perhaps, in a fit of jealousy, killed her lover. Vanina did not allow the thought that the cause of her misfortunes could be ordinary. The stranger said that she had been wounded in the shoulder and chest and was in great pain. She often bleeds in her throat.
“And you didn’t invite a surgeon?” Vanina exclaimed.
“You know that in Rome,” said the stranger, “surgeons are required to immediately report to the police all the wounded they treat. The prince is so merciful that he bandages my wounds with this cloth.
The stranger with noble restraint avoided complaining about her misfortunes. Vanina was crazy about her. Only one thing surprised the princess very much: she noticed more than once that during a serious conversation the stranger restrained a sudden desire to laugh.
“I would like to know your name,” said the princess.
My name is Clementine.
“So, dear Clementine, tomorrow at five o’clock I will come to visit you.
The next day, Vanina saw that her new friend was getting worse.
"I'll call a surgeon to see you," Vanina said, kissing her.
No, it's better to die! the stranger objected. “I would never agree to hurt my benefactors.
- Wait! Surgeon of Monsignor Savelli Catanzar, governor of Rome, the son of one of our servants,” Vanina spoke hastily. “He is attached to us, and due to his position he can not be afraid of anyone. In vain does my father distrust his devotion. I will send for him now.
- Don't, don't! exclaimed the stranger, with an emotion that surprised Vanina. “Come visit me, and if God calls me to him, I will be happy to die in your arms.”
The next day, the stranger became very ill.
“If you love me,” Vanina told her in parting, “agree to receive the surgeon.”
- If he comes, my happiness will collapse.
"I'll send for a surgeon," Vanina insisted.
The stranger, without answering, held her back and pressed her lips to her hand. There was a long silence; The stranger had tears in her eyes. At last she let go of Vanina's hand, and with a look as if she was going to her death, she said:
“I must confess to you: the day before yesterday I lied when I called myself Clementine. I'm an unfortunate carbonari...
Vanina looked at her in surprise, moved away and got up from her chair.
“I feel,” continued the Carbonari, “that by this confession I have deprived myself of the only consolation that still binds me to life. But I don't want to deceive you, it's unworthy of me. My name is Pietro Missirilli, I am nineteen years old; my father is a poor surgeon at Sant'Angelo in Vado; I am a carbonari. Our gate has been opened. I was brought in chains from Romagna to Rome, thrown into a dark casemate, lit day and night only by a small lamp; there I spent thirteen months. One compassionate soul had the thought to save me. I was dressed in women's clothes. When I left the prison and had already reached the last gate, one of the guards vilely abused the Carbonari; I slapped him. I assure you, I did not do this out of aimless prowess - I simply forgot. Because of my recklessness, I was chased through the streets of Rome, and so, in the darkness of the night, wounded by bayonets, losing strength from loss of blood, I rushed through the open door of someone's house. I hear soldiers running up the stairs behind me. I jumped from the window into the garden and fell a few steps from a woman who was walking along the alley.
"Countess Vitelleschi?" My father's friend? Vanina said.
- How! Did she tell you? Missirilli exclaimed. “Whoever this lady was, she saved my life; her name should never be spoken. When the soldiers burst in to grab me, your father was already taking me away in his carriage ... I feel bad, very bad: for several days a bayonet wound in my shoulder has not allowed me to breathe. I will soon die and die in despair because I will not see you again ...
Vanina listened to him impatiently and hurried away; Missirilli saw no pity in her beautiful eyes, only hurt pride.
At night, a surgeon came to him; he came alone. Missirilli was in despair: he was afraid that he would never see Vanina again. He began to question the surgeon; he bled him, but did not answer questions. The same silence in the following days. Pietro did not take his eyes off the glazed door, through which Vanina usually entered from the terrace. He felt deeply unhappy. One day, around midnight, it seemed to him that someone was standing in the darkness on the terrace. Is it Vanina?
Vanina came every night and, leaning against the glass door, looked at him.
If I speak to him, she thought, I am lost! No, I must never see him again.
But, contrary to her decision, Vanina involuntarily recalled what kind of friendship she felt for this young man when she so innocently considered him a woman. And after such intimate intimacy to forget him? In moments of prudence, Vanina was frightened that everything had somehow strangely changed for her since Missirilli revealed her name - everything that she had previously thought about, everything that she constantly saw around, had gone somewhere, shrouded in fog.
Not even a week had passed when Vanina, pale and trembling, entered the carbonaria room with the surgeon. She came to say that it was necessary to persuade the prince to transfer the care of the sick to one of the servants. She stayed only a minute, but a few days later she came again with the surgeon - out of a feeling of philanthropy. One evening, although Missirilli was already much better and Vanina no longer had reason to fear for his life, she dared to come alone. Seeing her, Missirilli felt himself on top of bliss, but tried to hide his love: above all, he did not want to drop his dignity, as befits a man. Vanina entered his room, burning with shame, afraid to hear love speeches, and was very saddened that he met her with words of friendship, noble, devoted friendship, but without a single spark of tenderness.
