Stendhal (1783-1842) was the pseudonym of Henri Marie Beyle, born and raised in Grenoble. Offered a post in the Ministry of War, from 1800 onwards he followed Napoleon’s campaigns throughout Europe before retiring to Italy. Here, as ‘Stendhal’, he began writing on art, music and travel. Though not well-received during his lifetime, his work, including The Red and the Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), now places him among the pioneers of nineteenth-century literary realism.

Stendhal è lo pseudonimo di Henri Beyle, nato a Grenoble nel 1783 e morto a Parigi nel 1842. Con Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, Flaubert, Maupassant e Zola, Stendhal è uno dei maggiori rappresentanti del romanzo francese del XIX secolo e anche uno dei primi e principali esponenti del realismo.