Stendhal: 'Vie de Henry Brulard' by Sheila M. Bell

Abstract

238 Reviews The role of comedy and theatricality in Stendhal's fiction is a rich and promising area, but the tantalizing reflections on this subject are scattered and buried in the documentation. As thevolume lacks direction, itcan be difficult for the reader tona vigate thewealth of framingmaterial; each text isheavily annotated and has itsown introduction, developing variations on ideas set out in themain preface. However, the book gathers useful material for the specialist reader, and should stimulate thought on Stendhal's relationship toRomanticism and, above all, on his humour. HERTFORD COLLEGE,OXFORD KATHERINE LUNN-ROCKLIFFE Stendhal: 'Vie deHenry Brulard'. By SHEILAM. BELL. (Critical Guides to French Texts, 140) London: Grant and Cutler. 2006. 85 PP- ?7.95. ISBN 978-07293 0450-4 This is a succinct and lucid introduction to Stendhal's principal autobiographical work, to themain aspects of Brulard's origins and composition, and to its elusive status as a text. It addresses the challenges faced by Stendhal in itscomposition, the strategies he evolved tomeet them, and the political context within which the text was written, and concludes with a necessary reminder that the complex process of retrospection is as revelatory of the state ofmind of the fifty-year-oldauthor as it is of his earlier self. A brief biographical sketch covers the thirty-fiveyears which separate the com position of Brulard from the last events itnarrates. Stendhal's enthusiasm for the autobiographical project coincides with the popularity of thememoir genre, with its emphasis on subjectivity, from the i820S onwards. Influences are predictable: Duclos and Saint-Simon, Madame Roland forher political courage, Cellini for the Italian inspiration, and, inevitably,Rousseau and Chateaubriand, with Montaigne for clarity and stylistic simplicity. It ishelpful to be reminded, however, that a spur to autobiography inStendhal's case may have been the combination of frustration and disappointment at thecourse of his lifein the i83os-uncertainty about theprospects for the incomplete Lucien Leuwen and above all the sense of exile inwhat he perceived as the cultural and political backwater ofCivitavecchia. A chapter on the history of the text stresses the importance of fidelity to the (unfinished) manuscript-here theRannaud edition of I996-98 is indispensable-in contrast to thepresumptuous selectivity of earlier editors. Sheila Bell's comment that 'any and every attempt tomove it in the direction of a finished textmust inevitably lead to distortion' (p. 25) is crucial for an understanding of the freshness and viva city of Stendhal's text,qualities which contrast intriguinglywith his reliance on an ironic distancing -through pseudonyms and coded words and phrases-that offers protection from thepublic gaze. The croquis, or 'quirky drawings' (p. 25), which ac company the textare seen as an inviting 'friendlygesture' (p. 47) to the reader, though theirpurpose is properly leftunresolved: do they function as simple aide-memoire, enhancing thevividness of recall?Do theyperhaps constitute an ideographic, utopian alternative to thewritten word, indicating Stendhal's frustration at theverbal barrier between experience and expression? Detailed textual analyses of Stendhal's strategies and insistent self-questioning are consistently illuminating. Factual discrepancies, notably between the claimed and ac tual dates of composition, are seen as an indication of thehesitancy thatpervades the enterprise. An awareness of the inadequacies ofmemory ('une fresque dont de grands morceaux seraient tombes' (p. 38)) is set against the reparatory function ofwriting. The autobiographical process tends to supply themissing pieces; thematurity of the adult writer brings an understanding denied to the child. A furthercontrast, between MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 239 thedrably oppressive Grenoble of his childhood after thedeath ofhis beloved mother and the liveliness ofMilan, where the adult Stendhal experiences the love thatdefies description-and brings Brulard to an abrupt end-is a poignant reminder of an af fectivecircularity that reunites thegrownman with his formerself.The contrapuntal relationship between Stendhal's inner lifeand thewider world of society and politics isunderlined, too, so thathis account of the revolutionary years of his childhood can be seen as a 'way of understanding his relationswith his family and its social milieu' (p. 64). Above all, though, Bell's admirable studymakes itclear thatStendhal's ret rospective 'Qu'ai-je donc ete?' finds itsbest response in the present tense: 'j'ecris, je me console, je suis heureux' (p. 8 i...