When she was about to leave, Pietro didn't even try to hold her back.
A few days later she came back. The meeting was exactly the same: the same respectful assurances of devotion and eternal gratitude. Vanina now did not at all strive to cool the enthusiasm of the young Carbonari: on the contrary, she was afraid that he did not share her love. The girl, who had been so proud before, felt bitterly how great her madness was. She tried to seem cheerful, even indifferent, began to visit less often, but could not make up her mind to completely refuse to visit the patient.
Missirilli burned with love, but, remembering his low birth and protecting his dignity, he decided that he would allow himself to talk about love only if he did not see Vanina for a whole week. The proud princess defended herself steadfastly.
"Well," she said to herself.
She stayed for a long time with the patient, and he talked to her as if twenty people were listening to them. One evening, after Vanina had hated him all day and made a promise to herself to treat him even colder, even more severely than usual, she suddenly told him that she loved him. They soon surrendered themselves entirely to their feeling.
So, Vanina's madness turned out to be immeasurable, but, I must admit, she was completely happy. Missirilli no longer tried to protect his manhood: he loved, as one loves with a first love at nineteen, as one loves in Italy. With the sincerity of selfless passion, he even confessed to the proud princess what tactics he used to achieve her reciprocity. He was happy and marveled that it was possible to be so happy.
Four months flew by unnoticed. And then the day came when the surgeon returned freedom to the patient.
“What am I to do now?” thought Missirilli. “Still hiding with one of the most beautiful women in Rome? you are truly unhappy if your sons are able to leave you so easily!"
Vanina had no doubt that it would be the greatest happiness for Pietro to remain forever with her: he really seemed quite happy. But the evil joke of General Bonaparte sounded like a bitter reproach in the soul of this young man and influenced his attitude towards women. In 1796, when General Bonaparte was leaving Brescia [Brescia is a city in Lombardy (Northern Italy).], the city authorities, who accompanied him to the outpost, told him that the inhabitants of Brescia honor freedom more than all other Italians.
"Yes," he replied, "they love to rant about it with their lovers."
Pietro said to Vanina somewhat embarrassed:
“Today, as soon as it gets dark, I have to get out of here.
Please try to be back before dawn. I'll be waiting for you.
“By dawn I'll be a few miles from Rome.
– That's how! Vanina said coldly. – Where are you going?
“To Romagna, to avenge myself.”
“I am rich,” Vanina continued in the calmest tone. “I hope you will accept weapons and money from me.
Missirilli gazed into her eyes for a few moments, and then suddenly took her in his arms.
My soul, my life! You will make me forget everything, even my duty, he said. “But you have such a noble heart, you must understand me.
Vanina shed many tears, and it was decided that he would leave Rome only after a day.
"Pietro," she said the next day, "you have often told me that a man of great renown - well, for example, a Roman prince - and, moreover, of great wealth, could render great services to the cause of freedom if Austria ever entered into serious war away from our borders.
“Of course,” Pietro said in surprise.
- So! You are a brave person, you lack only a high position; I offer you my hand and two hundred thousand livres of income. I will get my father's consent.
Pietro threw himself at her feet. Vanina beamed with joy.
“I love you passionately,” he said, “but I am a poor man and I am a servant of my country. The more unhappy Italy is, the more I must be faithful to her. I would have had to play a miserable role for several years to win Don Azdrubala's consent. Vanina, I refuse you!
Missirilli hastened to bind himself with these words: his courage was weakening.
“To my misfortune,” he exclaimed, “I love you more than life itself, and leaving Rome is more terrible for me than torture!” Oh, why Italy has not yet been rid of the barbarians! With what joy I would go with you to America.
Vanina went cold. Her hand was rejected! Her pride was wounded. But a minute later she threw herself into the arms of Missirilli.
“You have never been so dear to me! - she exclaimed. – Yes, I am yours forever... My dear village doctor, you are as great as our ancient Romans!
- All worries about the future, all the dull advice of prudence were forgotten. It was a moment of pure love. And when they were already able to speak judiciously, Vanina said:
“I will arrive in Romagna almost at the same time as you. I will order to prescribe me a treatment on the waters in Poretto [Poretto is a resort near Forli, in Romagna.]. I will stop at our castle of San Nicolò, near Forlì
- And there my life will be united with yours! Missirilli exclaimed.
“From now on, my destiny is to dare everything,” Vanina said with a sigh. “I will ruin my honor for you, but still… Will you love a dishonored girl?”
