French Literature Reviews - 2026
Alain, Stendhal and Other Texts (reprint)
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Stendhal and Other Texts
PUF — Collection: Quadrige (available as print-on-demand POD)
Publication date: 01/12/1994
“Reading novels is what will awaken us all, by bringing ideas out of matter—ideas that do not look like ideas at all; that is the key point. We only think facts, and through ideas, as consciousness demands, always contemplative of itself. Whereas the Unconscious, this refusal to think, throws us back to matter, and one might even dare say, to atomic disorder, which surpasses all disorder. Forgive, reader, this preface, which is more obscure than the work itself. Lagneau said: Clarum per obscurius.”
Table of Contents
Foreword, by FRANÇOIS FOULATIER, 5, I
1935 STENDHAL Dedication to Mme Morre-Lambelin, 9
CHAPTER I. THE SKEPTIC, 11
Descartes judged by Stendhal, 11. Stendhal against the Jesuit, 11. Fabrice's politics, 12. The free spirit in Stendhal, 14. Fabrice and Blanès, 16. Presentiments, 17. Stendhal compared to Balzac, 18. Stendhal's religion, 19. The art of feeling, 20.
CHAPTER II. THE HONEST MAN, 22
Whether The Charterhouse is an immoral book, 22. What is Julien Sorel?, 23. Julien and Tascheron, 24. Fabrice's repentance, 24. The Abbess of Castro, 25. Mosca, 27. Clear analysis, 28. Inner morality, 28. The geometer, 29. Fouqué, 30.
CHAPTER III. THE POLITICIAN, 31
The government of Rome, 31. Realism, 32. Political violence, 34. Equality, 35. Despotism, 36. The real, 37. Politics and passion in Julien, 38. The Red and the Black, 38. Lucien Leuwen, 40.
CHAPTER IV. THE LOVER, 43
Cynicism, 43. Lighthearted Fabrice, 44. Mosca, 45. Sanseverina, 46. Feminine genius, 47. Jealousy, 47. Self-love, 49. Generous love, 50. The heroines, 51. Cornelian Stendhal, 52. Crystallization, 53. Free obedience, 54. Lamiel, 55.
CHAPTER V. THE LOVER OF MUSIC AND PAINTING, 59
Music, 59. Life of Haydn, 60. Music and solitude, 62. Melody and harmony, 63. Culture versus vanity, 64. Feeling rightly, 65. Painting, 66. The others, 69. So many Frenchmen incapable of feeling the arts, 70. Simplicity in Stendhal, 71. The Last Supper, 72. The Pieta, 74.
CHAPTER VI. THE WRITER, 76
The common language, 76. Theatrical style, 77. Felicitous style, 79. Emphasis and wit, 80. Style of The Charterhouse, 82. The epic, 83. Inspiration, 85. Stendhal in the history of French prose, 86. The sublime, 90. Lucien Leuwen, 91. Lamiel, 92. Biographical summary, 94 II
OTHER WRITINGS ON STENDHAL
1. 1910-1930 Twelve Remarks on Stendhal, 99
2. 1935 The Art of Writing. The Red Inn, 125
3. 1939 On the Novel of Ambition or Love According to Stendhal, 135
4. 1938-1949 Journal, 149
5. 1949 Introduction to Lucien Leuwen, 171
Lessons from the "Stendhal" Manuscript, by FRANÇOIS FOULATIER, 187
Bibliographical Note, by PIERRE ZACHARY, 193
Afterword, by ROBERT BOURGNE, 199
This volume, published by PUF in the Quadrige collection, includes Alain's writings on Stendhal, featuring a foreword by François Fouatier, a biographical summary, additional texts on Stendhal, a bibliographical note by Pierre Zachary, and an afterword by Robert Bourgne. Readers interested in twentieth-century French literary criticism and intellectual history may find this reprint edition relevant to their studies.
Alain, the pen name of French philosopher Émile-Auguste Chartier, maintained a prominent role in twentieth-century letters through his essays and pedagogical writings. His approach to literature often engaged with the moral and psychological dimensions of classic texts. Within the broader tradition of French commentary, such studies sought to illuminate the inner workings of narrative art and style, connecting individual authors to wider questions of human consciousness and culture.