- Aren't you my wife? Missirilli exclaimed. - Adored wife! I will love you forever and I will be able to stand up for you.
Vanina needed to go to visit. As soon as Missirilli was left alone, his behavior seemed to him barbaric. "What is a motherland?" he asked himself. my cloak: useful clothes that I must buy, unless I inherited them from my father. In essence, I love my homeland and freedom because they are useful to me. And if I don’t need them, if they are like a warm cloak for me in the heat of the summer, why should I buy them, and even at such a high price? Vanina is so good and so extraordinary! She will be looked after, she will forget me. What woman has only one lover? As a citizen, I despise all these Roman princes, but they have so many advantages over me! They must be irresistible! Yes, if I leave, she will forget me, and I will lose her forever. "
At night Vanina came to visit him. Pietro told her about his hesitations and how, under the influence of love for her, a strange dispute arose in his soul about the great word "homeland". Vanina rejoiced.
If he had to choose between me and his homeland, she thought, he would prefer me.
It was three o'clock in the neighboring bell tower. It's time for the last goodbye. Pietro broke free from his girlfriend's arms.
He had already begun to descend the stairs, when suddenly Vanina, holding back her tears, said to him with a smile:
“Listen, if some village woman took care of you during your illness, wouldn’t you thank her in any way? Wouldn't he try to pay her? The future is so wrong! You are leaving, there will be so many enemies around you on the way! Give me three days, pay me for my cares, as if I were a poor peasant woman.
Missirilli stayed.
Finally, he left Rome and, thanks to a passport bought from a foreign embassy, reached his parents' house. It was a great joy for the family: he was already considered dead.
Friends wanted to celebrate his safe return by killing two or three carabinieri (as gendarmes are called in the Papal States).
“Let's not kill Italians who know how to use weapons unless absolutely necessary,” Missirilli objected to them. - Our homeland is not an island, like lucky England; to resist the invasion of European monarchs, we will need soldiers.
Some time later, Missirilli, fleeing the chase, killed two carabinieri with pistols given to him by Vanina.
A bounty was put on his head.
Vanina still did not come to Romagna. Missirilli thought he was forgotten. His pride was hurt; he often thought now that the difference in social position had erected a barrier between him and his beloved. Once, in a moment of bitter regrets about past happiness, it occurred to him to return to Rome, to find out what Vanina was doing. This extravagant thought almost got the better of the consciousness of duty, but suddenly, at dusk, the church bell rang in the mountains for Vespers, and it was so strange that absent-mindedness attacked the ringer. This was the signal for the meeting of the venta, which Missirilli joined as soon as he returned to Romagna. On the same night, all the Carbonari met in the forest, in the abode of two hermits. Both of them slept soundly under the influence of opium and did not even suspect for what purposes their hut was used. Missirilli came very sad, and then he was told that the head of the Venta had been arrested and that they had decided to elect him, Pietro, a twenty-year-old youth, as their new head of the Carbonari, although among them were fifty old men - people who had participated in conspiracies since the time of Murat's campaign in 1815. Accepting this unexpected honor, Pietro felt his heart beat. As soon as he was left alone, he decided not to think anymore about the young Roman woman, who had so soon forgotten him, and to give all his thoughts to the debt of liberating Italy from the barbarians.
Two days later, Missirilli read in the list of arrivals and departures, which was delivered to him as head of the venta, that Princess Vanina had arrived at her castle of San Nicolò. This name brought joy and confusion into his soul. In vain, for the sake of devotion to his homeland, he suppressed the desire that evening to rush to the castle of San Nicolò - the thought of Vanina, whom he neglected, did not allow him to concentrate on his duties. The next day they met; Vanina loved him all the same. She lingered in Rome because her father, wanting to marry her off, would not let her go. She brought with her two thousand sequins [Tsekhin is an old golden Venetian coin.].
This unexpected support greatly helped Missirilli fulfill his new honorary duties. On the island of Corfu [Corfu is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from Italy.] they ordered daggers, bribed the personal secretary of the legate [Legate is a papal representative endowed with great powers.], who led the persecution of the Carbonari, and in this way got a list of priests who were spies of the government.
Just at this time a conspiracy was being prepared - one of the least (?) reckless that had ever arisen in long-suffering Italy. I won't go into too much detail, but I'll just say that had he succeeded, Missirilli would have had a fair share of the fame. Thanks to him, several thousand rebels would have risen at this signal with weapons in their hands and would have waited for the arrival of the leaders. The decisive moment was approaching, and suddenly, as always happens, the plot failed due to the arrest of the leaders.
As soon as Vanina arrived in Romagna, it seemed to her that love for her homeland eclipsed every other passion in Missirilli's heart. The pride of the young Roman woman was outraged. In vain did she try to reason with herself - a gloomy melancholy tormented her, and she caught herself cursing freedom. One day, when she came to Forli to see Missirilli, she could not control herself, although until then pride had always helped her to hide her grief.
“You really love me like a husband,” she said. - I didn't expect this.
She burst into tears, but she wept only from shame that she had stooped to reproach. Missirilli consoled her; but it was evident that he was preoccupied with his own concerns. And suddenly Vanina had the idea to leave him and return to Rome. She thought with cruel joy that this would be her punishment for weakness: why complain! In a moment of silence, her intention was strengthened, Vanina would have considered herself unworthy of Missirilli if she had not abandoned him. She thought with pleasure of his bitter surprise when he would wait in vain, looking for her here. But soon she was deeply disturbed by the thought that she had not been able to keep the love of this man, for whose sake she had committed so many follies. Breaking the silence, she spoke to him. She tried her best to get at least one word of love. Pietro answered her affectionately, tenderly, but so distractedly ... But what a deep feeling sounded in his voice when, touching upon his political plans, he mournfully exclaimed:
“Oh, if we fail again, if this plot is also discovered, I will leave Italy!”
Vanina froze: every minute she was more and more tormented by the fear that she was seeing her beloved for the last time. His words struck a fatal spark in her thoughts.
"The Carbonari received from me several thousand sequins. No one can doubt my sympathy for the conspiracy ..." Interrupting her meditation, she said to Pietro:
- I beg you, let's go with me to San Nicolò, just for one day! There is no need for you to attend the venta meeting tonight. And tomorrow morning we will already be in San Nicolò, we will roam the fields; you will rest, calm down, and you so need all your strength and self-control: after all, great events are approaching.
Pietro agreed.
Vanina left him to get ready for the journey, and, as usual, locked the room where she hid him. She hurried to her former maid, who had married and now ran a shop in Forli. Running to this woman, Vanina hurriedly wrote on the margins of the Book of Hours [Hours is a church book in which, in addition to prayers, there are also church hymns.], which appeared in the room, a few lines, indicating exactly the place where the carbonari venta was supposed to gather at night. She ended the denunciation with the following words: "Venta consists of nineteen people. Here are their names and addresses." Having made a complete list, where only the name of Missirilli was missing, she said to this woman who enjoyed her trust:
- Take the book to the cardinal legate [Cardinal is the highest spiritual rank after the pope among Catholics. A cardinal legate is a representative of the pope, endowed with special powers.]. Let him read what is written in the margins and return it to you. Here, take ten sequins. If ever the legate utters your name, you will not escape death; but if you make him read the written page, you will save my life.
Everything worked out great. The legate was so frightened that he lost all his grandeur. He allowed a commoner who wanted to talk to him about a secret matter not to take off her mask, but ordered her hands to be tied. In this form, the shopkeeper appeared before this high dignitary; he did not dare to leave the huge table covered with green cloth.
The legate read the written page, holding the Book of Hours very far from him, for fear that the book was saturated with some kind of poison. Then he returned the Book of Hours to the shopkeeper and did not even send spies to follow her trail. Not even forty minutes had passed since Vanina left the house, and she had already seen the returning maid and ran to Missirilli, firmly believing that from now on he completely belongs to her. She told him that there was unusual traffic in the city, patrols were walking everywhere, even along streets where they had never been seen.
Missirilli agreed. They walked out of the city; not far from the outpost, a carriage was waiting for Vanina, where sat her companion, a silent and generously paid confidante. Upon arrival at San Nicolò, Vanina, in dismay at her monstrous deed, clung tenderly to Pietro. But when she spoke words of love to him, it seemed to her that she was playing a comedy. The day before, committing betrayal, she forgot about remorse. Embracing her lover, she thought: "Now it is worthwhile for someone to say one word to Pietro, only one word - and he will hate me forever ...".
Late at night, one of Vanina's servants entered the bedroom. This man was a Carbonari, which she did not suspect. So Missirilli had secrets from her even about that? She shuddered. A servant came to warn the Missirilli that that night the houses of nineteen Carbonari were cordoned off in Forlì, and they themselves were arrested on their return from a meeting of the Venta. They were taken by surprise, but still nine Carbonari managed to escape. The ten remaining carabinieri were taken to the fortress. Entering the prison yard, one of the arrested threw himself into a deep well and fell to his death. Vanina's face changed; fortunately for her, Pietro did not notice this: he could read in her eyes the crime she had committed ...
We also recommend
Productive and reproductive thinking
Reasonable egoism - what is the theory of reasonable egoism?
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, the first President of Russia
Underground fights. Underground kings. What is “fighting not for the masses”? Where can you fight for money?
Yakov Pavlov and Other Heroes of Stalingrad You Need to Know
Survive an accident at sea in a dream - in reality experience a new love
Loading...